Pipeline supporters disagree. They say the Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.7 billion project to carry 470,000 barrels of oil a day from the fields of North Dakota to IL.
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A federal judge on Friday denied an attempt by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline near their North Dakota reservation, saying the tribe hadn’t adequately shown the project will destroy “sites of cultural and historical significance”.
Protests against the Dakota Access pipeline have been ongoing for weeks, but on Tuesday, rallies across the US and world were held as part of a widespread “Day of Action” denouncing the project from a Dallas-based energy company.
The site of the lockdown is more than 80 miles from where a site sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux was desecrated by construction equipment several weeks ago.
But minutes later, federal officials ordered a temporary halt to construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land around and underneath Lake Oahe – one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River.
Native American and environmentalist groups oppose the $3.7 billion project, citing concerns about water quality and the possible disruption of historical sites. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, said in a statement to employees that the pipeline will be safer than rail and trucks for transporting oil.
The bottom line for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is and will always be protecting our lands, people, water and sacred sites from the devastation of this pipeline.
Morton County authorities say eight people were arrested Wednesday, including three cited for locking themselves onto construction equipment.
“The pipeline is an intrusion on the Native American people’s right to their ancestral homeland”, she said, “their holy land, you know, that should not be going on”.
“At first it was like just getting wrapped up in it, should I step over and trespass, but I mean they can’t arrest 2,000 people”, she said.
Members of more than 100 tribes have come to North Dakota to protest the pipeline, which had been under construction. Hundreds of Native American protestors and their supporters, who fear the Dakota Access Pipeline will pollute their water, forced construction workers and security forces to retreat and work to stop.
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Of the recent federal request to voluntarily halt construction, he added, “We are committed to completing construction and safely operating the Dakota Access Pipeline within the confines of the law”.
