The Pipeline

[KEND]

An article in the New Yorker on the Pipeline. The behavior of the thugs opposing a peaceful demonstration seems more like that of the robber barons, union busters and pinkertons of the 19th century. The inaction of the government is a disgrace [apparently the president has more important things to think about like whether you stand for the national anthem], once again money talks

A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past
By Bill McKibben
, September 6, 2016
This week, thousands of Native Americans, from more than a hundred tribes, have camped out on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which straddles the border between the Dakotas, along the Missouri River. What began as a slow trickle of people a month ago is now an increasingly angry flood. They’re there to protest plans for a proposed oil pipeline that they say would contaminate the reservation’s water; in fact, they’re calling themselves protectors, not protesters.
Their foe, most directly, is the federal government, in particular the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has approved a path for the pipeline across the Missouri under a “fast track” option called Permit 12. That’s one reason the Dakota Access Pipeline, as it’s known, hasn’t received the attention that, say, the Keystone XL Pipeline did, even though the pipe is about the same length. Originally, the pipeline was supposed to cross the Missouri near Bismarck, but authorities worried that an oil spill there would have wrecked the state capital’s drinking water. So they moved the crossing to half a mile from the reservation, across land that was taken from the tribe in 1958, without their consent. The tribe says the government hasn’t done the required consultation with them—if it had, it would have learned that building the pipeline there would require digging up sacred spots and old burial grounds.
In fact, the blade of a bulldozer cut through some of those burial grounds on Saturday—during a holiday weekend, days before a federal judge is supposed to rule on an emergency petition filed by the tribe which would slow the project down, and immediately after the tribe identified the burial grounds’ locations in a filing to the court. The company building the pipe—Energy Transfer Partners—has already constructed more than half the pipeline, which, when completed, would stretch from Stanley, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Patoka, in southern Illinois. It apparently wanted to create facts on the ground in North Dakota—wanted to do so badly enough, it seems, that it was willing to employ a private security force, which used dogs to confront the Native Americans who tried to prevent the desecration of old graves. Tribal officials said that the dogs bit six protesters, including a small child. (The company did not respond to requests for comment, but had previously stated that demonstrators “attacked” their workers and the guard dogs. It has stressed in the past that it has been “constructing this pipeline in accordance with applicable laws, and the local, state and federal permits and approvals we have received.”)
Pictures from that confrontation recall pictures from Birmingham circa 1963. But the historical parallels here run much deeper—they run to the original sins of this nation. The reservation, of course, is where the Native Americans were told to live when the vast lands they ranged were taken by others. The Great Sioux Reservation, formed in the eighteen-sixties, shrunk again and again—in 1980, a federal court said, of the whole sad story, “a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” In the nineteen-fifties and early sixties, the Army Corps of Engineers—the same Army Corps now approving the pipeline—built five large dams along the Missouri, forcing Indian villages to relocate. More than two hundred thousand acres disappeared beneath the water.
Sioux history, and Native American history, is filled with one massacre and battle after another. Most of us have never heard of some of those encounters—the Whitestone, or Inyan Ska, massacre, for instance, not far from the present encampment, where at least three hundred Sioux lost their lives when Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked men, women, and children feasting after a buffalo hunt. Some we do remember, albeit differently: one man in the camp last week said it was the most diverse gathering of Native Americans “since the Battle of Greasy Grass,” known to the white world as Little Bighorn. In other words, America’s shameful history with its native inhabitants is echoing across these riverbanks this late summer.
“The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas,” LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, whose great-great grandmother survived the Whitestone Massacre, wrote this week. “And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people. These sites must be protected, or our world will end, it is that simple. Our young people have a right to know who they are. They have a right to language, to culture, to tradition. The way they learn these things is through connection to our lands and our history.”
The protests have been peaceful and nonviolent. (Some members of the climate advocacy group 350.org, which I founded, are working at the Dakota camp in supporting roles.) And yet the local sheriff told reporters that he’d heard rumors of pipe bombs; it turned out he’d heard rumors about ceremonial peace pipes. After Saturday’s encounter with the guard dogs, the same sheriff said that security personnel were reacting to demonstrators who had “crossed on to private property” and attacked them with “flag poles.” He did not respond to requests for further comment.
Young people on the reservation organized a run across the country this summer to deliver more than a hundred thousand petition signatures to the President asking him to stop the pipeline. They weren’t received at the White House—disappointing, since Obama had actually visited the reservation in 2014. “My Administration is determined to partner with tribes,” he told them then, but so far he’s made no public statement on the Dakota Access pipeline.
All of which is sad, because this case offers the U.S. government the chance to make at least small amends for some of the darkest parts of its official history—to demonstrate that it has absorbed at least a few small lessons from that past.
The events at Standing Rock also allow Americans to realize who some of the nation’s most important leaders really are. The fight for environmental sanity—against pipelines and coal ports and other fossil-fuel infrastructure—has increasingly been led by Native Americans, many of whom are in that Dakota camp today. They speak with real authority—no one else has lived on this continent for the longterm. They see the nation’s history more clearly than anyone else, and its possible future as well. For once, after all these centuries, it’s time to look through their eyes. History offers us no chances to completely erase our mistakes. Occasionally, though, we do get a chance to show we learned something.
Bill McKibben, a former New Yorker staff writer, is the founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org and the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College.

[Steve James]

It's the Dakota governor who should act in a State matter. Afa the pipeline, money has always talked when it comes to Indian lands. And, the environmental effect of the pipeline will be scoffed at in Congress.

[Taste of Death]

While in Laos the President had this to say about the situation in ND

Malaysian woman: "My question is: In your capacity, what can you do to ensure the protection of the ancestral land, the supply of clean water and also environmental justice is upheld?"

President Barack Obama: "Well, it’s a great question. As many of you know, the way that Native Americans were treated was tragic. And one of the priorities that I’ve had as president is restoring an honest and generous and respectful relationship with Native American tribes. I can’t give you details on this particular case. I’d have to go back to my staff and find out how are we doing on this one."

How are we doing? Does he not read the same newspapers Bush did not read?

[Steve James]

Latest news:

The Obama Administration Temporarily Blocks the Dakota Access Pipeline

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the hundreds of Native protestors who have joined them in rural North Dakota won a huge but provisional victory in their quest to stop the Dakota Access pipeline, as the U.S. government announced late on Friday afternoon that it was voluntarily halting work on the project.

The triumph tasted all the sweeter because it had followed so closely after a seemingly immense defeat. Mere minutes after a federal judge declined the Tribe’s request for an injunction to stop construction on the pipeline, the Obama administration made a surprise announcement that it would not permit the project to continue for now.

“Construction of the pipeline on Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe will not go forward at this time,” said a joint statement from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army. “We request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.”

The Army will now move to “reconsider any of its previous decisions” regarding whether the pipeline respects federal law, especially the National Environmental Policy Act, the statement said.

The Obama administration also announced that it will invite tribes to formal consultations this fall about whether any federal rules around national infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access pipeline should be reformed in order to protect tribal resources and rights. It will also consider whether new laws should be proposed to Congress.

As planned, the Dakota Access pipeline would run 1,100 miles from oil fields in northwest North Dakota to a refinery and port in Illinois. Hundreds of people, many of them from Native communities or nations, have gathered on tribal land near the Missouri River since April to protest the pipeline’s construction. The camps are one of the largest Native protests in decades.

In July, the Standing Rock Tribe sued the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency which approved the pipeline. The tribe claimed that the pipeline’s construction would destroy nearby sacred and burial sites, and that, if the pipeline ever leaked or failed, it would pollute the tribe’s drinking water. It sought a temporary injunction to halt its construction. I wrote about the tribe’s case this week.

On Friday, the court declined that injunction request with a 58-page ruling. (The Department of Justice, apparently waiting for the decision, issued its own statement blocking the pipeline minutes later.)

The judge, James Boasberg of the D.C. district court, said that the Army Corps had sufficiently followed federal law in approving the pipeline. The tribe’s claims that the pipeline crossed archeological sites were moot, since most of those sites were on private property, he said. And he seemed to lament that the injunction was sought under the National Historic Preservation Act and not the Clean Water Act, where he hinted that the tribe would have had sturdier standing.

“This Court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux,” wrote Boasberg. “Aware of the indignities visited upon the Tribe over the last centuries, the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.”

Of course, all this will change now that the executive has stepped in. “This federal statement is a game changer for the Tribe and we are acting immediately on our legal options, including filing an appeal and a temporary injunction to force DAPL to stop construction,” said a statement from the Standing Rock Sioux on Facebook.

While the government’s block is temporary, the pipeline’s future now looks much more uncertain than it did hours ago. Most of the pipeline will be built on private land owned by Energy Transfer Partners, but it still needs Army Corps approval to cross federal waterways. Given the outcry from climate activists, the Obama administration may be more willing to cancel the pipeline’s federal permits, as it did with the Keystone XL pipeline last year.

I found it particularly interesting that the administration’s statement called out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That law requires federal agencies to account for environmental risks and hazards when they approve a project. Earlier this year, President Obama decreed that the NEPA process should account for the costs of greenhouse gas emissions—a potential opening for federal agencies to obstruct a huge fossil-fuel infrastructure project like Dakota Access.

Regardless, Dakota Access looks like a tentative success for Native protestors and the climate activists who supported them. It also hints at how actively the current Democratic administration will involve itself in environmental issues, especially when pushed by the climate movement.

“In recent days, we have seen thousands of demonstrators come together peacefully, with support from scores of sovereign tribal governments, to exercise their First Amendment rights and to voice heartfelt concerns about the environment and historic, sacred sites,” said the joint statement. “It is now incumbent on all of us to develop a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.”

[KEND]

It appears that the government does little until it is called out.If I remember correctly the halting of the project was by a local federal judge rather than the DOJ. The tribal land argument is important but much more important is the effect of a spill on the water supply of the nation. Below is one such incident

CALGARY — A pipeline leak has spilled an estimated 380,000 litres of light petroleum within five kilometres of a provincially designated grizzly bear management zone in northwestern Alberta, and an undetermined amount of it has reached a nearby creek.
Producer ConocoPhillips Canada said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday that the leak of condensate, a liquid produced with natural gas, was seen at a pipeline right-of-way near its Resthaven gas plant about 65 kilometres northeast of Grande Cache last Thursday afternoon. It said its staff also observed condensate in nearby Webb Creek

[Steve James]

Well, ok, the "gov't" doesn't really care about the environment or the ecology. Of course, the parts of the gov't that deny human-caused climate change, reject taxing carbon emissions, promise to encourage pipelines and fracking, and want to do away with the EPA are the problem.

But, fwiw, I think it's just as important --especially to the Dakota people-- that their sacred sites and burial places are not sacrificed so that oil companies can prosper. That is a continuing insult to them. And, yeah, I blame "the gov't" of today and of always, frankly. The gov't merely represents the people, and often they think they can do whatever they want.

[Steve James]

More oopsies ...

Contaminated water seeps into Florida aquifer after giant sinkhole opens at Mosaic fertilizer plant

A massive sinkhole opened at a Florida fertilizer plant and crews are urgently working to stop the flow of contaminated waste water into an aquifer.

The incident occurred at the Mosaic Company's New Wells plant in Mulberry, Florida, located about 45 minutes east of Tampa.

The sinkhole was first discovered on Aug. 27 when water loss was detected from one of Mosaic's phosphogypsum stacks. The water level decline was soon reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Mosaic said the sinkhole is approximately 45 feet in diameter and reaches the Floridan aquifer. The depth of the sinkhole is unknown.

Mosaic is one of the world's leading producers of concentrated phosphate. Phosphogympsum is a byproduct of the fertilizer manufacturing process.

Officials told WPTV in West Palm Beach that over 215 million gallons of contaminated water has drained into the sinkhole. The company said extensive groundwater monitoring has found no offsite impacts thus far.

"While to date there is no evidence of offsite movement or threat to offsite groundwater supplies, in an abundance of caution, FDEP is coordinating with Mosaic to reach out to the nearest adjacent homeowners who may want testing for their drinking water wells," FDEP spokesperson Dee Ann Miller told AccuWeather.

While the process water is being successfully contained, groundwater monitoring will continue to ensure that there are no offsite or long-term effects, Miller added.

The process of water recovery is being done by pumping through onsite production wells.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/contam ... li=BBnb7Kz

Georgia declares state of emergency after Alabama pipeline spill

September 16, 2016

ATLANTA – Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has issued a State of Emergency following the rupture of a gas pipeline in Alabama which spilled 250,000 gallons of gasoline.

The pipeline operator, Colonial Pipeline, released the following information about the spill Thursday afternoon:

“Based on current projections and consultations with industry partners, parts of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina will be the first markets to be impacted by any potential disruption in supply.”

“Colonial has briefed officials in these states and will continue to provide timely information to the public so that they can plan accordingly.”

The rupture happened south of Birmingham and has shut down a major pipeline connecting refineries in Houston with the rest of the country.

Deal’s declaration will suspend commercial driving limits in an effort to combat the possibility of rising gas prices due to the spill. A similar State of Emergency declaration was issued in Alabama.

Read the State of Emergency declaration here.

Read the original version of this article, on valdostatoday.com.

http://valdostatoday.com/wp-content/upl ... .16.01.pdf

[Steve James]

We don't need no EPA.

A Florida company kept a dangerous secret from the public for three weeks: A massive sinkhole had leaked at least 215 million gallons of radioactive water into an aquifer.

The mining company said workers first noticed it around the end of August, but didn't tell anyone because they found "no risk to the public."

And the sinkhole seems to be draining into an aquifer that provides drinking water to millions of people. It also feeds water into springs used for recreational activites.

http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09 ... /21473956/

[KEND]

Meanwhile back at the ranch
A break in a natural gas pipe would probably create a large explosion rather than polluting the local water but this government has shown the same pro corporation bias that has permeated all administrations Republicans or Democrats, no good guys or bad guys just bought guys
OBAMA APPROVES TWO NEW PIPELINES
Tom Cahill | September 22, 2016
While the U.S. Department of Justice temporarily halted construction of a section of the Dakota Access Pipeline, two other pipelines are moving forward.
In May, the Obama administration granted the permits for both the Trans-Pecos and Comanche Trail pipelines, and while construction has not yet begun on the pipelines, implementation plans for the building of the pipelines is well underway.
Earlier this week, DeSmogBlog investigative reporter Steve Horn highlighted the approval and pending construction of both pipelines, as well as their significant impact on local water supplies and indigenous territory. As Horn wrote, the Trans-Pecos pipeline will carry natural gas extracted from the Permian Basin in West Texas, and transport it across international borders to Mexico.
According to the Texas Tribune, the 42-inch-wide Trans-Pecos Pipeline will carry 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas every day under the Rio Grande River. Should a leak or spill occur, the effects could be felt in both Texas and Mexico. The Comanche Trail pipeline, which is also 42-inches, will carry gas from the Waha Hub in the Northern part of Pecos County, Texas, to San Elizario, Texas, where it will then be carried across the United States/Mexico border.
“[The] Trans-Pecos and Comanche go through the Big Bend area, a rural area containing mountains, desert, and ranch land. Most importantly, they link to a massive set of pipelines in Mexico that are in the process of being built and it’s a bit difficult to say what the impacts of land/spills would be there,” Horn told US Uncut. “What sorts of environmental/ecological reviews are being done in Mexico? What are the potential risks of spills there and would we even hear about them if they took place?”
However, Horn says the “elephant in the room” on assessing environmental impact is the fracking being done to take natural gas out of Texas’ Permian Basin.“With temperature records being broken left and right, that’s what the conversation should really center around,” Horn said. According to the latest status report filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier this month by pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners (the company also building the Dakota Access Pipeline), construction has not yet begun. However, because the pipeline has already been granted approval by both the United States and Mexican governments, Horn says the only recourse left for activists is civil disobedience.“Dakota Access, and everything that preceded the now-ongoing civil disobedience and largest convening of Native American tribes in modern history, shows the regulatory system is designed as a corporate rubber-stamp process,” Horn said. “The courts are happy to ratify rulings based on laws written by and for Corporate America.” Horn credited the Native American tribes chaining their bodies to pipeline construction equipment in North Dakota with the Obama administration’s recent call to temporarily halt Dakota Access Pipeline construction near the Missouri River.
“[Civil disobedience] might be the only option left given how much the deck is stacked in for powerful big business interests in the US regulatory and legislative system.”
Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at [email protected], or

[KEND]

Looks like they are creating a very dangerous situation, guns, riot police, the whole nine yards. To quote the Nobel Laureate
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

[Dajenarit]

Speaking of pipes....

The Real Reason We're In Syria Is Enraging But Not Surprising

[yeniseri]

Speaking of pipes....

The Real Reason We're In Syria Is Enraging But Not Surprising

History will always repeat itself if we refuse to acknowledge truth.
When Ronald Reagan had talks with the Taliban, many refuse to believe this happened despite evidence to the contrary. Not only that, when they did not give permission for a 'pipeline', US invaded Afghanistan aided by their ally at the time BinLadin and it was a hugfest until they refused to go along with US policies. Same With Iraq where US thought the oilfields were a steal. We never learn

[origami_itto]

Looks like they are creating a very dangerous situation, guns, riot police, the whole nine yards. To quote the Nobel Laureate
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

I got a little teary eyed over this.
http://usuncut.com/resistance/thousands-wild-buffalo-appear-nowhere-standing-rock/

[KEND]

Two more significant items

PORTLAND, Ore. — Armed antigovernment protesters led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted Thursday of federal conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the takeover of a federally owned wildlife sanctuary in Oregon last winter.
They are being compared to the Dakota protesters--you've got to be kidding

GENEVA (KFGO) - The United Nations is getting involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy.
A UN Special Envoy for Indigenous Peoples is formally asking the United States to halt construction on the four-state pipeline.
The UN's Victoria Tauli-Corpuz says the pipeline "poses a significant risk to the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe." In a written statement, the envoy says the tribe was denied access to information and excluded from consultations.
Tauli-Corpuz says the federal government should "undertake a thorough review of compliance with international standards" and obtain the tribe's "free and informed consent."[i]The envoy also claims that peaceful pipeline protesters have been “reportedly intimidated, harassed and prosecuted.”
The UN is so often a platform for the big government, this time they got it right, protecting the weak from the rapacious strong. Obama released a whole bunch of prisoners in jail on drug charges, probably justifiably so, how come the government has been largely hands off in this case, maybe something to do with big dollars supporting Hilary [surprised trump hasn't latched on to it and put on warpaint]

[Dajenarit]