Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline continues to be problematic to all parties involved, with over 70 protester arrests in Iowa alone, and court decisions temporarily ceasing progress.

The pipeline, with an estimated cost of over $3.7 billion, is designed to transport large amounts of crude oil through several midwestern states. It is expected to cheapen the cost of oil transport, produce thousands of jobs, as well as lower US dependency on foreign oils.

The pipeline is scheduled to start in the North Dakota region, and will continue into South Dakota and Iowa, under the Missouri River and end in Illinois. However, some have reservations on the project.

Many Native Americans, especially from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, are concerned about potential leaks and damage the oil pipeline will cause to their ecosystem.

Native Americans from over 100 tribes in North America have come out in protest of the Access Pipeline. The controversy over the pipeline has reminded the United States’s public of repeatedly unjust treatment of Natives and their sovereign reservations.

A petition to end the construction of the pipeline titled “Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline”, created by the Standing Rock Youth, currently has over 300,000 signatures of it’s 500,00 goal.  

The group represents Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, explaining both on their petition and website, ReZpect Our Water, that the pipeline presents a potential danger to the wellness of water supply and land.

“The river is a crucial part of our lives here on the Standing Rock Reservation,” 13-year-old Anna Lee pleas in her essay, included in the Change.org petition. She, as a youth of the Sioux Tribe, fears the pipeline leaks, “it will wipe out plants and animals, ruin our drinking water, and poison the center of community life.”

The issue is not as black and white as it is presented in the Standing Rock Youth’s petition, however. The information provided on the Dakota Access website describes the pipeline as a major benefit for the economy and gas market.

The pipeline is funded by Energy Transfer Partners, a natural gas and propane company located in Dallas, Texas. The pipeline would relocate more than 470,000 gallons of crude oils from the Bakken and Three Forks productions areas in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. The expansion of the pipeline is expected to produce upwards of 8,000 jobs in the midwestern region.

The Dakota Pipeline website explains that the construction of the pipeline will require “millions of hours of labor,… putting welders, mechanics, electricians, pipefitters, heavy equipment operators and others within the heavy construction industry to work.”

The foreseeable dangers and potential benefits of the Access Pipeline have caused a great divide between Americans, and an even deeper divide between Natives protesters and local proponents of the pipeline. The end result is unclear, but the pipeline is sure to stir more controversy in the coming months.