More or less true. But as the green lady said above, these things must be done delicately. Ham-fisted responses -- which they're hoping for! -- will make things even worse.
In cases like this, triangulation is the proper approach.
First, acknowledge that, hidden behind the protests, there are some legitimate concerns -- because there probably are. Next, find somebody on the other side who's reasonable -- and there will be such -- and make him the de facto spokesman for the movement. Air concerns and arguments on both sides, and actually attempt to find middle ground -- it's almost certainly there.
This approach has worked well in other places. For example, the logging industry in Oregon was hamstrung like this until a series of enormous fires brought people to their senses. The enviros' total opposition to logging had created a tremendous fuel load, which of course burned. But they had legitimate grievances against the logging practices of the time (vast clear-cutting operations).
After the fires, sensible adults on all sides came together to work out a better way of doing things. As it stands now, the Forest Service, logging concerns, and the enviros seem to have actually done good work in coming up with a workable compromise solution.
I see no reason why it shouldn't be tried in ND as well.
Behind the protests, there is a lot of hyperbole. The "Indian burial ground" tactic is an old one. In this case, there is no burial ground. If remains are found, those are assessed as to origin (Native vs white), and if Indian, the appropriate Shaman(s) brought in to settle the spirits and the grave/remains are either moved or closed and re-routed around. This stuff is handled delicately, not out of politics so much as respect, the same respect we'd accord if a wagonload of settlers had been buried out there on the prairie, too.
Rockpiles (what they are calling "cairns") are common as cat dirt north of the Missouri, just because the last ice sheet seeded the ground with chunks of Canada ranging in size from grains of sand to larger than a Peterbuilt. When farming, those rocks are cleaned out of the soil using a rockpicker (once with a wagon and by hand), and piled off to the side of cultivated fields. there are rockpiles all over North Dakota, evidence of cultivation, not so much occupation otherwise. There are tipi rings, the occasional cairn, and fire pit stones, and I have seen all three, some in incredible states of preservation. Those are pretty obvious by their configuration and by fire reddening of the pit stones. Cairns were piled, with a small footprint often smaller than their height, and usually remain that way. They were used as markers, often for trails, boundaries, and more rarely, graves. It is easy enough to assess which, and natural accumulations are evident, too.
The route the pipeline follows has been surveyed for the Northern Border Gas pipeline, for a power line right of way, and again for this pipeline. Cultural remains would have been found by now, but there are people on site in case any are located while putting the pipeline in.
Rare plants, rare animals, rare insects, items of historical and prehistorical significance have been surveyed for and the right of way is clear of those. Those problems have been addressed, and over 300 meetings have been held with tribal representatives to address any concerns. It isn't like there hasn't been dialogue.
Water issues: The pipeline will pass 80 ft. below the bottom of the river. That will be horizontally drilled to stay well below the bottom of the old river channel. If the Upper Missouri dams were all breached, and the river returned to free flowing for its entire length, it would take centuries, if not millennia, to erode the bottom of the river down to the level of the pipeline. The last problem had with a pipeline on the Missouri (actually, the Yellowstone) was up by Laurel, MT, when during extraordinarily severe river flows after a very fast Spring Melt with record snow pack, the pipeline crossing there was washed out and rocks tumbled against it damaging the line.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-montana-spill-idUSKCN11R29Ohttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jul/03/yellowstone-river-suffers-oil-spillhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/02/montana.oil.spill/index.htmlBy placing the line so much lower than the bottom of the river, the chances of a similar incident are removed from the table. Indeed, the company building this pipeline does not want any incident like that, and has taken steps to avoid it.
As pipelines go, this one will be state-of-the art, with the very intention of avoiding problems, partly because of the revenue loss that would accompany such an incident. The profit motive is definitely present to avoid trouble, and being a good neighbor is essential to continued oil activity in any region. The present lines having problems are often much older lines, some pushing half a century or more in age. With those problems have come lessons in avoiding future troubles, and with technology, the ability to prevent them.
Most leaks are associated with equipment operator error, but this leak was apparently from a lightning strike.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/pipeline-leak-spills-20600-barrels-oil-near-tioga-nd The initial routing of the pipeline helped limit the damage done, and the cleanup has since been completed.
The result is that better monitoring of pipeline pressures and throughput have been implemented, and helped avoid disaster when protesters broke into facilities and shut valves on pipelines earlier this year.
https://sputniknews.com/environment/201610121046243288-oil-pipeline-shutdown-protest/http://www.ogj.com/articles/2016/10/groups-express-concerns-as-crude-oil-pipeline-protests-escalate.htmlThe bottom line, though is that the Obamites are likely having nocturnal emissions over the whole show. They have tried from day one to shut down the boom in oil produced from unconventional reservoirs like the Bakken/Three Forks, and they aren't going to do anything about it. The disparity in law enforcement efforts is blatant on the part of the Federal Government.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201610041045969636-feds-wont-evict-dapl-camp/In the end, if the government won't do anything, the pipeline company will likely have to either re-route or quit. That's just wrong, especially considering the land is not tribal land (not part of a reservation), it was private property with the exception of Corps of Engineers land. If the Tribe had felt there were sacred sites or remains on that land, they have had over a hundred years to find a way to acquire it. This amounts to an illegal 'taking' in that they are seeking to establish a zone of control beyond their own land. That dog won't hunt, but right now, force is what the out of state groups (90% of the 'protest'). are hoping for. They want to be Rachel Corrie, maybe without the caterpillar prints, but of similar stature in their twisted world. Note, in photos of the protest camp, the ubiquitous blue polyethylene tarps, made cheaply by cheap oil. There is nothing quite like hypocrites on parade.
