In eastern Montana, a new oil pipeline comes with perils and a potential payday
The Bridger pipeline promises landowners money, but the tar sands oil it would carry has tribal leaders worried about a spill.
In eastern Montana, a proposed pipeline is bringing both risks and potential financial gains for landowners. Jerry Arnold, a farmer near Opheim, a tiny town with a population of 72 near the Canada border, is among nearly 300 landowners in the pipeline's projected path. Despite facing challenges like a warm, dry winter last year that damaged his crops, Arnold is optimistic about the new economic opportunity.
He is one of many Montana landowners who could receive a sizable check for allowing the pipeline to traverse their property. Bridger Pipeline LLC, a Wyoming-based company, plans to build a 650-mile pipeline to transport tar sands oil from Canada to Wyoming, where it would be refined in Guernsey. The project received a presidential permit from President Donald Trump, allowing it to cross the Canadian border.
The pipeline's route would pass through nine counties in eastern Montana and Wyoming, with Bridger aiming to negotiate the longest possible pipeline on each property to maximize landowner payments. While landowners in past pipeline projects have reportedly received up to $150,000, the exact amount for each Montana landowner remains undisclosed.
However, many landowners in eastern Montana are hopeful that the new pipeline could provide the economic stability that has eluded them in recent years, facing volatile cattle markets, high diesel prices, and multiyear droughts.
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