Big Sioux Pollution

Many would not believe that North Dakota has some serious environmental concerns, at least I did not. I always thought of North Dakota as a stable and somewhat of a quiet state. After doing some extensive research, I found that North Dakota has environmental concerns with terrestrial, atmospheric, and aquatic ecosystems. As for aquatic ecosystems, the main damage has been done through haphazard artificial drainage, excessive water diversions, and improper disposal of industrial waste. Impact to terrestrial ecosystems is caused by the constant industrial and residential work sectors as well as the mechanical destruction of plant communities. Lastly, atmospheric issues can be pointed to blowing soil and improper pesticide application. As we

As professor Ferguson related “Six months ago the Dakota Access Pipeline was provided a permit for the construction to begin. For six months or so there has been development of this pipeline. Now, enter the Standing Rock Sioux, which are one of the Sioux nations, a sovereign indigenous tribe who has historically experienced loss of land and tree rights and been prevalent in this area. Many of them have been pushed into these certain areas called reservations were the last remnants of land were provided, this history is important. The broken promise of the government and other parties that promised that things would be okay has been long standing.” For the standing Rock Sioux they see the pipeline going through the Missouri River as creating problems with water access for the tribe, change in the water environment and a threat to their access to water quality. Secondly, the pipeline itself is also going to upset and encroach upon Native American burial sights and artifact sights that have existed for years untouched until there was a change in the interest regarding oil. This pipeline has threatened these rights for the Standing Rock Sioux. As a Sovereign Nation, they see this change fueled by national and corporate interest as a direct threat to their nationhood because access to water is key to survival. Professor Ferguson also emphasized that “There is also a larger story, and it comes from the call for all for the great Sioux Nation and all indigenous people to come and gather in protest against the pipeline. These protest then have larger meaning because they address the threat to indigenous people around the world and not just in the united states” because often times the narrative of losses for indigenous people around the world are a very similar

The North Dakota Access Pipeline will span from the Bakken, North Dakota to southern Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux reservation opposes the pipeline because they believe that it goes through sacred land. The Sioux tribe also opposes the pipeline because it will cross the Missouri River twice, which is the reservations main water source. They believe that the pipeline may contaminate the Missouri River, but the pipeline company claims that the pipeline is the safest method to transfer the oil. I believe that this is a tough topic to form an opinion on, but I will hopefully explain my stance on this issue throughout this essay.

I conducted a survey of Pulaski county residents to get their opinion about the Pulaski county water supply. The purpose of the survey is to get others viewpoint of Pulaski County drinking water so that we can improve our waters system. In the Article “Arkansas Rivers is Too Polluted to Touch” written on April 24, 2000, it states “The river is fairly clean as it flows into Wichita, but by the time it leaves the city, the water is so dirty it is not safe for wading, fishing and touching, said Tom Stiles, chief of the office of planning and prevention at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The river also is not safe for canoeing, kayaking or water skiing.” Have Arkansas Rivers improved within 14 years? This question will help us to see how far Arkansas Rivers have come since the year 2000. According to Carl Safina in “Song for the Blue Ocean” he discussed how pollution can interfere with not only wildlife and aquatic animals, but humans as well. Pollution can get into our water system causing bacteria and diseases. These waters are the same that runs in our faucets and pipelines. I will discuss resent studies of central Arkansas water quality later in the survey report.

For starters, the dam’s vast reservoir destroys Native American communities, inundate sacred fishing spots and ancestral burial grounds, and erect an impenetrable barrier denying salmon access to their spawning grounds (American Experience, n.d.). This was a problem because the U.S. had no formal process for involving Native American tribes in Grand Coulee Dam decisions; this included the taking of reservation lands (Ortolano & Cushing 2000).

In the spring of 2016, an environmental movement began in North Dakota that today, is making history. In Cannonball, North Dakota, Native Americans have gathered to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline; resulting in one the largest gatherings of Native Americans from multiple tribes the United States has witnessed in over a century (Northcott, 2016). One tribe in particular, the North Dakota Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have been leading and organizing the protest against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock reservation is located in the Sioux and Ziebach counties within the North Dakota and South Dakota border; the Sioux people are the primary tribe of the area. According to Trymaine Lee of MSNBC, the counties are a part of the top 10 poorest counties in the country, and that it has a history with water distresses. In the early 1960s, five dams located at Lake Oahe in Standing Rock gave way and flooded 200,000+ acres, destroying nearly all natural resources and wildlife at the river bottom, as well as destroying towns within the reservation and sacred ancestral lands and sites. This was a devastating tragedy for the people of Standing Rock, and it seems that history is repeating itself with the proposed construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline poses many hazardous threats, and these threats outweigh any economic benefit the proponents may promise. It threatens the environment, water supplies, historical land, and only adds to the

Already at 95% completion, the pipeline is scheduled to cross the Missouri River a mere 10 miles upstream from Standing Rock Reservation. The most urgent of the threats this pipeline proposes is the threat of contamination of the Missouri River, a crucial water source to both the Dakotas, particularly the Sioux nation tribes, for whom this river is their only source of water for drinking, irrigation, and fish. The pipeline was originally routed to cross the Missouri River further north, 10 miles upstream from the State’s Capital, Bismarck. However, after a study was conducted about the potential impact of pipeline spills, given the proximity to wellheads serving as the City’s source of drinking water, the route was rejected and moved to Standing Rock. Oil spills are the greatest environmental concern when considering the pipeline’s potential harm. North Dakota has experienced 292 oil spills in the last two years alone, despite those companies who own the various pipelines ensuring that spills are a rarity, citing “safeguards” that prevent them. The reality is that oil spills are a frequent occurrence when transporting oil for thousands of miles, so the matter of oil spills is not a question of if, but rather when, and how many(Mckenna). Of all the nearly 300 spills that occurred in North Dakota

The amount of pollution that has spilled is three times more than was previously reported (Garrison, 2015). As of August 10th, the mine was still discharging 500 gallons a minute into the Animus River. The EPA administrator Shaun McGrath has stated that the EPA has contained the rest of the spill in two ponds near the spill site and they are treating it (Garrison, 2015). Another group of people affected by the spill is the Navajo Nation, and the Navajo Nation commission has declared a state of emergency. The Nation is 27,000 square miles and has been considered to be the size of some of the smaller states like West Virginia. Navajo Nation president Russel Begaye has asked an attorney to look into filing a lawsuit against the EPA (Garrison, 2015). Russel has also stated his dissatisfaction with the EPA’s handling of this disaster, along with not being clear about exactly what toxins have been released into the river. The people of the Nation are concerned about the water quality and how it will affect drinking water, cattle, and crops. The EPA seems to have made quite a few mistakes in dealing with this spill; New Mexico’s Governor Martinez says that she did not even find out about the spill from the EPA. She received the information from tribal officials in Southern Ute (Garrison,

In other words, the Sioux tribe and other are concern that a disaster could occur and damage their lives, lands, and their daily source. In this case, the pipelines will go across many private lands and will cross several times across the Missouri river which is the main source not only for natives but for many other families who give a great use of the river water. One tiny spill of this liquid on land or water will mean a disaster such contamination of the river water that is used as sustainable water for these tribes and wildlife. That same water had been used to supply their own needs. Another key point, even if there is not a spill of this substance, there are other severe consequences that could mean a disaster such ruining the land by warming it and ruining the productivity of

In spite of the fact that the earth is their home, they treat its streams and rivers as a sewer for their own personal gain. USS-Clairton Works Iron and Steel Mill, for example, dumped a reported 2,213,136 pounds of toxic chemicals into the Lower Monongahela River. This pollution will adversely affect the environment for years to come, even if we do our best to remove the chemicals. Studies have shown that most pollution incidents are due to negligence and bad practice. Obviously, this means that the pollution could have been avoided if these companies strictly adhered to a comprehensive pollution prevention program. Certainly there are a number of companies who have such a program in place and are committed to limiting their pollution, but the vast majority do not. As a result, the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory 2012 shows that various watershed regions in Pennsylvania are ranked among the top twenty most polluted in the United States.

Over the last two years, I have noticed the pollution in and around the Duck River banks. People have thrown all kinds of trash in the river such as: bags, beer bottles, cans, sacks,

If the North Dakota pipeline continues to be built, will it have a negative ecological impact? A part of the pipeline is routed to be underneath a part of the Missouri river known as Lake Oahe, the Standing Rock Indian Reservation’s main water supply. If the pipeline were to leak it would contaminated the river and surrounding areas. Pipes will eventually leak; the Dakota Access pipeline should not be built so close to bodies of water of any kind.

The Government is not going to listen to the Indians, because of their skin but before they decided to move it by the reservation, it was in North Dakota but the landowners were complaining on how it could spill on their land. They move it to the Sioux Falls where the reservation is, they put it right there because they know that the Indians cannot do nothing about it. Another thing is that the government do not that they digging in their ancestors graves and are ruining their ancestral

It poisoned all of the wild life so hunting, fishing, and gathering were all no longer possible (Johansen, 1993). In some places the water was not even safe to drink. Despite major cleanup efforts to replace contaminated soils and dredge parts of the St. Lawrence River, much of the area still remains so toxic that crops cannot be grown and fishing is prohibited (LaDuke 1994). Today, the Mohawk people are trying to battle this issue, even though they have no money to do it with. “The next ten years will be a cleanup time for us, even without the resources.” said Henry Lickers, a Seneca employed by the Mohawk Council (Johansen 1993). Lickers has played a major role in educating younger environmentalists in the area because he knows that just cleaning up the pollution is not a permanent solution; they need a way to prevent it from happening in the future and the best way to do that is by educating the next generation. Lickers also believes that the rise in high-stakes gambling and smuggling on the reservation is due to the destruction of the environment (Johansen 1993). This makes sense because the people of the reservation have no make of making a living anywhere on the reservation. On the plus side however, to help come up with more money for the cleanup, the Mohawk tribe has just recently established a trust fund to help monitor the cleanup (Piche

When offered financial compensation for land used for the pipeline, tribal leaders refused outright. If an agreement is going to be made that satisfies both parties, each will have find the middle ground in certain areas. After the initial Environmental Impact Statement, Energy Transfer Partners agreed to lower the depth that the pipeline runs under Lake Oahe to double the originally planned depth. If Energy Transfer Partners are willing to make changes to their plans, then the Sioux should also. It is understandable that the Sioux refused, as they see the land as their own and do not think that they should be required to make exceptions for corporations to build on it. However, one must acknowledge the realities of the world we live in today and accept that certain projects are going to continue whether the tribe like it or not, so they might as well attempt to get the best deal that they