Thursday,  September 6, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 051 • 17 of 33 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 16)

address her group's concerns about potential erosion of the Sandhills and groundwater contamination, so she believes state and federal officials should block the pipeline.
• "The route still crosses the aquifer and it still crosses sandy soil, so all of the same concerns remain," Kleeb said.
• TransCanada spokesman Grady Semmens said only 36 miles of the 275 miles of pipeline in Nebraska would cross sandy soils, and the new route entirely avoids the area Nebraska defined as the Sandhills.
• Joe Mendelson of the National Wildlife Federation said the Keystone XL pipeline puts too much natural habitat at risk.
• "The best approach is to ditch Keystone XL entirely and embrace clean energy

solutions that don't spill or explode," Mendelson said.
• The pipeline is designed to carry oil from Canada across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. TransCanada also has proposed connecting it to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.
• President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada's original application for a federal permit to build the pipeline in January by after congressional Republicans imposed a deadline for approval that didn't allow enough time to address questions about the route through Nebraska.
• Since then, TransCanada has split the project into two pieces. The company began construction last month on the southern section of the pipeline between Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.

2nd person dies from West Nile in South Dakota

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A second person from South Dakota has died from West Nile disease.
• KELO-TV reports that the person was from McPherson County.
• The death brings the total number of deaths from the mosquito-borne disease in the state to two. The first death from the disease was reported last month. That person was between the ages of 80 and 89 and lived in Hughes County.
• The South Dakota Department of Health says 119 cases of West Nile have been reported so far this year.
• Since the first case in 2002, South Dakota has reported more than 1,800 West Nile cases.

(Continued on page 18)

© 2012 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.