Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

The Dako­ta Access Pipeline (DAPL) is an under­ground crude oil pipeline. About 1,172 miles long, it begins from Bakken, North Dako­ta, and stretch­es out to Pako­ta, Illi­nois. It’s owned by Dako­ta Access LLC, which is con­trolled by Ener­gy Trans­port Part­ners. Phillips 66 and affil­i­ates of Enbridge and Marathon Petro­le­um also share some inter­ests. The plan­ning of the project start­ed in 2014, with con­struc­tion begin­ning in March 2016. How­ev­er, it was sus­pend­ed in late 2016 due to protests, not only from native tribes but also from envi­ron­men­tal­ists and cli­mate change activists globally. 

North Dakota’s Bakken For­ma­tion has huge oil poten­tial, and it’s one of the largest oil sources in the U.S. Illi­nois is famous for its nuclear pow­er and coal indus­try, but its nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion is min­i­mal, and it heav­i­ly depends on out­side sources. If the pipeline con­nect­ing North Dako­ta and Pato­ka, Illi­nois is built, it could car­ry almost half a mil­lion bar­rels of light crude oil dai­ly. Com­pared to rail­ways and ships, the pipeline is pre­sumed to be the safest and most effi­cient way to trans­port oil, which is a ben­e­fit for mar­ket stake­hold­ers. The project could also cre­ate thou­sands of con­struc­tion jobs and some per­ma­nent jobs. 

Even with such a seem­ing­ly huge ben­e­fit, DAPL still suf­fers crit­i­cism and oppo­si­tion. There are seri­ous con­cerns over soil and water pol­lu­tion, espe­cial­ly since the pipeline would cov­er a large dis­tance. If the pipeline leaks, it might affect acres of land and drink­ing water sources. Fur­ther­more, the Ener­gy Trans­port Part­ners already have a bad rep­u­ta­tion due to sev­er­al oth­er projects that faced poor out­comes. Addi­tion­al­ly, some research has shown that the num­ber of jobs to be cre­at­ed by the pipeline may be an exaggeration. 

The largest con­flict is between the com­pa­ny stake­hold­ers and the local tribes, the Stand­ing Rock Sioux and the Cheyenne Riv­er Sioux. The tribes claim the pipeline would cross their sacred land and pol­lute their water sup­ply. Accord­ing to law, the tribes have the right to be con­sult­ed first if any­thing is to be built on their land. The orig­i­nal route was not sup­posed to cross through trib­al land, instead cut­ting through a pre­dom­i­nant­ly white dis­trict. This has led to claims of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and envi­ron­men­tal injustice. 

After a nation­wide debate in 2016, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma announced that the pipeline’s con­struc­tion was to be delayed and a new route for the project was to be con­sid­ered. In 2017 under Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, a pres­i­den­tial mem­o­ran­dum was signed giv­ing con­struc­tion approval, and the pipeline is now com­plet­ed and operational.

CEE sub­jects: Con­struc­tion Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment, Envi­ron­men­tal Engi­neer­ing, Envi­ron­men­tal Justice

• Should the pipeline be built? What is more impor­tant, eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits or social/environmental concerns?
• What will be the con­se­quences if the pipeline does leak gas­es? What would the solutions/course of action be for that mishap?
• Do you think the pipeline’s con­struc­tion has any­thing to do with envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice? If so, why? If not, why?

• Pipeline offi­cial website
  • Dako­ta Access Pipeline
  • US Army Corps of Engineers
• Peer reviewed articles 
  • The Dako­ta Access Pipeline, Envi­ron­men­tal Injus­tice, and U.S. Colonialism
  • The Dako­ta Access Pipeline and the Break­down of Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Process­es in Envi­ron­men­tal Decision-Making
• Pop­u­lar media/news references (
  • The Dako­ta Access Pipeline’s Reser­va­tion Reroute: The Dai­ly Show
  • Key­stone XL and Dako­ta Access pipelines con­tro­ver­sy explained
  • Meskwa­ki tribe oppos­es Bakken oil pipeline through Iowa
  • Five things to know about the North Dako­ta Access Pipeline debate
• Books/memoirs 
  • “Our His­to­ry Is the Future: Stand­ing Rock Ver­sus the Dako­ta Access Pipeline” by Nick Estes