We are guessing that DAPL is somewhere on your radar although the mainstream media has done an excellent job of misreporting or burying the real story. Dakota Access Pipe Line is a not yet completed 1, 172 mile fracked shale pipe line which will carry 470,000 barrels of oil per day (BPD) from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Patoka, Illinois, where benzene, chromium, mercury, nickel, nitrogen, sulfur, toluene and other chemicals will be removed. The product will then be sent to the Texas gulf where it will be shipped elsewhere. Its final destination is open to speculation since the ban on foreign export of crude was lifted by Congress. When Dakota Bakken’s fracked shale oil is depleted, the pipe lines will most likely transport Canadian tar sands oil.
The DAPL will cross the Missouri River twice. At least 18,000,000 people use the Missouri River for potable water, and farmers use it for irrigation and livestock. In Iowa the pipe line will cross the Des Moines, Boone, Raccoon, Skunk and Mississippi Rivers as well as many smaller tributaries, all of which are water suppliers for towns, cities and agriculture. I have not had time to research impacted Illinois waterways. Land for the pipe line route was expropriated through questionable condemnation and eminent domain processes.
One of the issues surrounding this particular pipe line is the plan by Energy Transfer Crude Company, LLC (Limited Liability Company) of Dallas, TX, to drill under Lake Oahe. This lake is the drinking water source for the Standing Rock Reservation. Construction leading to Lake Oahe has desecrated Sioux burial grounds and worship sites. Originally the pipe line was to lay northeast of Bismark, ND, but this plan was rejected by the Army Corps of Engineers due to concerns for the cities drinking water supply. This was a distinct possibility as almost every pipe line leaks, even new ones. A one percent leakage of BPD is considered acceptable and is generally not included in statistics.
The new route through the Oahe Lake had the added attraction of being shorter (less expenditure for ETC). It also will provide a source of water necessary for the fracking process should aquifers run dry. Each fracking well can use millions of gallons of water. Millions of gallons times the over 10,000 wells already drilled in North Dakota and those in process is a lot of water.
This isn’t the first time the Standing Rock Reservation and the Cheyenne River Reservation people have royally been given the shaft over this particular piece of geography. Lake Oahe was formed by the Oahe Dam . Construction for the dam flooded 200,000 acres of the Reservations’ best agricultural land, sacred worship sites and important urban centers. Sixty-six years later, they are still awaiting compensation for lands lost to lake construction.
Caveat Emptor: This topic was researched extensively and delivered as factually accurate as possible. However, new information becomes available daily.