Enbridge, the largest Canadian oil transport corporation, has a 285-mile tar sands pipeline across northern Minnesota crossing the Mississippi headwaters.

Enbridge requested an increase of 27 percent to 570,000 barrels per day in a pipeline operating since 2010. The majority of this oil is for export.

The deal must be okayed by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry because it is an international transaction. The increase in tar sands oil is equivalent to the combined exhausts of 5.5 million continuously operating cars.

What happens to the water, happens to the people.