The Dakota Access Pipeline may yet be built. Then again, it may not. A year ago, this was not in question. Today, the 1,172-mile-long, $3.78-billion project is more than half-built but it lacks a permit for just 1,094 ft—one-fifth of a mile—on federal property, and the U.S. government has ordered permitting suspended pending further review. Now, after a series of political successes, opponents are dreaming of halting the entire project, as happened with the Keystone XL Pipeline. How could this situation have been avoided?
Start by considering the reason for the intense opposition to the project. The permit for a crossing of Lake Oahe, created by a dam on the Missouri River, has been suspended. The crossing is a half-mile upriver from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe relies on the Missouri River for its water supply and fears that a leak in the 30-in. pipeline, though deeply buried, could enter the river and reach the tribe’s intake pipe before it could be closed. In a federal lawsuit, the tribe says, “The construction and operation of the pipeline, as authorized by the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers], threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.” The tribe further claims “the Corps’ final permit decision is the product of a fundamentally flawed consultation process that does not meet the requirements of the [Advisory Council on Historic Preservation] regulations.”