TEHRAN - “On Tuesday, July 26, 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) approved the water crossing permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline, proposed to carry fracked oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota 1, 172 miles to Patoka, Illinois.

We are a grassroots coalition of tribal members, landowners, and environmental organizations who stand united in opposition to these permits and the process by which the USACE granted them.  This rubber stamp approval undermines the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as federal trust responsibilities guaranteed in the 1851 and 1868 United States treaties with the L/D/Nakota tribes, which remain the supreme law of the land.  We support the subsequent legal filings by the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Rosebud Sioux, and Yankton Sioux Tribes, whose human rights, treaty rights, and sovereignty are violated by these permits.  We join them in calling for a full halt to all construction activities and repeal of all USACE permits until formal tribal consultation and environmental review are properly and adequately conducted.” This is how a coalition support of tribal lawsuits against us army corps permits for the Dakota access pipeline dated early this month opens and protests the controversial project.

Amid mainstream media blackout on the protests in Dakota and the Sacred Stones Camp, hundreds of Native American protesters and their supporters have been arrested on various charges. The objections against the Dakota pipeline have been going on for months now and after many arrests, the media seems to be shedding more light on the incident. On Thursday, more than 100 officers in riot gear with automatic rifles lined up across a highway, flanked by multiple MRAPs, an LRAD sound cannon, Humvees driven by National Guardsmen, an armored police truck and a bulldozer. Water protectors say police deployed tear gas, mace, pepper spray and flash-bang grenades and bean bag rounds against the Native Americans and shot rubber bullets at their horses. "We learned a lot about the relationship of North Dakota to Native people," says Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth. "I was standing next to a group of teenagers that were all maced in the face… Myself, I actually was almost shot in the face by bean bag round."

 What is DAPL?

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is owned by Houston, Texas based corporation called Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. which created the subsidiary Dakota Access LLC. The DAPL, also known as the Bakken Pipeline, is proposed to transport 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day (which is fracked and highly volatile) from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. In August 2016, the final finances were secured when Enbridge and the Marathon Petroleum Company bought a 2 billion dollar share.

Despite pressure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Dakota Access has failed to consult tribes and conduct a full environmental impact statement. The proposed route crosses the Missouri River at the confluence with the Cannon Ball River, and area that is of utmost cultural and spiritual, and environmental significance. The confluence an important location for the Mandan origin story as the place where they came into the world after the great flood. Where the two waters meet once created Iŋyaŋ Wakháŋagapi Othí, spherical Sacred Stones (thus the colonizers' term 'Cannon Ball'), but after the Army Corp of Engineers dredged and flooded the rivers in the 50s, the flow has changed and Sacred Stones are no longer produced. There are historic burial grounds, village grounds and Sundance sites that would be directly impacted. The water of the Missouri River is essential to life on the Standing Rock Reservation as well as all of the nations and states downstream.

The threats this pipeline poses to the environment, human health and human rights are the same as those that were posed by the Keystone XL. The current route of the DAPL will cross over the Ogallala Aquifer (one of the largest aquifers in the world) and under the Missouri River twice (the longest river in the United States). The possible contamination of these water sources makes the Dakota Access pipeline a national threat.

Violations of Federal Law

Camp of the Sacred Stones accuses the project of being against federal law where they enumerate following cases as instances of the breach.

Fort Laramie Treaty of April 29, 1868

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) violates Article 2 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which guarantees that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe shall enjoy the “undisturbed use and occupation” of our permanent homeland, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The U.S. Constitution states that treaties are the supreme law of the land.

Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice

All agencies must determine if proposed project disproportionately impacts Tribal community or other minority community. The DAPL was original routed to cross the Missouri River north of Bismarck. The crossing was moved to “avoid populated areas”, so instead of crossing upriver of the state’s capital, it crosses the aquifer of the Great Sioux Reservation.

Pipeline Safety Act and Clean Water Act

DAPL has not publicly identified the Missouri River crossing as high consequence. The Ogallala Aquifer must be considered a “high consequence area”, since the pipeline would cross critical drinking water and intakes for those water systems. The emergency plan must estimate the maximum possible spill (49 CFR§195.452(h)(iv)(i)). DAPL refuses to release this information to the tribe.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

A detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be completed for major actions that affect the environment. Also, the Army Corps of Engineers must comply w/ NEPA for the permit for the Missouri River crossing. The way agencies get around this is to provide a lesser study, a brief Environmental Assessment (which Dakota Access has done). A full EIS would be an interdisciplinary approach for the integrated use of natural and social sciences to determine direct and indirect effects of the project and “possible conflicts...with Indian land use plans and policies…(and) cultural resources” 40 CFR §1502.16

***** Executive Order 13007 on Protection of Sacred Sites

“In managing federal lands, each executive branch agency shall avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sites.” There are historical ceremony sites and burial grounds in the immediate vicinity of the Missouri River crossing. The Corps must deny the DAPL permit to protect these sites in compliance with EO 13007.