Cutting the Flow: How DAPL is more than an Environmental Controversy
This article is from our archives, originally written on August 19th, 2020
In the realm of environmental activism, it is easy to read headlines about greenhouse gases and over-pollution with a narrow mindset and overlook the ways in which human lives are harmed. On August 5, 2020, a federal appeals court reversed a ruling made in July that ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to be shut down to undergo environmental review. The shutdown would have been a huge success in preventing high emissions and oil spills, as well as the health and safety of surrounding Native American communities. Since 2016, these communities have protested against DAPL because of the direct harm this infrastructure poses to their quality of life.
Source: Inside Energy
Environmental racism refers to the way that communities populated by people of color are disproportionately overburdened with hazards like pollution, toxic waste, and threats to natural resources. According to the Center for Sustainable Systems, people of color comprise approximately 56% of the population living close to TRI (Toxic Release Inventory) facilities. For example, in the US, Black communities bear 56% more pollution than they generate and Hispanic/Latinx communities bear 63% more pollution than they generate. In an interview with AJ+, Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Lower Sioux Dakota Nation and an environmental activist with the Indigenous Environmental Network, said:
“We have to continue to put pressure on [DAPL’s] parent company, Energy Transfer Partners, to stop putting our people at risk, to put Black and Brown and black communities in the line of more toxic pollution, death, and sickness.”
Native American communities have especially suffered, because environmental issues have intersected with racism since the colonization of North America. Both forms of racism amplify each other, creating a cycle that is impossible to solve without addressing both issues at once.
The reason for the now reversed DAPL shutdown was a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during construction. According to the appeals court, the reversal of the shutdown is due to the fact that the initial judge in charge "did not make the findings necessary for injunctive relief." This confusion is consistent with the pipeline’s controversial history. In 2016, Native American tribes from all over the country gathered in South Dakota to protest the pipeline that would run underneath the Missouri River. This river is the major water source for Native communities living on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Despite the protests, the pipeline was completed in April 2017.
“A significant factor of environmental racism is the power imbalance that places communities of color at a disadvantage and keeps them there.”
Depicted is a grassroots movement on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in April 2020, resisting the continued construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Source: Honor the Earth
From an economic perspective, the brief shutdown was a major inconvenience for DAPL’s parent company, Energy Transfer Partners. A significant factor of environmental racism is the power imbalance that places communities of color at a disadvantage and keeps them there. Energy Transfer Partners has ensured that the communities along their pipeline routes are either cooperative or underrepresented enough to take advantage of. In general, crude oil corporations in the US have worked with the government to override Native communities for centuries: from the intentional creation of reservations on unwanted land to mapping pipeline routes near these reservations. Energy Transfer Partners strategically mapped DAPL’s route underneath the Missouri River, just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Although the pipeline was not technically routed through reserve land, concerns about water safety remained. If there was an oil leak, it would travel downstream and contaminate the water that the Native communities relied on for drinking and agriculture. In this way corporations place all responsibility for the health and safety issues that they create on the Native communities while completely excluding them from the financial benefits. One method that corporations use to maintain power is to invest in “land buyouts” where the company offers to buy the plot of land on which it hopes to build but does not allow the Native community the long term financial benefit that a partnership and shared profit would.
In light of the reversal of the DAPL shutdown, it is important to recognize that environmental justice is far from being achieved. Even if the shutdown is once again implemented, DAPL would have to be emptied, a highly complicated process that further risks leaks in the oil extraction process. The best case scenario leaves Native communities using surface water from the Missouri River that continues to be at risk of contamination. For these reasons and more it will take years for Native communities to recover from the physical damage to their land and infrastructure, as well as the emotional trauma they have suffered at the hands of the military, police force, and corporate powers.
We live in a capitalistic society where everyday tasks like driving to work or eating at a restaurant require fossil fuels, the use of which is subjecting Native American and other BIPOC communities to deadly health consequences. Environmental racism is ingrained into our daily lives, making it difficult to find a solution or stand up to corporate powers. The Equitable & Just National Climate Platform is one outlet that raises awareness and advocates for change through their platform that “advances the goals of economic, racial, climate, and environmental justice to improve the public health and well-being of all communities, while tackling the climate crisis.” Activists have been fighting for climate reform for generations, and the knowledge that we are actively damaging our planet is not new. But we are no longer risking a warmer atmosphere that will be a problem in the long term, we are risking people’s lives today.