Dakota Access CEO: Company committed to finishing project
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders backs tribe on same day 20 arrested near Standing Rock
The head of a Texas company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline told employees Tuesday that it is committed to the project despite strong opposition and a federal order to voluntarily halt construction near an American Indian reservation in North Dakota.
- U.S. government seeks to halt North Dakota pipeline construction
- Standing Rock protest grows with thousands opposing North Dakota pipeline
It came the same day as a planned "day of action" in cities around the U.S. and in other countries, including a rally that drew hundreds in Washington to hear Senator Bernie Sanders and others speak. Authorities also arrested 22 people for interfering with construction on the pipeline about 113 km northwest of the main protest site near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.
Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren told employee the pipeline is nearly 60 per cent complete and that "concerns about the pipeline's impact on the local water supply are unfounded." The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others argue the project will impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members and millions downstream.
"I am confident that as long as the government ultimately decides the fate of the project based on science and engineering, the Dakota Access Pipeline will become operational ... So we will continue to obey the rules and trust the process," he wrote.
Tribe won't budge
Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said he and the thousands of others who have gathered at an encampment in southern North Dakota to protest won't budge.
"People are still coming down here and are committed to stopping the project," he said.
Energy Transfer Partners disputes those claims, saying the pipeline would include safeguards and that workers monitoring the pipeline remotely could close valves within three minutes if a breach is detected.
"We have designed the state-of-the-art Dakota Access pipeline as a safer and more efficient method of transporting crude oil than the alternatives being used today," his memo said.
20 people arrested
The tribe's effort to temporarily block construction near its reservation was denied by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday. But minutes later, federal officials ordered a temporary halt to construction on Army Corps land around and underneath Lake Oahe — one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River. Three federal agencies also asked ETP for a "voluntary pause" in work for 32 km on either side of Lake Oahe.
About 113 km northwest of the main protest site in southern North Dakota, protesters "swarmed" construction workers and two people chained themselves to equipment, according to Morton County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey. Twenty people face charges of criminal trespassing, and two who "attached" themselves to equipment also face charges of hindering law enforcement and disorderly conduct, she said.
Obama urged to support Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
In Washington, Sanders was joined at the rally by a couple of Standing Rock Sioux members, including a girl who'd joined about a dozen people this summer in running a petition signed by 140,000 people from North Dakota to Washington. The speakers encouraged President Barack Obama, who visited the reservation in 2014, to back their cause.
Warren's memo also noted that because of what it called "misinformation" in the news, the company is working to "communicate with the government and media more clearly in the days to come."
Warren said the company had consulted with more than 55 tribes, including the Standing Rock Sioux, and added that ETP values and respects "cultural diversity and the significant role that Native American culture plays in our nation's history and its future and hope to be able to strengthen our relationship with the Native American communities as we move forward with this project."
Archambault said the consultations were one-sided and that "they met with us after their plans were already made."