Lawsuit Demands Keystone Pipeline's Route, State Department Contracts

The Center for Biological Diversity and Thomas Bachand filed suit today against the U.S. Department of State to obtain information on the route of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as contracts and correspondence with private consultants involved.

The State Department is required to make public information about the route of the pipeline and related documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We can't fully understand Keystone XL's threats to our water and wildlife until the Trump administration releases public documents about this dangerous pipeline's route," said Amy Atwood, the Center's endangered species legal director. "With the State Department illegally refusing to provide information about a leak-prone pipeline that could pollute hundreds of waterways, we're left with no option but to sue."

Today's suit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of the Center, which has advocated against the Keystone XL Pipeline for years, and Thomas Bachand. Bachand is the creator of the Keystone Mapping Project, an internationally recognized online multimedia and photography project that examines land use, climate policy and transparency through an exploration of the Keystone Pipeline, the 2,000-mile diluted bitumen pipeline that would bisect the North American Continent.

The lawsuit demands that the State Department provide specific kinds of records -- known as geographic information systems, GIS layers or Shape files -- that would reveal precisely where the Keystone XL Pipeline route would go, if constructed. The suit also demands correspondence and contracts the State Department signed with private consultants who prepared the environmental reviews for the pipeline.

"The Keystone XL GIS data is referenced tens of thousands of times in the State Department's environmental review, yet the data itself is fully redacted," said Thomas Bachand. "State Department officials claim they do not have the data, but if that's the case then how can they have possibly considered its environmental consequences? The truth is that the State Department unquestionably possesses and controls this critical information."

By revealing the precise pipeline route, the GIS layers will clearly show the habitats, private lands, farms, prairies, aquifers, rivers, streams and other sensitive places where the pipeline would be built. The contracts with private entities the State Department hired to prepare environmental reviews for the project will help shed light on the circumstances related to the State Department's refusal to provide the GIS data.

The plaintiffs are represented in the lawsuit by public interest attorney David A. Bahr.