“The blockade is not over and will not cease until Dakota Access ends this proposed dirty pipeline”.
Advertisement
Chief among them are the potential to contaminate the tribe’s main drinking source and their potential responsibility for cleaning up toxic spills that could seep into their land. “Our basic message is that the Corps of Engineers has failed to follow the law and has failed to consider the impacts of the pipeline on Standing Rock Sioux Tribe”.
The project is a $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile underground pipeline slated to transport up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota’s Bakken region to a distribution hub at Patoka, Ill.
Members of the Winnebago and Lakota tribes were also there to stand with Standing Rock. However, the situation escalated last week when a dozen protesters were arrested for coming too close to construction.
Developers told local news stations that they are halting construction until a federal court hearing next week.
Regalado says they prefer to be called “protectors” not “protestors”. Construction was officially halted by Energy Transfer, the company building the pipeline, but reports have surfaced of work being done across the Missouri River from the camp, on the South Dakota side.
Hundreds of protesters from three tribes and their allies stopped construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline for the second day in a row Wednesday, but law enforcement and private security are now preparing to amp up their presence. The tribe has since filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers.
“The pipeline presents a threat to our land, our sacred sites, our water and to the people”, said Archambault. Others alerted include the High Commissioner on Human Rights; the U.S. Department of State, the Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the office of Multi-Lateral and Global Affairs/Democracy Human Rights and Labor, and the White House.
Governor Jack Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency in southwest and south-central North Dakota amid protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is risky both to themselves and the construction crews who have a job to complete, and North Dakotans from throughout western and central North Dakota whose law enforcement and emergency services personnel have been taken from their duties in our communities to patrol this senseless theater production of Hollywood actresses’ and environmental extremists.
Advertisement
Declaring a state of emergency paves the way for more funding for public safety and other resources to be mobilized “for the objective of protecting the health, safety and well-being of the general public and those involved in the protest”, the governor’s office stated in a press release, noting that it does not activate the National Guard. These extremists manipulate the people of North Dakota for one thing, and that is to shut down our state’s energy industries entirely, effectively putting thousands of people out of work and costing North Dakota taxpayers. Construction has begun in all four states.
