Blog #3: The Legal Battle
Shortly after the first DAPL route was proposed, and before Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) had even applied for permits from the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) were voicing their objections and conveying their concerns directly to both parties. Over the course of the permitting process, SRST attempted to reach out and communicate their stance on numerous occasions, both in meetings and in letters. Despite these consistent objections, ETP went right ahead with their proposal, resulting in the release of a draft environmental assessment (EA) in December 2015. According to the SRST, the draft EA was deeply flawed, for it contained no mention of the potential impacts on subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering in the Lake Oahe area, nor did it provide an assessment of the risk of oil spills. In fact, the EA failed to mention the existence of the SRST at all, and did not include the reservation on maps of the site, even though