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Show The little people' lost the battle with pipeline giant Opponents of the Kern River pipeline can commiserate with Tom Welch. He lost the Olympic's fight and they lost their environmental en-vironmental fight. The difference is he had only been at it for two years, and he still has a chance of winning in the future. But for opponents of the pipeline, ' 'D day" has arrived It's finally here. The thousands of feet of pipe which will be used to build the controversial Wasatch Variation of the Kern River Pipeline through the foothills of Bountiful and North Salt Lake has arrived. The pipeline that the "little people" could not stop. The fight to stop the pipeline which will clear a swath across valuable watershed and scenic vistas has been lost. It began over five years ago when a group of concerned citizens formed a group to stop the pipeline from cutting across the Wasatch Front. The Bountiful Hills Residents and Concerned Citizens Association began its fight at the grass roots level. Checking with the "authorities," committee members tried to follow all of the guidelines outlined in the initial public hearings. If they wanted to protest the environmental impact study, they would have to have petitions signed. They would have to have those petitions authenticated and delivered to Washington, D.C. within a certain length of time. Rule after rule after rule was followed by this little group of people. They were able to muster the support of 7,000 area residents. They sent the signed petitions to the designated address, ad-dress, and they waited. Reams of paper exchanged hands as one by one the protests were received, discussed and dismissed. dismiss-ed. Throughout the debacle, there was an underlying suspicion between proponents and opponents of the project. Some accused participants in the debate of trying to further their political pol-itical ambitions. Politicians accused one another of skewing the facts to suit their own case. Lawsuits were filed, political jabs were thrown, names were called, meetings were held, the public protested, judges made rulings, significant historical sites were violated, senators and congressmen voiced their opinions and through it all, the pipeline continued. Kern River, like the postman of old, would not be deterred from its appointed round. Although the company had a spokesman to allay the fears of opponents, it was clear the company had the upper hand in the debate. The chatter of the little people was worthless prattle to the big boys. The public hearings and periods of time during which protests could be filed were allowed to satisfy an obscure necessity in the big picture. In the end, nothing that was said or done by local residents could stop the construction of the 36-inch-steel pipeline which will transport 700 million cubic feet of natural gas daily across 904 miles from southwestern Wyoming to southern California. No matter that this is the largest capacity natural gas pipeline built and there is no safety track record, no matter that several other routes would have been environmentally more feasible, no matter that the only thing stopping the other routes was the fact it would cost the pipeline company more money, this pipeline is coming. Construction should begin within the next 30 days in Davis County. Roads will be cut into the hillside. A swath will be cut across Mueller Park. There's no going back. Over 50,000 80-foot 80-foot sections of the pipe will be in place when the 904-mile pipeline is completed. Critics have charged that the pipeline should have been allowed a permit only if there was a public necessity for the project. They claim that necessity was never proven. The gas will be used to create steam to be injected into oil wells to make it possible to pump extremely thick crude oil. In the end, it won't matter who was wrong or right about the necessity of the line. It will be there. It won't be removed. The pipeline saga is the kind of story from which country-Western country-Western ballads are made. It tells about the fight of the little people to save their land. The difference is, in most ballads the little people win. |