Oil Pipeline Likely To Be Shut Down Tribe Holds Its Ground As Deadline Approaches Tonight

Renewal of a critical pipeline right of way across the Flathead Indian Reservation before its expiration tonight is unlikely, the vice chairwoman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes said Wednesday.

Rhonda Swaney said the 10-member tribal council has talked with Yellowstone Pipe Line Co. officials since voting last month to let the right of way lapse.

But members are unconvinced their concerns about environmental threats along the pipeline route have been satisfied, she said.

“I don’t know that there are conditions under which the council would change its decision,” Swaney said.

She said memories linger of a 10,000-gallon spill of aviation fuel two years ago near Camas Creek, one of the most sensitive areas on the Western Montana reservation.

Cleanup efforts at that site and two others where spills have occurred in recent years have not been entirely successful, she said.

Camas plants, a traditional food of Native Americans, still will not grow near the creek, Swaney said, and some residents have moved out.

Conoco, the pipeline’s operator and one of its major owners, did not respond as quickly as it should have to the spill, she said.

“There was a general insensitivity,” Swaney said. “There was a basic lack of understanding.”

She said the tribes were reimbursed for their own cleanup costs, but were not compensated for damage to the land and water resources.

“It takes a long time, many years, to recover,” she said.

Conoco spokesman John Bennitt said efforts to repair the damage continue.

Swaney said money was not the foremost issue for the tribes, which have received less than $11,000 a year for the right of way since 1986.

“Our primary concern is our environment, our reservation and our aboriginal environment,” she said. “I think the spills are very much evidence that it has been compromised.”

The Yellowstone pipeline stretches 558 miles from refineries in the Billings area to Moses Lake, delivering about 40 percent of the petroleum products used in the Spokane area.

The 10.75-inch pipe crosses 55 miles of reservation land, of which 21 miles are tribal allotments or land held in trust by the tribe.

If the 40-year-old right of way is not extended, pipeline flow will be terminated at Missoula. Officials of Conoco and Exxon Co. U.S.A. - the pipeline’s two major owners - say they are prepared to move gasoline from there to Thompson Falls using trucks.

At Thompson Falls, the fuel would be dumped back into the pipeline for shipment on to Spokane and Moses Lake.

The added cost of those efforts is likely to result in higher gasoline prices in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

And the use of trucks doesn’t remove all of the tribe’s concerns.

Because the highways from Missoula to Thompson Falls cross the reservation, Swaney said the tribes are concerned about roadside spills.

The roads, mostly two-lane, “are not safe enough to handle a big increase in volume,” she said.

Swaney said the council has discussed its concerns with federal and state officials in Montana.

Bennitt said Conoco was meeting with local officials along the route Wednesday to make sure they are comfortable with the precautions that are being taken to assure safe passage by the trucks.

Conoco expects its contractor to make 36 trips a day between Missoula and Thompson Falls.

Exxon is the other major pipeline user.