Dakota Pipeline: What Could Go Wrong?

Corporate Mercenary Ashley Nicole Welch
Sets an Attack Dog on Protesters

As the mainstream media ignores Native Americans and environmental activists braving attack dogs, mace, and mercenaries to stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline from being dug under the Missouri River and then run underground from North Dakota to Illinois, I ask myself, "What could go wrong?" After all, the company's website makes the claim that up to 575,000 barrels of "light sweet crude oil" can be transported every day in a safe and environmentally friendly fashion. So what could go wrong? Living close to the Missouri River, I think it's an important question to ask.

Let's look at some recent news headlines about oil pipelines:

September 5, 2016 - 5,000 Gallons of Crude Oil Spilled from Pipeline in Louisiana

August 20, 2016 - Pipeline Explosion Kills 10 Campers in New Mexico

July 21, 2016 - Water Poisoned After 1570 Barrels of Oil Spill into North Saskatchewan River

June 23, 2016 - 30,000+ Gallons of Crude Oil Spilled from Pipeline in Ventura County, California

April 2, 2016 - 16,800 Gallons Spilled from Pipeline in South Dakota

Those are just a few recent stories. Here are a dozen or so more pipeline accidents that have occurred in 2016 in the United States.

Also in pipeline news today Exxon Mobil is appealing a ruling that would force them to take new safety measures, along with a $2.6 million fine, resulting from the pipeline disaster in 2013 that spilled 134,000 gallons of heavy crude into the Little Rock suburb or Mayflower, Arkansas.

Since the year 2000 there have been hundreds of pipeline accidents in the United States alone, spilling millions of barrels of oil and gas, contaminating land and water all over the country, explosions killing many and lingering health effects killing and ruining countless more lives.

Yes, there's much that can go wrong so I'm glad that there are brave people willing to stand up and fight against Donald Trump's Energy Aide in his quest to frack North Dakota to bits and pump a half-million gallons of crude oil every day under our Missouri River and through farms, towns, streams, and lands that are sacred to Native Americans.