As a resident of North Dakota and having to hear about this every day, the facts are:
- The pipeline is in a corridor with another older line that goes under the water (90 feet below the riverbed);
- The water intake for the reservation is a moot point. The old intake at Ft. Yates will be replaced on 1/1/17 with an intake another 70 miles away from the crossing;
- The Standing Rock tribe was asked for input on the pipeline at least six times, and they never bothered to show up;
- During the design of the line, it was rerouted in over 100 places to void water concerns;
- Over 80% of the arrests are non-Native American and not from North Dakota; and
- The entire route of the pipeline was walked by environmental and archaeological personnel and checked for problem areas.
Those are the main facts. Now for my opinions:
Warren Buffet owns Burlington Northern RR that carries the majority of the oil from the Bakken. He is a great buddy with Obama, ergo no pipeline (Dakota Access or Keystone).
Standing Rock is upset because they will not receive any money for it running through their lands; not one foot of the pipeline is on reservation land.
I hope this helps clear some thing up – R.B.