The Casper-based company responsible for January’s Yellowstone River oil spill has proposed a new pipeline in North Dakota. Labor unions are opposing Bridger Pipeline’s project.
Evan Whiteford of the Laborers International Union of North America is the first to say he’s not opposed to pipelines.
“But we support the pipelines being done correctly and safely.”
That’s why he is against Bridger’s new pipeline. Whiteford says the company has a bad track record with spills. It’s incident rate is nearly double the industry average, according to the non-profit watchdog group Pipeline Safety Trust. Whiteford says spills and shoddy construction make landowners wary of all new pipelines. And that makes it difficult for his union members to get work.
Bridger’s lawyer did not return a call for comment.