A Canadian oil company wants to build a pipeline through Wisconsin.
Enbridge Energy Company wants to pump a thicker crude oil from it's tar sand fields in northeast Alberta, Canada to refineries in Illinois and they want to do it with a new 42-inch diameter pipe that would go from Superior to Whitewater, 321 miles long.
Jeff Schimpff with the DNR says the new pipeline would go under hundreds of the state's streams and wetlands. But the agency has methods of installing the pipe, he says, that have protected those areas in the past. The new, larger line would be built next to a smaller pipeline already used by the company.
Schimpff says so far, there haven't been any environmental problems. The oil company, he says, has a pretty good track record.
The public will get a chance for input before the DNR makes a decision on granting a permit. Hearings will be held:Tues. Sept. 19 in HaywardWed. Sept. 20 in MarshfieldThurs. Sept. 21 in Portage
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