Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline, known as DAPL, is a crude oil pipeline running 1,172 miles from the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota to an oil terminal near Patoka, Illinois. [1] The construction of DAPL caused major controversy and protests around the nation, but centered at the Sacred Stone Camp where the Cannonball River meets the Missouri River in the Standing Rock Reservation. [2] DAPL was built by Energy Transfer Partners and has been operational since 2017, with a maximum capacity to transport 750,000 barrels of crude oil per day. [3] The pipeline route crosses under the Missouri River, Mississippi River and Lake Oahe in South Dakota. Energy Transfer Partners continues to operate the pipeline despite not yet completing a full Environmental Impact Statement necessary to receive a permit to cross Lake Oahe [4] The protests that began in 2016 to stop the completion of DAPL were about the potential for water pollution, the impact fossil fuel expansion would have on climate change, in addition to the fact that the Standing Rock Sioux tribe sees the pipeline as a violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which gave the tribe the right to "undisturbed use and occupation" of the land surrounding part of the DAPL route. [5]
Background
The Bakken oil fields span parts of North Dakota, Montana and Canada. It is the second most productive oil-producing region in the United States after the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico. Oil and gas production in the Bakken formation took off after 2010, but the lack of infrastructure to bring the product to processing facilities resulted in flaring that could be seen from space. [6] In 2014, Energy Transfer Partners began acquiring the land they would need for the pipeline route, but from the start the project faced resistance from locals in the pipeline's path. [7]
Sources
- ↑ https://uh.edu/uh-energy/research/white-papers/white-papers-files/uhe-white-paper-series-oil-pipeline-1.3.22.pdf
- ↑ https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2016/09/03/why-the-founder-of-standing-rock-sioux-camp-cant-forget-the-whitestone-massacre
- ↑ https://daplpipelinefacts.com/
- ↑ https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2017/10/dakota-access-pipeline/
- ↑ https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/plains-treaties/dapl
- ↑ https://geology.com/articles/bakken-formation.shtml
- ↑ https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2014/08/22/farmers-make-way-bakken-pipeline/14426829/