Engineering news
Methods to access fossil fuels have increasingly stirred controversies over the past decade. The energy industry has been faced with voices of discord over practices such as fracking, and what ominous consequences it brings to the environment. This matter was brought to a crescendo in America at Standing Rock, where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was planned for construction. After months of battle between First Nations tribes and the state, the US Army Corps of Engineers ordered to reroute DAPL.
The DAPL was a pipeline that was meant to span 1,172 miles and four states from North Dakota to Iowa, and carry 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day, costing $3.78 billion. The pipeline was being built by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), and once they received approval from all four states earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency requested the US Army Corps of Engineers to carry out an environmental assessment at the site, since it is the governing body overseeing the construction.
Once the US Army Corps of Engineers gave the green light for construction, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe began their protests and marches on the site, as their reservation lies 0.5 miles south of the proposed crossing. Construction of the pipeline would invade sacred land, and if the pipeline were to leak or burst, would contaminate their only source of water and pollute their reservation.
These concerns are not mere paranoia. More than 3,300 incidents of pipeline leakage have been reported in the US since 2010, more than 1,000 of them have involved crude oil. This has resulted in 80 casualties, 389 injuries and allegedly cost $2.8 billion in damages. According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, these spills released more than seven million gallons of toxic chemicals into the surroundings. In fact, one of the biggest spills happened as recently as 2013 in North Dakota, the location of the current strife, where more than 840,000 gallons of crude oil leaked when lightning struck a pipeline.
In June 2015, a pipeline fire in Cuero, Texas resulted in 165,732 pounds of volatile organic compounds being released into the environment.
Sunoco Logistics, one of the biggest oil pipeline operators in the US that is involved in DAPL, has been responsible for more than 200 leaks in the country since 2010, according to Reuters.
Alternative methods to transport crude oil have been suggested, the option at the forefront is fuel by train. Although this substitute might be welcomed by the rail industry, it does not come without its own menaces. These trains are prone to fatal explosions, one of the biggest examples being an unsupervised crude oil train in Quebec that exploded and killed 47 people in their sleep in 2013. Just as recently as last year, another such train exploded in Heimdal, North Dakota.
Earlier this month, the US Army released a statement announcing that the construction of DAPL would be halted and alternative routes would be explored to ensure environmental safety.
Jo-Ellen Darcy, the army’s assistant secretary for civil works, said: "Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it's clear that there's more work to do. The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."
However, this was not taken sitting down by ETP, as the company released a sharply-worded statement of its own. The company described the decision by the Corps as “just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favour of currying favour with a narrow and extreme political constituency.”
The statement also emphasised that ETP has in no way diverted its intention to build the pipeline on the proposed crossing and will continue to press the process forward.
It remains to be seen if this decision is fulfilled once Donald Trump takes office, who has shares in ETP and has spoken about DAPL favourably in the past. Standing Rock may become the epicentre on the discourse surrounding ethical and environmental implications about fossil fuel in recent history.