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By: Grace Komrska Summary: The Dakota Access Pipeline, otherwise known as the Bakken Oil Pipeline, is a line extending 1,172 miles across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. The pipeline carries crude oil through North Dakota to Illinois, where it links with another pipeline network that transports the oil along the Gulf of Mexico. The construction of this 3.8 billion dollar project was highly controversial as part of it would be built under Lake Oahe, part of the Mississippi River, which is the main water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The pipeline runs 4 feet underground, and under Lake Oahu it would run around 95-110 feet beneath the surface. The main concern of the tribe is that the pipeline could potentially contaminate the drinking water and disturb sacred lands. In July of 2016, the tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S Army Corps of Engineers for violating the National Historic Preservation Act. They had claimed that the consultation process, before construction, was fundamentally flawed. They also claimed that the Army Corps of Engineers improperly issued construction permits and failed to conduct adequate environmental analysis. In late 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe unfortunately lost the lawsuit, but the Obama Administration stepped in and halted the construction of the last bit of the pipeline that would go under Lake Oahu. Despite the large and constant opposition, in February of 2017, President Trump issued an executive memorandum issuing the Army Corps to expedite the permitting process. This caused the large scale arrests of many protestors after they were ordered to leave the area, as construction would soon continue. The construction of the pipeline was finished by April of 2017, and the first oil delivered through the pipeline occurred in May of 2017. In recent news, in March of this year, a U.S District Judge ruled that the government had not studied the pipelines effect on the quality of the human environment. The temporary shutdown ordered by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on August 5th 2020, but the environmental review is expected to continue. Why we should care? We should care about this topic because the safety of water, air, wildlife, and farming could be greatly impacted by this pipeline. If the pipeline were to leak it would place thousands of people without fresh drinking water.  Photo Credit: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/federal-appeals-court-reverses-order-to-shut-down-dakota-access-pipeline/507-ab93747f-5fd3-4462-adf2-73d36d743dd1 Example Article. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/05/dakota-access-pipeline-appeals-court-reverses-shutdown-order/3304710001/ This article is important because it summarizes the main events surrounding the issues of the pipeline. I found it very interesting how it highlighted the problems with shutting down the pipeline, while also covering the aspect of the environmental issues This article shows how controversial this topic is, and how it can affect both sides greatly. Shutting down the pipeline will be costly, but environmental inspection must happen in order to keep the land and water safe. The indigenous people of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will continue to fight for their water source and there is still so much work to be done. Science in Action.
Dr. Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley is a post doctoral researcher at Swansea University, UK and is the president of The Society for Conservation Biology Freshwater Working Group. Dr. Januchowski-Hartley's research focuses on understanding the impacts of infrastructure such as roads and dams on rivers and their ecosystems. The research she is doing is relevant to this topic because the pipeline can have many disastrous impacts if it were to leak. "Cleaning up leaks and spills can also take an incredible amount of resources and time; rarely fully restoring what was lost from a system. Leaks or spills into aquatic environments, like the Missouri River and associated tributaries, can have disastrous consequences beyond the direct sight of the leak or spill." says Stephanie in relation to the Dakota pipeline's many risks.
8 Comments
Ella F
11/30/2020 19:00:58
Hello Grace,
Alex Day
11/30/2020 19:22:26
I feel bad for the Rock Sioux Tribe because the land they depend to live off of is now being threatened due to a rushed project with unknown environmentally consequences. If the oil in the pipeline were to leak into the Mississippi River the damage done to the environment could be extremely widespread. So, I truly hope that the initial environmental consultation was not flawed as claimed, but we’ll see what happens to be the case once the environmental review is completed.
Molly McKeon
12/1/2020 10:30:27
Part of my heritage is Native American. It pains me to see things like this and I remember seeing the abuse and horrible things that happened to the Natives that were protesting this. It makes me enraged and also saddened. At the end of the day, it's all about the money and convenience. The ethicality and morality of the situation doesn't seem to matter anymore when the bottom line is what makes us the most money in the fastest way possible.
Izabela Lewalski
12/3/2020 10:59:52
I agree that people should care about the construction of the pipeline because it affects both human life and the environment. I knew about the controversy surrounding the pipeline, but this was very informative and gave a more in depth look into the controversy and how it affects the lives of the people living in the area and the environment.
Carlos Rodriguez
12/4/2020 20:58:43
I didn't know much about this topic but had heard of it during the protests. Thank you for for being very informative in your summary! Had no idea it was halted then continued again under the Trump administration then stopped again. What's scary is that the decision to overturn the shutdown just happened a few months ago, with the pandemic going on I feel that so many things happening are being overshadowed by COVID. Many of the things happening aren't very good either.
Sophia Price
12/8/2020 12:52:13
The topic of this post is extremely important and you did a very good job informing me on the key aspects of the baker oil pipeline. There is a history of America bulldozing over indigenous rights. Unfortunately their rights are being ignored by both corporate giants, along with the government. I looked further into this issue because I this article is from a couple weeks ago and I was curious to see what was going on now. I found it terrifying to see that the pipeline’s proposed path is though the homelands of the tribes’ and yet they have not been consulted. This consultation is required by law and DOI policy. The government even failed to evaluate the an alternative route, one which would not impose itself upon tribal land. Not only have Americans built a history of pushing Native Americans onto reservations; which have typically not been resource abundance of lands. But now, the government is disregarding tribes of the basic protection of clean water. The passing of the permit to begin this construction without following legal guidelines is absolutely ridiculous. It will be interesting to see in the coming months how the new president will deal with these issues; where one side of the argument is a disadvantaged minority and the other is a corporate giant. Trump is famous for slashing the EPA and disregarding varying bodies of science. I have a lot more faith in the new administration to put an end to this kind of injustice. Especially because Obama rejected the pipeline during his administration.
Gwendolyn Schmidt
12/10/2020 13:33:42
I remember talking about this in high school when it was first starting. It's aggravating that the tribe lost the law suite all because people are selfish and have no respect for the environment or others peoples heritage and culture. I remember we were learning about the Trail of tears when this was still relatively new and it was honestly sickening. The Trail of Tears in when the US used brutal force to move the Indigenous tribes off their own land so the US could use it. That was almost two hundred years before this problem arose. The fact that some parts of the US still have no respect for Indigenous people and their way of life is awful and scary. I would have hoped that the US learned that it is wrong and disgusting to abuse different cultures for their own personal gain, but apparently not. Unfortunately, this may have gone a different way if it was affecting a different group of people because that is still how parts of the US work.
Shelby Wilson
12/18/2020 23:32:58
Thank you for doing this article because I ha don idea about this. I feel as though it was a great idea to shut this down just to make sure there were no flaws. The damage that it would have done could have been detrimental and would have costed way more to clean up than to shut it down for awhile. Hopefully no bad news will come about and they will be extra cautious. Leave a Reply. |
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