State officials have lifted a stop-work order on the Bakken oil pipeline in northwest Iowa where tribal officials had objected to disrupting sacred American Indian land that includes burial grounds.
Texas-based Dakota Access LLC, which is building the pipeline, has been granted an amendment to its sovereign lands construction permit by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, DNR spokesperson Kevin Baskins confirmed.
Instead of digging a trench for a route through the Big Sioux River Wildlife Management Area in Lyon County, the pipeline will be located about 85 feet underground by using special boring equipment, he said.
"The bottom line is that they will go around the area by going underneath it," Baskins said.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/20/bakken-pipeline-run-under-sacred-tribal-site/86155990/
Also see:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/dakota-access-pipeline-digging-up-human.html
State Archaeologist John Doershuk said in an email last week to DNR Director Chuck Gipp that the proposed directional boring construction method is a satisfactory avoidance procedure from an archaeological standpoint that he supports in this case. However, Doershuk emphasized he could not speak for American Indian tribes that have expressed concerns about the pipeline project.
The pipeline project has drawn attention to a little-known area of rich historical and cultural significance in Iowa’s history. An estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people lived 500 years ago in a vast complex of villages along Blood Run Creek and the Big Sioux River, the largest known in the Oneota cultural tradition and larger than any Lyon County town today.
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/nation-now/bakken-pipeline-okd-to-run-under-sacred-tribal-site/250862851
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