Associated Press

Officials involved in the Keystone pipeline project say they would be willing to consider changing plans to clear-cut an 85-foot-wide path through the forested banks of the Sheyenne River.

The site near Fort Ransom is a scenic area. Trans- Canada Corp., of Calgary, Alberta, already plans to place the crude oil pipeline under the scenic Pembina Gorge area in northeastern North Dakota through a directional drilling process, rather than digging a trench.

"Why not do the same in the Sheyenne River Valley?" Public Service Commissioner Susan Wefald asked company officials during a public hearing this week on the pipeline plan. "There's a scenic road (that) by North Dakota standards has a lot of tourism."

"That could be investigated, yes," said Buster Gray, TransCanada's construction consultant.

The Keystone pipeline is planned to stretch more than 1,800 miles from east-central Alberta to refineries in Illinois, with a spur to Oklahoma. In North Dakota, the company proposes 218 miles of 30-inch pipeline in Cavalier, Pembina, Walsh, Nelson, Steele, Barnes, Ransom and Sargent counties.

The company wants to start building the North Dakota portion next May if it gets state approval. The Public Service Commission must decide next month whether to approve the route.

The U.S. State Department, in a draft environmental impact statement released this week,er said the $2 billion pipeline would have "limited adverse environmental impacts."

North Dakota's public service commissioners and their attorney, Bill Binek, asked TransCanada representatives about the company's land reclamation intentions, and asked the company to have a more generous tree-and-shrub replacement plan.

North Dakota regulators also are questioning why TransCanada is routing the pipeline through eastern North Dakota instead of utilizing existing pipeline corridors that cross the state diagonally.

Commissioner Tony Clark said a lot of the issues the commission must take into consideration involve river valleys, streams and aquifers that provide drinking water.

The company chose the route because it plans to convert several hundred miles of existing natural gas pipe that runs east to west through southern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba, ending north of Walhalla.