Am betting any ocean-going vessel has more leaks of sewage, fuel and residue than those reported volumes, so why does the judge not just deem them all not to operate?
Yeah, let's shut down everything that spills fuel in small quantities.
Would be like shutting down for a wannabe virus epidemic.
According to Science Direct,
The average yearly petroleum spills into North American waters is about 260,000 tons, and annual worldwide estimates of petroleum input to the sea exceed 1,300,000 tons (NRC, 2002).
Note how the numbers are minimized somewhat by being referred to in tons (a standard reference, like barrels in the oil patch), but that is 78,520,000 gallons (crude conversion factor of 302 gallons per ton for diesel fuel) --or over 1,869,000 barrels of fuel oil dumped into coastal waterways annually, just so we can compare barrels to barrels.
Consider that the press on the coasts was giving a distorted account of the 'Evil' Pipeline, the 'saintly' protests, and various and sundry evils of anything and everything associated with "fracking" (which they obviously had absolutely no knowledge of, especially as evidenced by their constant confusion over what constituted an "oil rig"--evidenced by pictures of everything from pump jacks to workover rigs to drilling rigs, all called "fracking rigs" in the captions).
Of course, the liberal media was having a field day giving lurid and fictitious accounts of how "Evil Big Oil" was tearing willy-nilly through the countryside, destroying native shrines and rototilling burial grounds in their quest for destroying the planet with a pipeline that leaked like a soaker hose.
All WRONG, of course, but since when has the truth stood in the way of Coastal publications sensationalizing anything and everything about the lives of those who live and work in the area between the Mississippi River and the Rockies for fun and profit?
The oil spilled in parking lots, dripped at the gas pumps, blown out vents in transmissions and differentials, and working its way around the seals in drive lines and power steering units across America has been estimated to be 180 Million gallons (90,000,000 barrels) a year, not contained by berms or impermeable location pads, spills and contaminated material to be removed and remediated by law, but instead, sluicing down into storm sewers and into waterways unimpeded by so much as a sediment dam on the way off the highways and parking lots.
Compare that to the 289 gallons of crude oil leaked over a 1000 mile plus pipeline which has already handled over 20.3 BILLION gallons of crude oil (483,630,000 barrels). Consider that only 21 gallons (1/2 barrel) of crude were spilled since the pipeline went into full operation, and that some of that was a direct result of sabotage by "environmentalists".
A study of the route of the pipeline indicates many small scale zigs and zags in the route, alternates taken for the express purpose of avoiding disturbing cultural sites. A chip of flint is enough, if it appears to be man made, to denote a "cultural site"--that's a pretty low bar. But archaeologists were working along the route, to identify such in time to make those adjustments.
As for disturbing human remains, well, no. Even 'nonbelievers' tend to leave graves alone out of nagging superstition of somehow being cursed for disturbing the rest of the dead, a concept heavily ingrained in our culture. In the century (and then some) since the reservation boundaries were settled, if my ancestors were buried outside of that area, I would make it a priority to control that land, through purchase, agreement, or decree by lawful agencies. Any ground considered 'sacred' would have been under direct Tribal control long ago.
Of course, there is the claim that Tribal Land is 'threatened' by the presence of a pipe in the ground that does not cross Tribal Land. The line was re-routed to avoid Tribal Land, as I understand it, after a deal with the Tribe for a Right-of-Way easement fell through, when, allegedly, the tribe suddenly tripled their asking price, after an amount had already been agreed upon. The response to that sudden increase was a cost benefit analysis which found it to be cheaper to just go around the Reservation.
The protests started not long after that, and went viral, driven by the press releases of various environmental groups which publicized the protest on line, claiming some sort of moral high ground, while destroying property, blocking roads, mutilating livestock, terrorizing residents, and generally causing more pollution than the pipeline construction ever would, aided by not being directly subject to the same laws and standards imposed on a commercial entity by the Obama Administration. Arrests for acts of vandalism and destruction of property, among other things, were of people who were 90+% from outside the State.
No one did an EIS on the protest camps, but the state and Federal Governments got stuck with hauling away 720 semi truckloads of trash, garbage, and debris, recovering a body from one of the tributary creeks where it had been disposed of, and dealing with the aftermath including engineering assessments and repairs to a bridge damaged by burning vehicles to block the road. Molotov cocktails were left out of the Coastal news accounts, along with an improvised explosive device that nearly cost one protester her arm, only reporting how the attempted firebombing of LEOs was greeted by fire hoses.
A Judge in Washington DC, fed on East Coast news accounts of the incidents surrounding protests over placing a pipe with walls twice the thickness of the ordinary pipeline through a directionally drilled hole routed 90 feet
below the former riverbed at the bottom of a man made lake has ruled for yet another environmental assessment, apparently with a sympathetic ear to the professional whiners and environmental groups which have wreaked or supported wreaking more havoc on the environment already than would ever be tolerated by construction crews or pipeline operators.
