The Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline and Its impact on Indigenous Communities
What is the Dakota Access Pipeline?
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a 1,172 mile-long underground pipeline constructed by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) of Dallas, Texas. DAPL began operating in June 2017, transporting approximately 570,000 barrels of crude oil, a fossil fuel, every day.
The pipeline carries crude oil from the Bakken oil fields located in North Dakota to Illinois, where the oil is then transported to oil terminals and refineries along the Gulf of Mexico by another pipeline. The pipeline travels through various communities across several states including North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois.
How does DAPL impact Indigenous communities?
In early 2017, The Trump Administration signed orders which granted authorization for the construction of the pipeline under the Missouri River, just half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The placement of the pipeline at this location exposes the Standing Rock Sioux community’s land and water supply to contamination including any neighboring downstream communities. Additionally, the construction of the pipeline destroyed places that hold cultural significance to the tribe’s heritage including ancestral burial sites.
The construction of the pipeline took place on land reserved for the Lakota/Dakota peoples through the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. The treaty granted millions of acres of land to be reserved for the Great Sioux Reservation and to be used by the Lakota/Dakota peoples forever. However, violations of the treaty began immediately after it was signed causing the reserved land to be gradually reduced and even stolen for the past 170 years.
Environmental Risks and Past Incidents
Pipelines pose a detrimental threat to the environment and communities located near them. According to the FracTracker Alliance, the U.S. contains 2.7 million miles of pipelines that transport natural gas and hazardous liquids. A significant number of these pipelines are placed near communities or near locations that hold cultural or ecological significance. Pipeline spill incidents are attributed to over 34 million gallons of hazardous liquids spilled. These spills pose a threat that could expose the land and drinking water supply to hazardous contamination.
The FracTracker Alliance conducted a study tracking all of the pipeline-related incidents between January 2010 and November 2018. Their findings reported over 5,000 incidents, 596 injuries, 126 fatalities, over 29,000 evacuations, 808 fires, 219 explosions, and over $4 million in damages. In their report, they stated, “on average each day in the U.S. 1.7 pipeline incidents are reported requiring 9 people to be evacuated, and causing almost $1.3 million in property damage. A pipeline catches fire every 4 days and results in an explosion every 11 days. These incidents result in an injury every 5 days, on average, and a fatality every 26 days”. These numbers emphasized the harmful and often fatal impact pipelines have on the environment, vital resources, and the lives of both workers and residents living near pipelines.
Resistance Against the Pipeline
Resistance against the construction and operation of DAPL has been ongoing for over 4 years, since early 2016. The #NoDAPL campaign movement was established in April 2016, by activists of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe at the start of the construction of the pipeline. The movement began with protests which developed into encampments located on and off the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Allies and supporters demonstrated their support through marches, campaigns, shutdowns, displays, blockades, and sabotaging equipment which helped further delay the pipeline’s construction process.
Legal action was taken in July 2016, when the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). The lawsuit was in response to the ACE’s violation of the National Historic Preservation Act and their inability to provide adequate analysis and consultation of the environment. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe believed that the environmental assessment conducted to reroute the pipeline closer to the Tribe’s community did not include consideration of the negative impacts on the ecological, cultural, socioeconomic, and public health of the Tribe as well as any neighboring communities.
The legal battle continued for years until recently in January 2021, when the U.S. Court of Appeals declared that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did indeed violate environmental laws. Although this ruling is a step in the right direction, it did not call for the shutdown of DAPL, allowing it to continue to operate illegally without a permit.
What is currently happening with DAPL?
The Biden Administration has made notable progress acting to stop the construction of the Transnational Keystone XL oil pipeline (KXL), among signing other restorative climate action orders. This is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and validates their concerns about their community as well as their long battle. However, it is vital that the Biden administration continues on this restorative path by shutting down DAPL as well as other pipeline-related operations. In an interview with The Guardian, Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine nation stated, “This is a vindication of 10 years defending our waters and treaty rights from this tar sands carbon bomb. I applaud President Biden for recognizing how dangerous KXL is for our communities and climate and I look forward to similar executive action to stop DAPL and Line 3 based on those very same dangers”.
Although effort has been made to stop the operation of DAPL, the battle still continues. Land sovereignty is a right of Indigenous communities serving to protect and preserve Indigenous land. However, this is not true when pipelines such as DAPL are constructed and operate on Indigenous lands interfering with full ownership of Indigenous lands.
References
Center for Constitutional Rights. “The #NoDAPL Movement Was Powerful, Factual, and Indigenous-Led. Lawsuit Lies Can't Change That.” Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for Constitutional Rights, 21 Feb. 2018, ccrjustice.org/home/blog/2018/02/21/nodapl-movement-was-powerful-factual-and-indigenous-led-lawsuit-lies-can-t.
Energy Transfer. “Dakota Access Pipeline Facts.” Home, Energy Transfer LP, daplpipelinefacts.com/.
Januchowski-Hartley, Stephanie R., et al. “Scientists Stand with Standing Rock.” Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 30 Sept. 2016, science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6307/1506.1.
Kelso, Matt. “Pipeline Incidents Continue to Impact Residents.” FracTracker Alliance, Matt Kelso, BA Https://Www.fractracker.org/a5ej20sjfwe/Wp-Content/Uploads/2019/10/Fractracker-Color-Logo.jpg, 12 Mar. 2020, www.fractracker.org/2018/12/pipeline-incidents-impact-residents/.
Kennedy, Michael. “The Dakota Access Pipeline.” Earthjustice, Earthjustice, 16 June 2020, earthjustice.org/cases/2016/the-dakota-access-pipeline.
Lakhani, Nina. “'No More Broken Treaties': Indigenous Leaders Urge Biden to Shut down Dakota Access Pipeline.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Jan. 2021, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/21/dakota-access-pipeline-joe-biden-indigenous-environment.
Mapes, Lynda V. “Tribe Sees Dakota Access Pipeline as Just Latest in Long History of Violations.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 1 Nov. 2016, www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/tribe-sees-dakota-access-pipeline-as-just-latest-in-long-history-of-violations/.
Pace, Julie. “Trump to Sign Orders Advancing Keystone, Dakota Pipelines.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 24 Jan. 2017, www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trump-to-sign-orders-advancing-keystone-dakota-pipelines/.
Press, Associated. “A Look at Biden's First Executive Orders in Office.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 20 Jan. 2021, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/a-look-at-bidens-first-executive-orders-in-office.
Seattle Times Staff. “What You Need to Know about the Dakota Access Pipeline.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 1 July 2017, www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-dakota-access-pipeline/.
Whyte, Kyle Powys. “(PDF) The Dakota Access Pipeline, Environmental Injustice, and U.S. Colonialism.” ResearchGate, https://Www.researchgate.net/Publication/312040136_The_Dakota_Access_Pipeline_Environmental_Injustice_and_US_Colonialism, Jan. 2017, www.researchgate.net/publication/312040136_The_Dakota_Access_Pipeline_Environmental_Injustice_and_US_Colonialism.
