May 26th, 2020: In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's fight to protect their ancestral lands and sacred waters from the Dakota Access Pipeline captured the world's attention. Unfortunately, the nearly 1,200-mile crude oil pipeline—stretching from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to southern Illinois—was constructed and has now been operating for several years. The pipeline currently pumps 600,000 barrels per day underneath Lake Oahe—which the Tribe relies on for drinking water, fishing, agriculture, and sacred religious practices—immediately upstream of the Tribe's reservation.
But in March, a federal district court judge found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it authorized the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The court found "serious gaps in crucial parts" of the Corps' analysis. Specifically, the court found that crucial questions about oil spill risks—including regarding leak detection systems, operator safety records, and worst-case discharge scenarios—"remain unanswered." The court ordered the Corps to prepare an environmental impact statement.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and other affected Tribes are now asking the court to shut down the pipeline while the Corps conducts this additional environmental review. Halting the flow of crude oil in the pipeline would protect the Tribes from the very impacts that the Corps has yet to comprehensively analyze.
Last week, the Sierra Club, representing Honor the Earth, Dakota Rural Action, Friends of the Earth, Bold Alliance, Save Our Illinois Land (SOIL), Center for Biological Diversity, and 350.org, submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the Tribes and their request to shut down the pipeline while an environmental impact statement is prepared. Read the official press release here.
As Mike Faith, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, recently wrote: "Every day the pipeline operates represents a threat to our way of life and an insult to our culture and traditions that have withstood so much. We are still here. We are not giving up this fight."