The Dakota Access Pipeline would run perilously close to the Missouri River, above, the main source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Credit: Thosh Collins.
Dakota Access Pipeline has been approved. All the work, all the protests, all the meetings, all the talking…pointless. That photo reminds me of one of my favourite places along the Missouri, north of Lake Oahe, and to think of oil spilling, oh, it doesn’t bear thinking about, but it must be thought about, and the fight has to continue. This is wrong, so very wrong.
Despite the strong opposition of several tribes, the Army Corps of Engineers has approved nearly all permits to build the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Construction has already begun in all four states along its path.
“We are saddened to hear of this permit approval but knew the writing was on the wall,” the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a statement. “The Corps has a long history of going against the wishes and health of tribal nations.”
The $3.4 billion, 1,134-mile-long pipeline proposed by the company Energy Transfer, is also known as the Bakken pipeline, since that is the type of crude that would be transported through it. The battle to stop the project began months ago, when word of its potential construction began to spread. Activists and individual landowners who did not want the pipeline crossing their land immediately began to resist.
Soon after, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe launched a massive campaign to improve understanding of the devastation that a pipeline spill could cause. The “Rezpect Our Water” efforts included dozens of children from Standing Rock who worked hard to try bridge understanding between the tribe and the outside world. Through a series of videos and grassroots efforts, the youth of Standing Rock asked that their lands and livelihood be taken into concern.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on several occasions in the past year in hopes of convincing them to deny permits. All water crossings along the pipeline’s path needed federal approval. The Corps would have had the power to stop the pipeline from crossing the south-flowing Missouri River near the Cannon Ball community on Standing Rock’s northern border. This crossing point poses a particularly dangerous threat to the Standing Rock community as a pipeline break would contaminate the Missouri river, damaging the entire water supply of tribe, destroying land and creating a public health disaster for the reservation.
The tribe’s efforts and the youth of Standing Rock generated attention and support from thousands of supporters across the nation.
The Corps’ decision, however, did not reflect concern for the tribe or for the youth of Standing Rock. They granted permits to all 200 water crossings along the pipeline’s path, including the most potentially destructive point near the Reservation’s northern border. The Corps also ignored a plea by three federal agencies requesting a full environmental review.[…]
“This decision will not deter the resistance against the dirty Bakken pipeline,” stated the Indigenous Environmental Network. “This decision merely highlights the necessity for the Corps of Engineers to overhaul the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which has been used by Big Oil to further place our lands, indigenous rights, water and air at greater risk for disaster. We demand a revocation of this permit and advocate for the rejection of this pipeline.”
The Pipeline will bring tax revenue to all counties and states along its path. While the land and people of Standing Rock face great risk of seeing damaging environmental impacts, they will not see any of the benefits. The pipeline crosses just north of Sioux County, where the Standing Rock Reservation is located. Tax revenue will not be generated for the tribe.
Ooooooh no.
All the risk and none of the benefits. :(
And yet mysteriously not the adjacent tribes. Nope, no racism of any kind over here.
*spits*
Oil pipelines are a great boon the the bottled-water industry.
Chigau:
Maybe, for those who have the money to spend on bottled water, and don’t have the slightest idea of where water comes from anyway.
rq:
Right there spitting with you. If this fucking thing breaks, and it will, it’s going to be disastrous.
As we all know, pipelines are safe.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatchewan-premier-brad-wall-speaks-husky-oil-spill-1.3697085
Okay, what we really know is that Brad Wall will still be pro-pipeline once this mess has left the public memory.
People have a poor understanding of the impact on reservations. This is just a bit about Standing Rock:
Effect of Pick-Sloan Act: The following infrastructure was lost to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribes as a result of the creation of Lake Oahe:190 domestic water systems 22,000 acres of waterbed 3 rodeo arenas
50 ranch water systems 95 miles of main roads 2 race tracks
55,944 acres of land 190 housing units 3 sawmills
Reservation Water System: Water is the key to increasing the quality of life and promoting full economic development on the Standing Rock Reservation. An adequate supply of good quality water is needed by many of the (8,278) Indians and (3,838) non-Indians living on the reservation. Problems with water quality and inadequate supply are common throughout the reservation and have a detrimental effect on health and quality of life as well as deterring economic growth. The availability of a plentiful and high quality water supply is vital to the health and well being of those living on the Standing Rock Reservation. The level of health and quality of life of the general population is directly related to the quality of their domestic water supply. Many residents currently depend on poorly constructed or low capacity individual wells or have water hauled to underground cisterns. These sources are often contaminated with bacteria or undesirable minerals, provide an inadequate quantity of water, and are costly to maintain and operate.
The Indian communities of Little Eagle, Porcupine, Kenel, Bullhead and Cannonball each depend on one or more wells for their water supply. Fort Yates obtains its water from the Missouri River. Water for Wakpala is delivered by pipeline from a Missouri River source at a site some 5 miles distant. The non-Indian communities of Keldron, McIntosh, Morristown, Thunder Hawk, Walker, Wataugua, Mahto, Solen, Selfridge, and McLaughlin depend on wells as their source of supply.
Agriculture is the primary industry on the Standing Rock Reservation and the key to the full development of this industry is water. Surface water in small streams, lakes, and dugouts is scattered throughout the area. Surface water, however, is a unreliable year-round supply and generally available only during the wet periods of spring. During drought periods, these sources of ten dry up, and livestock must be sold or moved off the reservation. Shallow groundwater is scarce and unreliable and deep groundwater, while generally more plentiful, is highly mineralized and of poor quality. This lack of an adequate water supply has also reduced the livestock production on the reservation. The grazing lands cannot be fully utilized and valuable resource is wasted. The lack of stability in the production of feeder-cattle also discourages related industrial development such as packing plants, cattle feeding and canneries.
Hydrologic Setting: Shallow groundwater is not obtainable on much of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and where it is found, it is often of poor quality. Surface water, with the exception of the Missouri and Cannonball Rivers, though valuable and widely distributed resources, are undependable because of scanty and erratic precipitation. Artersian water from deeply buried bedrock aquifers underlies all of the reservation. These aquifers are not, and probably will not become highly developed sources of water because of the high-to-very-high salinity of artesian water in most of the area.
Water Availability and Use: Surface water is the major water source for the reservation with the Missouri River providing by far the largest part of the surface water supply. Other reservation streams have extremely variable flow patterns and are not reliable enough for a year-round supply. Groundwater is not as abundant as surface water and where available it is usually adequate for only small scale use. For these reasons, the Missouri River is the obvious sources for a reservation water supply system.
Fort Yates currently utilizes the Missouri River as a water source. The U.S. Census data list total farm acreage for Corson County at 1,561,000 acres and for Sioux County, 686,000 acres or 2,247,000 acres total. Also given is cropland of 345,000 acres for Corson County, and 151,000 acres for Sioux County for a total of 496,000 acres. Subtracting the total cropland acres from the total farm acres yields 1,751,000 acres serving as pasture or grazing land. The total peak day water needs for this area at 300 gallons per day per section are 821,000 g.p.d. Of this amount, 292,000 g.p.d. are provided as part of the Indian Range Units and 72, 000 g.p.d. as the livestock water needs for State Line Rural Water System members, leaving a balance of 457,000 g.p.d. for non-served pasture lands (peak day) and 343,000 g.p.d. (average day).
You can read more here: http://standingrock.org/environmental-profile/
What would be a big enough stick to beat the state and federal administration with so they would put up and enforce regulations which would force the oil companies to construct a robust enough pipeline system so that leaks would be detected early, be exceedingly rare and contained within the system?
Ice Swimmer:
Right now, such a stick doesn’t exist. It’s more a case of the oil companies having a big stick and whacking governments with it. They run the show.
And I’d guess making the political and administrative system to say no to the pipeline must be a more realistic thing than keeping them off the oil companies’ cookie jar for the next 50 years.
Mmhm, oil near rivers is a great idea, it’s not like anyone has problems with that!
Phracking-tainted water in US towns and cities.
Lead-tainted water in US towns and cities.
Radioactive waste-tainted water in US towns and cities.
E coli-tainted water in US towns and cities.
Giardia-tainted water in US towns and cities.
And people are supposed to believe the Missouri River won’t become yet another toxic body of water? Soon to be renamed the Misery River….