BISMARCK, N.D. | A federal judge kept in place Monday a previous work-stoppage order on a small portion of the almost 1,200-mile Dakota Access oil pipeline while federal agencies review construction permits for the site, which the Standing Rock Sioux tribe says is sacred ground.
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When fully connected to existing lines, the 1,100-mile, $3.7 billion pipeline would be the first to carry crude oil from the Bakken shale directly to the U.S. Gulf.
“The chairman of that tribe put out a call to other nations to come join the resistance, saying they are trying to blockade the pipeline”, said Andy Pearson, a coordinator for the environmental activist group MN350, who was marching in St. Paul.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Office arrested 22 people at a Dakota Access construction site more than 80 miles northwest from the main protest site, including two people who bound themselves to equipment.
The pipeline is being built near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation next to Cannon Ball in the state of North Dakota.
The union said work was shut down at multiple sites in Morton and Mercer counties Tuesday and the stoppages are affecting about 300 union members in North Dakota.
The pipeline has been making national headlines due to tribal protests and President Obama even stepped in ordering the work be suspended.
The proposed pipeline, being built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, could transport more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken to IL. Nurses urged the government to permanently block the disputed project that nurses say is a threat to public health, as well as to the tribe’s sacred sites.
Part of the pipeline would cross Sioux lands and run under the Missouri River, the tribe’s sole water source, drawing concerns from environmentalists and tribe leaders that a potential oil spill could devastate the reservation.
The letter did not address the federal request for a temporary halt of construction.
Opponents sued in federal court to stop construction but a judge ruled against them September 9, stating that the government had followed the necessary procedures and that construction could continue.
On Tuesday, protestors locked themselves to construction equipment, resulting in law enforcement arriving with rifles and riot gear and 20 “water protectors” being arrested.
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Approximately 150 people protested in support of the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts in Boulder on Tuesday.
