Horseback riders make their way through an encampment near North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux reservation on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
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The company behind a controversial pipeline project near native American land in North Dakota has vowed to press ahead, despite the plan sparking protests across the world on Tuesday.
The Dakota Access pipeline, which is already more than half completed, is a massive $3.7 billion project that would transport 470,000 barrels of oil a day across four states from the oil fields in Stanley, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Patoka in southern IL, where it would link with other existing pipelines. Some protestors, who locked themselves to construction machinery, were arrested on Tuesday after causing construction to grind to a halt. The two who tethered themselves to equipment also face charges of hindering law enforcement and disorderly conduct. The agencies also asked Energy Transfer Partners – the company building the pipeline – to voluntarily pause construction 20 miles on each side of the Missouri River. On September 3, several Native Americans clashed with security officers near the construction site after bulldozers had destroyed sacred tribal sites.
“We come here to demand that the Army Corps of Engineers and President [Barack] Obama revoke the permits given to Dakota Access Pipeline”.
The pipeline is almost 60 percent complete, the company’s letter said; Energy Transfer has spent $1.6 billion so far on equipment, materials and the workforce. “In my view, when that analysis takes place, this pipeline will not continue”.
Morris said the Standing Rock camp has drawn more than 3,500 people, where some 200 flags are flying, from tribes in NY, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Northwest, California, Mexico, the Amazon, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Protests and a lawsuit led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have swirled around the project in recent months, as Native Americans and other groups have raised concerns that the pipeline will disturb culturally significant sites and threaten water supplies.
Pipeline crews arriving for work found the protesters already at a construction site just north of Interstate 94 about 8 miles west of New Salem, or about 35 miles west of Bismarck, spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said.
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Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren told employees the pipeline is almost 60 per cent complete and that “concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the local water supply are unfounded”.
