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Meeting on proposed pipeline scheduled

By Scott Harvey

Winnsboro – The ongoing debate over a Canadian Oil Company's plan to build a pipeline through East Texas continues Thursday in Winnsboro.

"The substance that is going to be carried in the pipeline is a hazardous, toxic, most dirtiest oil in the world. It's referred to as tar sands oil and/or oil sands," says Eddie Radillo, member of STOP (Stop Tar Sands Oil Pipeline).

Members of the organization are concerned over what may happen in the event of an oil spill and how such a pipeline may devalue their land.

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would run from Canada down through the Midwest and into Texas to the Gulf Coast. Locally, the pipeline would run through Hopkins, Wood, Franklin and Smith counties.

The company proposing the pipeline, TransCanada, says the project would bring over $20 billion to the U.S. economy and directly create more than 15,000 high-wage manufacturing jobs and construction jobs in 2011-2012 across the nation.

Radillo says the job growth would only be temporary. He's asking that residents become educated on the topic and all that are opposed petition Secretary of State Hillary Clinton through the Sierra Club at http://www.sierraclub.org/dirtyfuels/tar-sands/faces/.

Thursday's meeting of STOP will be held at the Depot in Winnsboro; inside the Chamber of Commerce meeting room, beginning at 3 p.m.

Information through TransCanada on their proposed Keystone XL Pipeline is available at http://www.transcanada.com/keystone.html.