The American Indian tribe opposing the Dakota Access pipeline is accusing proponents of the oil project of trying to wipe them out by contaminating their water.
Standing Rock Sioux, the tribe opposing the multi-state pipeline, is seeking a last ditch effort to block the $3.8 billion line. The tribe believes the DAPL could potentially poison the group’s water supply and trample sacred ground — the Army Corps of Engineer’s recent decision to okay the pipeline has sent Standing Rock into hysterics.
One of the tribe’s members, Frank Archambault, who has lived at one of the ramshackle camps housing the project’ opponents, believes the government and DAPL proponents are pushing people around and breaking laws.
“They’re trying to kill us off by contaminating the water. We’ve had enough,” the Standing Rock member told reporters Thursday.
Opposition to DAPL grew rapidly after President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders in January approving the construction of the DAPL and Keystone XL. His order essentially wiped away the Obama administration’s decision last December to reject the oil line.
Another protester, Ptery Light, an Oregon man who has lived in the main camp since October, said he prays “there’s no oil spill” and called the decision to approve the line “purely about greed.”
Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the DAPL, said Thursday it expects the line to be complete and ready to deliver oil by May. The project will deliver nearly 500,000 barrels of Bakken oil per day to Illinois from North Dakota.
It’s supporters believe the pipeline will be a safer mode of transportation for the oil than rail or trucks.
They point to recent research showing that oil leaks from pipelines are safer than those caused by train derailments and truck wrecks, namely because of a line’s safety measures.
Moving oil and gas by pipeline in Canada was 4.5 times safer between 2003-2013, than moving the same volume the same distance by rail, according to a study conducted in 2015 by the Fraser Institute, a Canada-based free market group.
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