Potential Spill on Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline Platform

Newly obtained drone footage from November 27 shows a possible spill of undetermined type on the Bakken Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) drill platform just above the Missouri River in Morton County, North Dakota.

A large amount of unknown liquid appears to have poured directly from the bottom of a blue, rectangular, liquid holding tank.

Drill pads have numerous toxic, caustic, and environmentally damaging chemicals as well as water. Chemicals on the drill pads are used to soften rock, lubricate parts, and maintain equipment.

The spill is located just feet above Oceti Sakowin Camp, the largest of the Standing Rock Water Protector camps. The spill is also feet above the Missouri River, the primary water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Water Protectors are working to stop the completion of the DAPL, which is slated to pass under the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and over the Ogallala Aquifer. Water Protectors are a primarily Native American movement led by the Standing Rock Sioux who set up camps in and outside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the construction of DAPL.

The Ogallala Aquifer provides the irrigation water for one third of agriculture in the Untied States.

DAPL and the drill pad are currently being constructed on the location of a previous Water Protected camp which was raided by police and military to move them off the land and make way for the DAPL employees.