On Dec. 4, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would not allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, North Dakota, half a mile above the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and the site of months of contentious protests, the New York Times reported.
“The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing,” said Army assistant secretary for civil works, Jo-Ellen Darcy, in a statement.
This decision comes one day before the Corp had planned to evict protesters from the Oceti Sakowin camp, which had been populated by “water protectors” for months. While the Dakota Access company had said the pipeline’s safety is assured, concerns over potential spills leading to water contamination and disrupting of sacred sites spurred the protests and the Standing Rock Sioux’s legal defense to move to stop the pipeline’s construction.
Contact CU Independent News Reporter and Assistant Visuals Editor Jackson Barnett at jackson.barnett@colorado.edu.
