{"id":33835,"date":"2014-01-22T07:59:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T13:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=33835"},"modified":"2014-01-27T14:30:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T20:30:50","slug":"as-oil-flows-in-the-keystone-pipeline-opponents-vow-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/01\/22\/as-oil-flows-in-the-keystone-pipeline-opponents-vow-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"As Oil Flows in the Keystone XL Pipeline, Opponents Vow Scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Julia<\/a>

Photo by Terrence Henry\/StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Julia Trigg Crawford has several hundred acres of land in northeast Texas. She lost her recent challenge to the Keystone XL pipeline.<\/p><\/div>\n

Update: TransCanada has emailed a response to this report. You can read about that here<\/a><\/em>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Keystone XL Pipeline runs under Julia Trigg Crawford’s North Texas farm. It’s been carrying crude for over a month<\/a>. But today business is scheduled to open in earnest on the controversial pipeline, with oil flowing from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries in Texas. That’s why she’s worried about an “unusual flurry of activity” she noticed over the weekend.<\/p>\n

“Track hoes, skids, water trucks, electrical trucks and construction crews showed up,” Crawford tells StateImpact Texas. “They unearthed the pipeline, attached wires and sensors, wrapped it in something and then covered it up.”<\/p>\n

She says TransCanada<\/a>\u00a0 — the company that owns the pipeline — later told her it was installing heat sensors. (Representatives from TransCanada did not respond to an interview request by deadline). But her interest in the activity goes beyond that isolated incident.<\/p>\n

Crawford has long battled the pipeline company over its use of eminent domain, where the company has claimed private property to route the pipeline through Texas. Since she and other opponents of the project have failed to stop it, they now plan to keep it under intense scrutiny. The southern leg of the Keystone XL may become the most watched pipeline in the country.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got the Texas Pipeline Watch<\/a>, a website, we’ve got a Facebook page. We are going to be out there with every means of technology and boots on the ground to watch this stuff,” Crawford says. “Because if you follow what happens a lot of times with unfortunate pipeline spills, it’s the landowners that find these things.”<\/p>\n

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