For the past few months, a battle has raged in North Dakota between the Standing Rock Sioux and Energy Transfer Partners, the developer behind a $3.8 billion proposed oil pipeline that many environmental activists say poses a grave threat to the environment.
The Dakota Access Pipeline Project is a new underground pipeline designed to transport 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Bakken/Three Forks formations in North Dakota to a terminus near Patoka, Illinois. The pipeline, to be comprised of 12-inch to 30-inch diameter steel, is slated to be 1,172 miles in length and will stretch through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. Originally planned for completion and use in late 2016, the project is currently calculated to be approximately 60 percent finished.
The Standing Rock Sioux
opposes the pipeline due to its construction near the Sioux reservation, claiming that its proximity presents a very real threat and danger to their water supply and overall general health and well-being. Initially a small protest, the outcry from Native Americans in the area has morphed and grown substantially over the past few months; the area now has an encampment of protestors consisting of thousands of people – known as “Sacred Stone Camp” – who have frequently gotten into clashes with Energy Transfer Partners security personnel and law enforcement over what they have called a “threat to their culture and their very way of life.”
Smithsonian.com, Standing Rock Sioux filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking for a preliminary injunction stopping construction of the pipeline, citing the vast potential of the environmental disaster facing their tribe should any issues arise with the integrity of the pipeline.
“First, the pipeline would pass under the Missouri River (at Lake Oahe) just a half a mile upstream of the Tribe’s reservation boundary, where a spill would be culturally and economically catastrophic,” they said. “Second, the pipeline would pass through areas of great cultural significance, such as sacred sites and burials that federal law seeks to protect.”
According to green blog
YellowPagesGoesGreen, Greenpeace and many scientists have spoken out against the pipeline, and conservation groups have expressed worry over the potential impacts on air, water, wildlife and farming in the event of pipeline breakage. Environmentalists and Native Americans alike are concerned that in the event of a spill or leak the Missouri River might experience mass drinking and irrigation water contamination due to a spill or leak in the pipeline. In addition, Farmers are concerned about the disturbance of the land, tiling, soil erosion, and soil quality, as well as the potential use of Eminent Domain clauses issued by local and state governments to allow the pipeline to proceed through privately-owned land.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in an interview with
DemocracyNow.org, recently laid out the issues at play regarding the construction of the pipeline, as well as course of action that he and many others have undertaken in combating it.
“The issues are threefold, and I’ll tell you what we are trying to do. Number one, we’re dealing with sovereignty rights for Native American people. Number two, you’re talking about an area where, if the pipe bursts, water, clean water that goes to millions of people in that region, could be severely impacted. And thirdly, you’re talking about whether or not we should be in any way supporting a pipeline which is piping in filthy oil at a time when we need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy,” he said.
“We have demanded that the president do the right thing and kill the pipeline. So, we have written to the president. We are going to continue to put pressure on the president to do everything he can to protect the Native Americans in the area and the protesters in the area.”
Despite the threat of chilling winter weather fast approaching, the protestors have shown no indication of deserting their vigil against the pipeline; North Dakota’s governor recently issued an order for protesters to leave, citing “life threatening” weather conditions including a recently-fallen ten inches of snow. However, the protestors have vowed to remain steadfast and have refused to leave; with prominent members of U.S. Congress recently taking note of their plight and getting involved in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, it’s possible that this threat to the environment in the name of corporate greed and pollution may yet have a happy ending after all.
Rep. Raul Ruiz, a California Democrat and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the House Natural Resources Committee’s Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs Subcommittee, visited the site of the proposed pipeline recently, according to Salon, later calling for a hearing on the matter.
“If this pipeline was too much of a contamination risk for clean waters in the northern route,” Ruiz asked, “why would they consider it OK now to put it near Native Americans and their waterways?”
