Standing Rock protesters halt pipeline
‘EXPLORE ALTERNATE ROUTES’: Federal government denies contractor permission to cross Missouri River reservoir
CANNON BALL, N.D. — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday it won’t grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, a victory for the several thousand camped near the construction site who’ve said for months that the four-state, US$3.8 billion project would threaten a water source and cultural sites.
The pipeline is largely complete except for the now-blocked segment underneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir. In a news release, Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said her decision was based on the need to “explore alternate routes” for the pipeline’s crossing.
Veterans Stand for Standing Rock’s GoFundMe.com page had raised more than US$1 million of its $1.2 million goal by Sunday — money due to go toward food, transportation and supplies. Cars waiting to get into the camp Sunday afternoon were backed up for more than a kilometre.
“People are fighting for something, and I thought they could use my help,” said Navy veteran and Harvard graduate student Art Grayson. The 29-yearold from Cambridge, Massachusetts, flew the first leg of the journey, then rode from Bismarck in the back of a pickup truck. He has finals this week, but told professors, “I’ll see you when I get back.”
Steven Perry, a 66-year-old Vietnam veteran who’s a member of the Little Traverse Bay band of Odawa Indians in Michigan, spoke of one of the protesters’ main concerns: that the pipeline could pollute drinking water. “This is not just a native issue,” he said, “This is an issue for everyone.”
Art Woodson and two other veterans drove 17 hours straight from Flint, Michigan, a city whose lead-tainted water crisis parallels with the tribe’s fight over water, he said.
“We know in Flint that water is in dire need,” the 49-year-old disabled Gulf War Army veteran said. “In North Dakota, they’re trying to force pipes on people. We’re trying to get pipes in Flint for safe water.”
The company constructing the pipeline, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, had said it was unwilling to reroute the project. It and the Morton County Sheriff ’s Office, which has done much of the policing of the protests, didn’t have immediate comment.
The federal government has ordered people to leave the main encampment, which is on Army Corps of Engineers’ land, by Monday. But demonstrators say they’re prepared to stay, and authorities say they won’t forcibly remove them.