Army Stops DAPL Construction To Consider Different Route

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Sunday that they would halt construction of a section of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that would have been near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and had been the subject of protests for months.

The Corps denied a permit for the construction of the section of DAPL that’s been the subject of protests after it became "clear that there’s more work to do" following discussions with tribal officials concerned about the pipeline affecting the community’s drinking water if the pipeline was breached. Such contamination could also infringe on the tribe’s treaty rights to land on the reservation that were granted it under the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Rather than routing the pipeline about 100 feet below Lake Oahe in North Dakota as planned, the Corps will now explore alternative routes through "an Environmental Impact Statement with full public input and analysis." The Standing Rock Sioux had previously requested that the pipeline be rerouted.

What’s next?

The Corps will soon begin evaluating new routes to link the nearly-completed 1,172 mile long pipeline, and the environmental impact statement which assesses them will include a public comment period before it becomes final which is sure to gain a lot of attention following the protests.

There is also a possibility that once President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration will take a different view of DAPL than the Obama administration and allow it to be built on its original route. All that would require is the Corps announcing that they had reversed their decision. Trump has expressed support for the pipeline’s completion, though he has not commented on a decision to re-route the pipeline.

Trump has been accused of having a conflict of interest in the matter because of an investment of between $500,000 and $1 million in Energy Transfer Partners, although a Trump spokesman said that his support for the pipeline "has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans."

In the more immediate term, the Corps announced on November 27 that as of December 5, any protesters occupying on federal land north of the Cannonball River will be trespassing and could face prosecution because of "safety concerns," though they will not be forcibly removed.

— Eric Revell

Photo Credit Flickr user Fibonacci Blue