Current:Home > StocksStanding Rock: Dakota Access Pipeline Leak Technology Can’t Detect All Spills -TradeWisdom
Standing Rock: Dakota Access Pipeline Leak Technology Can’t Detect All Spills
View
Date:2025-04-18 23:50:25
Sign up to receive our latest reporting on climate change, energy and environmental justice, sent directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.
Nine months after oil starting flowing through the Dakota Access pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe continues to fight the controversial project, which passes under the Missouri River just upstream from their water supply.
In a 313-page report submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the tribe challenged the adequacy of leak detection technology used by pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners. The tribe also questioned the company’s worst-case spill estimate and faulted Energy Transfer Partners for failing to provide a detailed emergency response plan to the tribe showing how the company would respond to an oil spill.
“We wanted to show how and what we are still fighting here,” said Doug Crow Ghost, water resources director for the Standing Rock Tribe. “It’s an ominous threat every day that we live with on Standing Rock, not even knowing if the pipeline is leaking.”
The leak detection system used by Energy Transfer Partners can’t detect leaks that are less than 2 percent of the full pipeline flow rate, according to the report prepared by the tribe and outside experts. Assuming a flow rate of 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day, a leak of nearly 12,000 barrels per day could go undetected.
“Right now, there are 18 inches of ice over the Missouri River, and we can’t sample the water to look for hydrocarbons,” Crow Ghost said. “We’re sitting blind.”
‘Minutes, If Not Seconds’
Standing Rock Chairman Mike Faith questioned the worst case scenario of a spill as outlined by the company in its permit application.
“ETP estimates that 12,500 barrels of oil would be the worst case scenario, but that is based on a nine-minute shutdown time,” Faith said in a statement. “By looking at prior spills, we know that the true shutdown time is hours, and can even take days.”
Crow Ghost said the Tribe has yet to receive a final, unredacted copy of Energy Transfer Partners’ emergency response plan for the Missouri River crossing from either the company or the Army Corps of Engineers.
“They have failed to send us any adequate documentation to help us prepare for when the pipeline breaks underneath the Missouri River,” Crow Ghost said. “We are minutes, if not seconds, south of where the pipeline is.”
Energy Transfer Partners and the Army Corps did not respond to requests for comment.
Army Corps’ Permit Review Expected Soon
In June, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Army Corps to reassess its July 2016 permit for the pipeline to cross beneath the Missouri River half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock reservation and determine whether or not a more complete environmental assessment was needed.
The tribe’s report, submitted to the Army Corps on Feb. 21, offers the tribe’s perspective on why the current permit is insufficient.
Army Corps officials have previously said they plan to complete their reassessment of the permit by April 2. While it is unlikely that the Corps will rescind its permit or call for a more complete environmental assessment, Standing Rock and other tribes could challenge the Corps’ reassessment in court.
The week he took office, President Donald Trump ordered the Corps to approve and expedite the pipeline “to the extent permitted by law.”
veryGood! (51452)
Related
- 2 killed, 3 injured in shooting at makeshift club in Houston
- November 2023 in photos: USA TODAY's most memorable images
- Some Trump fake electors from 2020 haven’t faded away. They have roles in how the 2024 race is run
- Hostages were carrying white flag on a stick when Israeli troops mistakenly shot them dead in Gaza, IDF says
- New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
- Bill Belichick ties worst season of coaching career with 11th loss as Patriots fall to Chiefs
- Ukraine councilor detonates grenades at meeting, wounding 26, in attack captured on video
- What does it take to get into an Ivy League college? For some students, a $750,000 consultant.
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- October 2023 in photos: USA TODAY's most memorable images
Ranking
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- Pakistan is stunned as party of imprisoned ex-PM Khan uses AI to replicate his voice for a speech
- Watch Tiger's priceless reaction to Charlie Woods' chip-in at the PNC Championship
- Love it or hate it, self-checkout is here to stay. But it’s going through a reckoning
- Bodycam footage shows high
- Berlin Zoo sends the first giant pandas born in Germany to China
- The Best Tech Gifts for Gamers That Will Level Up Their Gaming Arsenal
- Near-final results confirm populist victory in Serbia while the opposition claims fraud
Recommendation
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine’s soldiers as war with Russia grinds on
Whitney Cummings Gives Birth to Her First Baby
2024 MotorTrend Truck of the Year: The Chevrolet Colorado takes top honors
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
More than 300 rescued from floodwaters in northeast Australia
Charles M. Blow on reversing the Great Migration
Some experts push for transparency, open sourcing in AI development