The Conflicts Along 1,172 Miles of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Gregor Aisch and Rebecca Lai

The Conflicts Along 1,172 Miles of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Gregor Aisch and Rebecca Lai

• The Department of the Army will finish 1,172 Dakota Access Pipeline
• cross under Lake Oahe near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
• delays: legal disputes about water safety, Native American lands, eminent domain 
• 22 of waterway crossways will be drilled under large bodies of water
• The pipeline crosses disputed Sioux land that was promised to the tribe in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie but was later taken away
• There have been large protests at the Lake Oahe crossing over potential water contamination and the damage of sacred tribal sites. The Missouri River is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's primary source of drinking water
• In Septembner the Yankton Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers, challenging the authorization of the pipeline construction 
• The Iowa Utilities Board granted around 200 parcels of land, highlighted in yellow, for pipeline use under eminent domain. The owners of 17 parcels sued
• In early November, protesters set up an encampment to block construction near the Des Moines River crossing
• Another protest camp was set up near the Mississippi River crossing in late August and lasted until construction there was completed
• The pipeline ends near Patoka, Ill, where the crude oil will be transported to refineries via railroad tank cars and an existing pipeline