The Dakota Access pipeline, if completed, will transport light, sweet crude oil from the Bakken region in North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and into Illinois.
At approximately 1,200 miles long, the 30-inch diameter pipeline will connect the Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois at the cost of $3.7 billion to build. It will transport more than 470,000 barrels of oil a day with a capacity as high as 570,000 barrels per day across four states, linking more pipelines when it reaches Illinois.
The pipeline, now more than 70 percent built, is financed by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), who say that it will add millions to the economy and create an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs.
On the face of it, all of those sound like good things.
But since 2014 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has protested the pipeline coming through their land. They see the pipeline as a potential threat to their water supply and the construction of the pipeline, they say, will destroy their ancestral burial grounds. They also say it will add to the problems found with climate change. Those are three strong points, but the company building the pipeline continues to press on, despite growing throngs of protesters trying to stop the line.
Not all of the people in the band are against the pipeline, but the vast majority of band members want to see production halted until a new, safer route is found. Fair enough, one would think. But despite growing protests, the company intends to stay on course.
On Sunday, November 20, protesters and authorities clashed. Protesters were doused with water in (26° F) subfreezing weather in the middle of the night when TV cameras were off, and according to news reports, 17 of the 400 protesters had to be hospitalized, some from hypothermia, some from head injuries suffered when struck by rubber bullets.
The band has tried to use peaceful means to be heard. But it seems like it takes violence to get the top brass in this country to stand up and pay attention.
In late August the Standing Rock Sioux sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, arguing the Corps did not consult with them before granting Energy Transfer Partners a fast-track approval to build the line. Following the Sunday melee, the Army Corps announced the next day “more analysis and discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is needed before construction can take place under the Missouri River.”
It’s not the first time the band has had a rough go with the government. The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation was established as part of the Great Sioux Reservation in 1868. The Great Sioux Reservation comprised all of present-day South Dakota. Hunting rights were guaranteed under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Under Article 12, the cession of land would not be valid unless approved by three-fourths of adult males. In 1877 Congress removed the Black Hills from the reservation. The U.S. Supreme Court concluded in 1980, “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.”
Maybe not, but until the Corps stepped in, this case was heading for a close second.
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