Regional News Briefs: Crash which killed Hudson woman in Anoka still under investigation

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ANOKA, Minn. - Authorities in Minnesota continue to investigate a two-vehicle crash that killed a western Wisconsin woman.

It happened yesterday afternoon in the Twin Cities suburb of Anoka. Sheriff’s officials said the victim – a 66-year-old Hudson woman – was trying to make a “U”-turn when her vehicle was hit by an oncoming SUV. That driver, a 17-year-old girl, was taken to a hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota with non-life-threatening injuries. The Hudson woman died at the scene. Her name was not immediately released.

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After months of drought, companies which use the Mississippi River to ship goods to market are frantically searching for alternative ways to accomplish the same thing. If water levels on the Mississippi fall too low, the most important inland waterway in the U.S. could become unusable. Barges would be grounded just as the fall harvest heads to market. An closure of the river would devastate a transport system which has moved American grain since the 19th century. The greatest worries are centered on the 180-mile stretch of the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois. The channel which is normally a thousand feet wide or more, is now just a few hundred feet wide and very shallow.

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Two oil refineries in Minnesota say they will not use a proposed new oil pipeline to Wisconsin – and therefore, they should not have to help pay for it. Enbridge Energy is calling for a surcharge of a-dollar-45 per barrel to help pay for a new 618-mile pipeline, to carry crude from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to a terminal at Superior. Northern Tier Energy and Flint Hills – two refineries near the Twin Cities – have asked federal regulators to throw out the surcharge. They say it would be charged on all oil shipped from North Dakota to-and-through Minnesota – even if it’s not carried on the new pipeline. But Enbridge says the new line would benefit all oil shippers at Bakken – because it would eliminate a bottleneck on the sole pipeline to Minnesota that exists now. Fifteen shippers have signed letters supporting the new line. Northern Tier Energy says Enbridge is already making too big of a profit off the existing pipeline from North Dakota. And Flint Hills says the proposed new pipeline might not be used fully if other pipeline and rail projects are built.

Tags: wisconsin, travel