For Immediate Release: March 22, 2022
Rapid City, SD — Today, on World Water Day, NDN Collective released Faulty Infrastructure and the Impacts of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the first report to lay out a full and factual timeline of the DAPL process. The report shows the depth and details of co-conspiring between the Army Corps of Engineers and the owners of DAPL, and illuminates the level of recklessness both parties are willing to take in the name of profit.
“While we as NDN Collective and the Climate Justice team are honored to bring resources like this report to our communities to embolden our fights for the protection of our lands and waters, it is important for readers and policymakers to understand that the due diligence within this report should have been carried out in the first place by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Center for Environmental Quality, and the Environmental Protection Agency. DAPL is yet another case of environmental injustice where the burden is put on a vulnerable community to expose wrongs and hold these agencies accountable to their own laws and regulations. The Biden administration has deemed itself as the admin to embed systemic equity, and has named environmental justice as a key priority. On that basis, the Biden administration should be ashamed of the DAPL process, and should take immediate action to remedy the errors made in this process and abandon this project once and for all,” said Jade Begay, Climate Justice Campaign Director.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline is currently operating illegally without a permit, putting safe drinking water at risk for over 18 million people. This report lays out the faulty technology, the mismanagement of the process by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the irresponsible tactics and strategies by Energy Transfer Partners. Our hope is the facts laid out in this report will help arm the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all tribes within Missouri River watershed with the needed information to advocate for their inherit and sovereign rights to protect Mother Earth and sacred waterways, and fight climate change for future generations. This report shows how the Army Corps of Engineers violated their own processes, and continues to violate our human rights for the benefit of a destructive, violent, and extractive energy company. We cannot sit on the sidelines with this information. It’s time for accountability and it’s time to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline, once and for all,” said Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, President & CEO, NDN Collective.
”This report is the culmination of over a year of in-depth research between the NDN Collective Climate Justice campaign and a team of engineering experts. The findings within this report affirm not only how the Dakota Access Pipeline is a matter of environmental racism and injustice, but also specifies where and how this pipeline is technically unsafe. We are calling on the Biden Administration to step in and rectify the EIS process, as it is clear that the Army Corps of Engineers has remained derelict in their duty and has no intent to follow court orders, public interest, or tribal rights. The illegally operating Dakota Access Pipeline must be drained and permanently shut down as a matter of adherence to tribal sovereignty, the law, and environmental protection,” said Kailea Frederick, Climate Justice Organizer.
The report
- Illuminates that there isn’t a single reference project anywhere in the world that has used the same technologies in the same application as DAPL. Yet despite using unproven technology, DAPL lacks leak detection systems, and there are zero clean-up and repair mitigation plans in case of an accident.
- Explains that tribes have submitted FOIA requests for HDD drilling reports, spill reports, as-built drawings of the section under Lake Oahe, pre-construction welding & hydrostatic test inspections, and Close Interval Survey reports – but were refused this information by the Army Corps based on ‘national interest.’
- Sounds the alarm on ERM, the so-called “independent” third party contractor hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to complete the EIS process, who is a member of the American Petroleum Institute.
- Names the Biden administration as one of the most critical players in the urgent need to rectify the EIS process DAPL must follow, after years of the Army Corps clearly demonstrating they have no intent to follow court orders, public interest, or tribal rights.
- Drives home the point that the fight against DAPL is not over – but we are approaching a point of no return, and action must be taken immediately.
- Emphasizes that the fight against DAPL is critical in and of itself, but warns that the process behind it has dangerous implications for other pipelines.
You can View the Full Report Here
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NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.