It’s been a week since the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they would not grant a permit
for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the river that the indigenous
Sioux people relied upon for their drinking, farming and washing.
The DAPL was running through Sioux territory in large part because the
settler communities nearby had indicated that they would not tolerate
such a risky proposition when it came to their own water. The water
protectors of the Sioux and their allies from around the nation gathered
to ensure that native Americans would not be forced at literal gunpoint
to accept the risk that nearby whites would not tolerate.
But Energy Transfer Partners – who have pinned their hopes on Trump
reverse the Army and permitting their pipeline – maintained that this
fear was misplaced and that there were no real risks to their
proposition.
Yesterday, we learned that the Belle Fourche Pipeline had spilled at
least 176,000 gallons of crude oil into Ash Coulee Creek, 150 miles
from Cannon Ball, ND, where the water protectors made their stand. The
electronic monitoring equipment that was supposed to detect this leak
failed.
