[News] Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Rejects DAPL Environmental Impact Statement

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe Rejects DAPL Environmental Impact Statement
By Darren Thompson - September 13, 2023

Protest encampment near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. (Photo/Darren
Thompson)

Over three years after a federal court ordered the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) to conduct a full environmental impact review of the
Dakota Access Pipeline, a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was
released on September 8, 2023.

The Dakota Access Pipeline was the impetus for the resistance at Standing
Rock that lasted from April 2016 to March 2017 where tens of thousands of
tribal citizens from all over Indian Country and environmentalists
protested. The pipeline was built through the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s
unceded treaty lands, less than a half mile upstream of the Standing Rock
Indian Reservation and beneath the Missouri River.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) Chairwoman Janet Alkire said the draft EIS
should be invalidated and the Corps should “start from scratch” a new
environmental review. The tribe is opposed to the firm that the Corps hired
to conduct the environmental review that has strong ties to the American
Petroleum industry. Alkire said the Corps should engage with an unbiased
firm.

In its press release, the SRST said that USACE tasked Environmental
Resources Management (ERM) was preparing the EIS. “ERM is a member of the
National Petroleum Institute, which submitted in favor of DAPL and against
Standing Rock,” the SRST said in a statement. “The Tribe sees this as a
clear conflict of interest.”

“Today, DAPL presents a clear and enduring threat to delicate ecosystems
and Standing Rock’s primary source of freshwater,” the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe said in a press release on Friday, Sept. 8. “DAPL’s parent company,
Energy Transfer, has an abysmal safety track record. It's responsible for
numerous spills and toxic chemical releases, and it has been cited and
fined tens of millions of dollars for a host of callous public safety
violations.”

During the Standing Rock resistance, hundreds of people were targeted and
arrested by local law enforcement for demonstrating against the building of
the project. Local law enforcement had official support from dozens of
other law enforcement agencies throughout the country. North Dakota spent
upwards of $40 million in law enforcement costs during the protests, with
some costs reimbursed by the Dakota Access Pipeline LLC, but other costs
have been allocated from legislation in North Dakota
<https://www.governor.nd.gov/news/dakota-access-donates-15m-pay-down-loans-related-pipeline-protest-response>
.

On December 4, 2016, the USACE announced it would not grant an easement for
the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe, or the portion of the Missouri River
upstream from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and would undertake an
EIS to look at possible alternative routes.

When former President Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, he
issued a memorandum and an executive order requesting the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to expedite its consideration of the project’s application for
an easement for construction. As a result, USACE withdrew its previous
order to call for a new environmental study on the portion where the
pipeline would cross under the Missouri River.

When the easement was halted in 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued
a statement saying on Dec. 4, 2016
<https://web.archive.org/web/20161204230930/http://standwithstandingrock.net/standing-rock-sioux-tribes-statement-u-s-army-corps-engineers-decision-not-grant-easement/>,
“The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever
grateful to the Obama Administration for this historic decision.”

The pipeline was completed in April 2017, with oil being delivered through
the pipeline in May 2017. Then, the SRST brought a lawsuit against DAPL
<https://casetext.com/case/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-v-us-army-corps-of-engrs-1>,
and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with the Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe saying that there should have been a more thorough
environmental review for the 2 mile pipeline section that would cross under
Lake Oahe. The EIS issued in Sept. 2015 was The Supreme Court later agreed
with the lower court’s decision and declined to hear Dakota Access
Pipeline’s appeal in February 2022, but the pipeline continues to operate.

Since then, the company has tried to expand operations of the pipeline, but
have had challenges by various entities on the pipeline’s route, citing a
review of the company’s safety record. Because of the Court of Appeals
decision, a new draft EIS has been mandated by the court.

The Tribe said in a statement that the draft EIS has been routinely
delayed, the DAPL continues to operate illegally without a valid federal
easement to cross the river.

“We’re furious that the Army Corps has addressed none of our major concerns
during the review process,” said SRST Chairman Janet Alkire in a press
release. “The pipeline is an imminent threat to the Missouri River,
sensitive habitat and sacred burial sites along the riverbank. The oil
company’s emergency response plans are inadequate, its safety track record
is horrendous, and there’s been a stunning lack of transparency with
Standing Rock throughout the environmental review process, including
inaccurate characterizations of tribal consultation.”

The Tribe also said that the draft EIS ignores “virtually every major
concern voiced by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe” and fails to include what
the Tribe is calling a poor safety record.
The USACE is currently undertaking the review process and considering
modifications to allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to double the current
flow-rate of oil through the pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is advocating for the public to submit
comments on the draft EIS for the Dakota Access Pipeline on its website, at
<https://standingrock.org/dapl-eis/>https://standingrock.org/dapl-eis/. The
Tribe is asking the public to demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
start the new EIS from the beginning, and shut the pipeline down while it
does so.
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