Setting the Record Straight on Dakota Access’ Lake Oahe Route Crossing

Recently, Dakota Access protesters have inaccurately claimed many things about the project’s route. These inaccuracies have spread into mainstream media and it is important to clarify the blatant falsities many are using to challenge the project.

The following are the facts about Dakota Access. The pipeline route, commonly referred to as the Lake Oahe route, was always the intended and preferred route.  It was the route included with the pipeline’s permit application to the North Dakota Public Services Commission in December 2014 and was chosen as the final route for the pipeline application as early as September 2014.

As Standing Rock Fact Checker has previously noted, the current route has many more advantages to the Bismarck alternative.  The Bismarck route would have crossed 27 more waterways, more agriculture land and would have been significantly is longer.

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As previously reported, President Obama recently said that, “the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.” To date, the project is currently over 77 percent complete – making a reroute virtually impossible. According to Tyler Priest, a professor at the University of Iowa who served as a senior policy analyst for the President’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, rerouting the pipeline at this stage would incur unnecessary logistical obstacles, such as acquiring new land, permits and organizing construction during the winter months.