News Local/State

Urbana Council To Consider Resolution Against Dakota Pipeline

by Jeff Bossert
 
Area residents protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline await the start of Monday Urbana's City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.

Area residents protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline await the start of Monday Urbana's City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. Jeff Bossert/Illinois Public Media

Next week, the Urbana City Council will consider passing a resolution in opposition to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would bring oil from North Dakota to southern Illinois. Council members responded to advocates for such a resolution who spoke at Monday night's City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.

Those included University of Illinois professor emeritus Stephen Kaufman.

"I’m here to urge the city of Urbana Council to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock People of North Dakota in urging President Obama and the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits for this pipeline," he said.

The advocates called on the Urbana City Council to pass a resolution similar to one in Minneapolis expressing support for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s opposition to the pipeline.

The resolution says the pipeline could pose an environmental hazard, and also threaten tribal sacred sites near the Missouri River in North Dakota. Council members could consider a formal resolution at next week’s meeting.

Protestors against the four-state Dakota Access pipeline hold signs during a rally Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, in Chicago.

Photo Credit: Tae-Gyun Kim/Associated Press

Last week, the Obama administration announced a temporary halt to pipeline construction near the land cited by the Standing Rock tribe, pending a hearing set for this Friday.

But a federal judge Monday denied the tribe’s request to recognize requests from three federal agencies that would broaden and formalize the stoppage.

UPDATE 10 am Tuesday - The company developing the $3.8 billion pipeline says it is committed to the project, despite strong opposition and a
federal order to halt construction near an American Indian reservation in North Dakota.
 
Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the four-state project is nearly 60 percent complete and that "concerns about the pipeline's impact on the local water supply are unfounded.''
 
The 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois.