by Kari Scribner

GUEST COLUMNIST

Holly Corporation, in partnership with Sinclair Oil, have proposed the Utah Nevada Pipeline, or UNEV, which will run through Tooele and Tooele County to transport gas, diesel and jet fuel to Southern Utah, and more specifically to Las Vegas.

Like a number of other people, I received a little piece of paper in the mail informing me of the proposed pipeline, and I remember thinking, "I wonder if this is something I should worry about?" I dropped the 4 x 5 postcard in my to-do pile and went on about my life.

It wasn't until later, when a concerned citizen left a message on my phone and a flyer on my door, that I began to understand this pipeline was running directly through my neighborhood. I was also informed about a public meeting that was to take place. I rallied some of my neighbors to go with me and we marched off to defend the safety of our children and neighborhood.

At the meeting, I located the proposed pipeline on a site map -- next to my property -- then marched over to Tooele County Commissioner Colleen Johnson. I asked her -- rather vehemently I am sad to say -- if the county had sold us out and approved this plan.

Her calm answer was that county officials had met with the company, but no decision had been made yet.

I was able to calm down and bit and listen to the presentation by Jim G. Townsend, from Holly Corporation, the company building the pipeline. Lots of terms were thrown around in discussing the safety of the line, but it was the word "deviation" that caught my attention. "Deviation" in layman's terms is "leak."

One of the questions asked at the meeting was that if the main purpose of the line is to transport fuel south, mainly to gas-starved Las Vegas, why not continue the pipeline west along the freeway until you hit Nevada. Then let Nevada deal with whatever environmental "deviation" may take place, instead of letting Tooele Valley shoulder this risk.

Townsend answered that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers will not allow the pipeline to run through the wetlands. Hmmm, lets think about this for a minute. The wetlands were disrupted to run both a freeway and a railway through it, so it must not be disrupting the wetlands that is the concern. Perhaps, it's the potential for "deviations" that might be the problem.

When I asked if the City of Tooele was approving the project, Townsend responded, "The city has blessed us."

Since I have become somewhat of a cynic in my 40-plus years, I decided to call the mayor and ask him myself if that was an accurate statement. Mayor Dunlavy refuted the statement. The city has not given its blessing to the project. He also said that he personally does not see any benefit to the city to have the pipeline go through, since we won't be able to access the gas here in Tooele.

No benefit to the city or county, potential risk to our groundwater and safety. No matter how you put it, the UNEV Pipeline is a bad idea for our community. Personally I would really love to see Holly Corporation deviate its path through someone else's backyard.

Kari Scribner is a freelance writer and homemaker, and an occasional contributor to the Transcript-Bulletin.