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Dakota Pipeline Research Paper

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The Dakota Access Pipeline is controversial topic among people as to whether its installment is a good thing or a bad thing. This is comparable to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, whose construction, after seven years of protest, was finally canceled. But before any conclusions on the Dakota pipeline's fate can be made, one must take a look at both side or the story. The construction of this pipeline can be seen as a positive because it is providing jobs, an efficient way to transport oil across states, and the use of our own oil. The article, "The Government Quietly Just Approved This Enormous Pipeline" states that "according to the Dakota Access's DAPL fact sheet, the pipeline will create 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs." Another benefit …show more content…

The likelihood of this pipeline bursting and spilling oil into the land and water it passes through is not completely out of the picture. Although trucks or trains transporting oil have a higher chance of spilling, according to the article, "the International Energy Agency found that pipelines spill much more in term of volume." This could be very bad news in terms of polluting the land and water used everyday. Some of the land this line is set to run through is farmland. Even if a spill never occurred, this farmland would still be damaged during the installment of the pipeline when having to dig it up. Among this land is private property, whose land is unwillingly being used for the implication of the pipeline (Sammon). Not only are farmers' lands at risk of damage, but sacred ground of Native Americans are in the middle of the crossfire as well. "The Standing Rock Sioux tribe says the project threatens its drinking water source and could destroy ancient sacred sites," explains Agence France-Presse. The installment of the pipeline will damage their sacred grounds, and if it would even spill, would pollute their only water source for drinking and irrigation as well as the land they live off

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