BELLE FOURCHE - In the next two years, as many as 2,000 crude oil pipeline workers and their families could move into northwestern South Dakota as they install the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, project officials told Butte County commissioners Wednesday.

The about 2,000-mile pipeline's total cost is estimated at $7 billion. The pipeline, when finished, could ship 750,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Regional representative Jeff Rauh said Wednesday this project's investment for South Dakota would be about $750 million.

Workers would install a buried, 36-inch-diameter steel pipeline. When finished, the crude-oil pipeline, from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast refineries, could be the longest in North America. It would link to existing pipeline in Kansas.

The project would have greater effects in Harding, Perkins and Meade counties than in Butte County, project spokesman Dennis Lee said. "But I think you will still feel the impact of the people. Belle Fourche is the garden spot."

He said the community's central location, as well as lodging, food and stores, would draw the project's independent contractors. Work in western South Dakota could last two years, starting in 2010 or 2011. That would include electric line construction to pumping stations and possibly temporary roads or improvements to current roads from Harding County to Winner. Recreational vehicle parks are planned in Buffalo and near Union Center for the construction crews.

Workers living here would likely join the crews following the project. All of the pipe would come to Rapid City by rail, then be trucked to the project.

Lee said the company is working with landowners and public entities including the Butte County Commission to obtain 50-foot-wide easements for the pipeline. He said TransCanada has orders to do everything possible for landowners and other stakeholders to make the project go smoothly with local support.

Lee said Harding County has been a little more difficult to work with landowners on the line in spite of the county's own oil and natural gas resources. Even so, he said, a significant percentage of landowners are considered on board to sell easements for the nearly 80 planned miles of line there.

Rauh said the company plans to file project paperwork with the state Public Utilities Commission in March.

Last March, the PUC approved permits for the company's other pipeline project in the eastern part of the state. That project, based out of Yankton, is expected to begin in mid-May.

Regional project meetings

The U.S. State Department, the lead federal agency on the TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline, will hold a series of public meetings on the scope of the project. TransCanada spokesman Jeff Rauh said the schedule includes:

• Murdo, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the elementary school.
• Faith, noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, at the community Legion Hall.
• Buffalo, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Harding County Memorial Recreation Center.