BISMARCK -- Several Dakota Resource Council members in the path of the proposed TransCanada Keystone Pipeline are now officially parties to the case in which the line's future will be decided.
The Public Service Commission also announced Tuesday that next week's hearings on the pipeline have been moved to larger venues.
The DRC members' new status as interveners means, among other things, that their lawyers can cross-examine company witnesses during those public hearings, Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer said Tuesday.
The PSC voted Friday to grant intervener status to Ramona Klein of Oriska, N.D. and Merle and Linette Kratochvill, John and Janie Clapp and Mark Novak, all of Lankin, N.D. They all have land the pipeline is set to cross.
"The commission finds that the petitioners (landowners) have an interest in these proceedings that is not adequately represented by other parties," the PSC said in its order.
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The pipeline, which would transport crude oil from northern Alberta, Canada, to Illinois refineries is planned for construction next year, entering the state near Walhalla and exiting near Oakes. Five pumping stations also will be built along the way.
The PSC is holding two types of hearings next week in Valley City and Park River:
-- 9 a.m. Monday, Valley City Auditorium, hearing on whether the pipeline is
necessary.
-- 1 p.m., Monday, Valley City Auditorium, hearing on the pipeline route, called a siting hearing.
Those meetings originally were planned for a room at the Barnes County Courthouse.
-- 1 p.m. Tuesday, Park River City Hall Auditorium, hearing on the pipeline route. Originally it was to be in the City Office Building.
The hearings will be formal proceedings. All witnesses will be sworn in and could face perjury charges if it is found later that they were dishonest. The hearing will be run by Al Wahl, a state administrative law judge.
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Attorneys for the DRC and its members said in their petition to intervene that they "are prepared to offer testimony and other evidence as to the lack of public necessity related to the project and the environmental consequences of the project."
DRC members will testify that they're "opposed to the project because there is not a public necessity for a project and there will be no benefits, economic or otherwise, to North Dakota citizens," according to the petition.
Also this week, the DRC is holding its own informational meetings for the public. The first was Tuesday night in Dahlen, N.D. The second is tonight in the Oriska, N.D., Fire Hall and the third is Thursday in the Hartley Café, Fort Ransom, N.D.
DRC is a membership organization based in Dickinson that works on environmental integrity and other issues.
Cole works for Forum
Communications Co., which owns The Jamestown Sun
