WEBVTT - S12, Ep4: Back to the Water 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:05.640 It's an unseasonably warm day in October twenty twenty four. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.000 Rolling hills covered in golden grasses stretch on either side 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.080 of Highway eighteen oh six on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.600 and I'm riding in a truck with Doug crow Ghost. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.200 He leads the Standing Rocks Sioo Tribes's Department of Water Resources. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.360 Behind us is a truck pulling upontoon boat. We're with 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.160 a crew of people heading to the Missouri River about 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:32.560 ten miles downstream from the Dakota Access Pipeline, which Doug 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:33.280 calls Dapple. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.360 We're documenting that if there's a pipeline break. Dapple's saying 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.519 that they can get these big skimmer boats on the 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.600 water to go up there to start getting rid of 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.160 the oil, and we've been saying, hell no, there's no way, 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:50.280 but we're. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.600 Gonna document in any way, and we're gonna drive along 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.240 take pictures of there's some certain. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.480 They're trying to find out if the Missouri River is 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.240 high enough so that emerging seaboats could clean up an 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:01.960 oil spill. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:03.400 But the catches. 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.160 For our plan today to work, we have to be 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.200 able to get our boat on the river, and as 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.600 we arrive at the marina, it becomes clear that a 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:16.080 pontoon ride might not be happening today. Doug starts chatting 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:17.480 through the window with the local guy. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.640 Are you freaking kidding me? It's he can't it's unusable. 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:23.800 The water level is too low. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.280 You think you can get that pontoon in there? No 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.240 way gets stuck. Yeah. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:33.319 Yeah. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.920 To some degree, this proves Doug's point. He figures out, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.880 if we can't even get the pontoon on the water, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.480 then Energy Transfer isn't going to be able to launch big, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.800 heavy emergency boats to skim away oil. 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.840 I drove out here last week to check it out, 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.080 and it was good. I'm about to all right, then, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:50.640 little shit. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.880 Doug's a big talker, and he's got his hands in 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.040 a lot of things. As the Standing Rock Tribe's water guy, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.640 the Dakota Access Pipeline has been a big part of 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.000 his job. To the Standing Rock Nation, the pipeline is 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.200 among the biggest threats to its primary drinking water source, 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:11.120 the Missouri River, so Doug spent countless hours trying to 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.680 make sense of Energy Transfer's emergency plans what they intend 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.320 to do if the oil leaks out. He's also helped 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.720 with the tribe's ongoing legal fight against the pipeline. In 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.480 late twenty twenty four, Standing Rock is getting ready to 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.680 file a new lawsuit to stop the flow of oil, 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.360 and the water level measurements they take today are mental 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:34.480 help prove that the pipeline is unsafe. We get out 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.440 of the truck and inspect the water line. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.320 Look look at how far it went down just for 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.160 this not even to be dried yet, how would that happen? 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.440 The Army Corps of Engineers, the mismanagement of the river. 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.360 The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's legal fight against the pipeline 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.120 isn't against energy transfer, it's against the US Army Corps 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.680 of Engineers. That's the federal agency that in charge of 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.160 granting permission for the pipeline to pass through federal land, 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.400 including under the Missouri River. It was the Army Corps 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.520 that the tribe furssued back in July twenty sixteen, right 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.080 before the Standing Rock protests really kicked off. Back then, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.440 they were trying to get the federal government to require 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.560 a deeper review of the pipeline route. Fast forward to today, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.200 the tribe's legal fight to stop the pipeline still going on. 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.160 It wasn't until Trump came into office in twenty seventeen, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.600 as the Standing Rock protests were already winding down, that 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.400 the Army Corps did grant permission to drill under the river. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.640 But after the pipeline was already installed, a judge took 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.560 back that permission and said that the project does require 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.680 a deeper environmental review. Eight years after the oil started flowing, 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.960 that review and environmental impact statement still isn't finished. The 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.040 pipeline operates with no official permission from the Army Corps, 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.920 and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is sick of it. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.680 The Army Corps of Engineers also runs a series of 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.920 dams along the river. Dam's Standing Rock and other Indigenous 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:07.240 nations never wanted. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:09.960 So this new. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.680 Lawsuit DOUG is helping prepare. It's not just going to 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.560 focus on the pipeline, but rather on multiple environmental justice 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.760 issues that this nation has been putting up with for decades. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.520 Pulling up behind us is a whole team of emergency 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.479 managers from the tribal government, as well as an elected 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.680 member of the tribal council and a reporter from a 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:29.560 local newspaper. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:36.160 Yeah, yeah, We're bade everybody. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.640 Doug briefs us on the plan. Since it's too shallow 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.640 for the pontoon here, we're going to head to the 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.039 next closest option for launching a boat, which is twenty 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.640 minutes away at Fort Rice. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.159 Two things are going to happen there. One, it's gonna 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:52.920 be up, the water is going to be good. We're 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:54.280 going to get in the boat and we're going to 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.320 go to Dapple's site. Or we get down there and 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.440 it's just like this, it's unusable and we docu that 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.760 as well. All right, load up. 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:04.039 Then, you. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.159 Know, in all these years covering the Standing Rock movement, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.640 I've never actually gotten out on the water. But I 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.680 have no idea as we turn onto the highway that 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.039 I'm about to get even more intimate with the Big 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:18.440 Buddy than I'd bargained for. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:20.719 This season of. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.200 Drilled, we bring you Slapped the story of an indigenous 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.760 nation fighting for its water, an environmental nonprofit facing extinction, 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.000 and an energy giant using the courts to punish protesters. 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:52.640 I'm Alan Brown. The draft of Energy Transfers Environmental Impact 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.640 Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline was released about a 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.120 year and a half ago. And it describes the company's 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.480 version of what would happen if the pipeline. It says 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.720 that within thirteen minutes of a leak, energy Transfer would 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.080 shut down the pipeline. They'd launch their boats into the 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.799 river from a dock like we just visited, and they'd 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.800 isolate the spill with containment booms, skimmers, absorbent material, and 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.200 vacuum suction would collect the oil. If the water was 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.760 too low to launch a boat, energy Transfer would use 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.160 cranes to lower watercraft into the Missouri. And they say 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.520 they have airboats on hand. But Doug and other Standing 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:29.600 Rock leaders. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:30.080 Don't buy it. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.039 For one, the report was written by a company with 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.080 ties to the oil and gas industry. He tells me 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.480 about it as we drive to the next closest boat dock. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:40.760 We told him that's a conflict of. 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:45.320 Interest making matters worse. Large sections of the emergency plans 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.880 and the spill response report are blacked out, redacted. Standing 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.240 Rock leaders say they have no ability to check the 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.560 work of Energy Transfer in the Army Corps. 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.160 How can you really comment on something you can't see? 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.400 And this is what we always said, where's the transparency? 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.360 A final decision on the Eastman. The permission to drill 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.680 under the river is expected in the next year, but 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.600 the writing is on the wall. With Donald Trump about 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.400 to become president, the Army Corps will likely grant it. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.200 The Standing Rock Sioux tribe decided they weren't going to 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.760 sit around and wait before filing a new lawsuit. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:22.600 Anyway, ask me more questions. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.080 As we drive, I'm noticing the way the sun is 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.360 struggling to pierce through a kind of fog. 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.800 Do you think this hayes is from the wildfires? Seriously, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:34.800 that's a serious question. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.040 Oh, oh, yeah it is. 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.360 North Dakota Governor Doug Bergham declared a state of emergency 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.880 a week ago. High temperatures, dry conditions, and wind are 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.400 creating the perfect conditions for wildfires. Earlier in the week, 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.480 when I was visiting here, I driven by fields scorched 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.880 by wildfire. The fire had meandered through agricultural land and 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.040 jumped the road. The blackened areas had the settling appearance 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.000 of an oil spill. The climate impacts of burning oil 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.480 were a key issue in the fight against the Dakota 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.960 Access Pipeline, and here in North Dakota it isn't hard 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.280 to see how the climate crisis is impacting everyday life. 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.960 Doug takes a turn on boat dock road. His team 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.440 didn't used to use this dock too often, but with 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.160 the water levels being so low, that's changed. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:25.400 When did it start becoming an issue? 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:30.760 Oh, it's ten years, at least ten years every year 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:37.200 usually around this time, and then springtime it'll flood, and 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.000 in wintertime it'll go low. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.160 And it just depends on the runoff a lot of 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:48.200 times too. Of Montana's headwaters if they had a good 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:53.720 winter and a nice runoff. Oh my god, Yes. 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.720 The headwaters of the Missouri River are in Montana. In 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.120 twenty seventeen, universities in the state did a study on 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.320 how climate change is impacting the river. The researchers found 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.679 that not only has Montana's snowpack in the mountains declined, 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.160 the snow that does accumulate is melting earlier in the year. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.600 By late summer, there's less water than there used to be. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.320 That means more drought. Over the next century, what we're 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:26.120 seeing today is expected to get worse. A deciding factor 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.800 for how bad the droughts and fires will get is 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.600 how many fossil fuels continue to be extracted, transported and 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.400 burned its products, like the oil carried by the Dakota 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.120 Access pipeline, that are making the climate crisis worse. 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:42.320 So check it out. 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:42.720 Kids. 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.200 If I'm going to go big one under day. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.559 Now, if I need this jack attack. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.760 Debate leaving my coat in the car. It's October in 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.959 North Dakota, but the temper sure is climbing above eighty degrees. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.680 Don Holmstrom climbs out of the backseat and heads down 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.840 the ramp toward the dock. Don is the former director 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.480 of the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Board's Western Regional Office. 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.840 Now he works as a safety consultant for Standing Rock. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.240 He pulls out a sonar depth finder device and it 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.000 says it's deep enough for us to launch will Some 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.520 of the crew sets up the pontoon. I chat with 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.400 Harold Tiger and Erica Porter, who are emergency managers. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:32.920 I'm curious to. 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:34.640 Hear more about the wildfire. 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.400 From the reports I received, it was caused by a 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.920 combiner that was combining in the field a caught fire. 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.839 It turns out they responded to that fire I saw. 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.320 They tell me this is the time of the year 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.080 when farmers harvest. Hay All it took to spark. The 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.920 fire was a combiner hitting a rock. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.720 And we closed down the road while that fire skipped 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.080 over Highway sixty three. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.120 Was so bad that it's hard to see through the 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:03.640 smoke plne across that highway. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.360 I guess how unusual is this? 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.080 How unusual is a wildfire like what we call it 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:09.160 curveball climate? 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.840 Well, and it has the drastic effect on our people. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.559 I mean, things are not happening normally at certain times 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.199 of the year. So we need to start looking at 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.400 that and looking outside of the box to get better 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:22.720 prepared for those things. 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.040 The climate crisis is often called a threat multiplier. The 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.200 oil in the pipeline stands to make the climate crisis worse, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.000 and also the climate crisis stands to make the impact 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.480 of any oil spill worse. And there's one more piece 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:39.480 to this puzzle that will get to in a second. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:47.480 The Missouri River dams. We climb onto the pontoon. Ready, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.600 we putter into the little bay that leads to the river. 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.880 For a second, it seems like our ning might end 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:01.800 before it's begun. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:03.840 Are we getting stuck? 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:10.280 We aren't yet. Erica cranks up the pontoon. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.439 Jams there that pontube fun. 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.400 Dawn drops the depth finder into the glassy water. As 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.120 we troll south through a basin that's wider than a 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:29.160 football field. Doug drives carefully navigating the braided channels that 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:34.199 cut pathways through muddy sandbars. The constant fluctuations of the 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.240 river mean the curves of the channels are unpredictable. 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:39.959 The stretch of the river that borders. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.120 Standing Rock is called Lake Owahe. It's a reservoir that 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.840 was created in the early nineteen sixties. The Upper Missouri 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.360 River today is actually divided up by a series of dams. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.880 That's because in the nineteen forties, the US created a 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.559 program called the pics Loane Plan. That plan is the 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.440 origin story of the Standing Rock nations poisoned relationship with 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:05.640 the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps wanted to build 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.160 a series of dams to control the Missouri River. The 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.199 dams were meant to ease flooding, provide power and irrigation, 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.480 and also make it easier for boats to transport people 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.640 and products. The thing is, the indigenous nations along the 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.920 river didn't want the dams. The US government built them anyway. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:29.480 They flooded and destroyed entire communities, drowning grave sites, as 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.680 well as sources of food and income. People from standing 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.200 rocks say they were never adequately compensated, though it's not 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.640 clear that any price could have made the dams worth. 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.560 What was lost wiped all that up and wiped out 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.320 our cherry trees or plum trees are you know? 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:51.520 It was hunting grounds. And so they this army corps 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.360 of engineers when they flooded our lands, they wiped out 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:55.240 a way of life. 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.800 You know, Davis Redbear was born just after the dam 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.440 flood at the land, but she grew up hearing about 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.160 what happened. And as far as Doug is concerned, the 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:10.240 injustice of the dams is ongoing. The climate crisis may 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.040 be helping create drought conditions, but it doesn't explain how 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.200 quickly the water level is going up and down. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:21.200 Yeah, so what's the deal. So the obviously the dam 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.760 the water is low. Why would they why would it 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:24.280 be low right now? 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:25.520 Why is it low right now? 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.560 Because they're trying to keep the level of the of 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:33.920 the Brassouri River at average, at an average level down 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:38.560 in Kansas and Missouri for navigations for barges. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:44.600 So Yeah, the Army Corps controls the release of water 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.840 from reservoir to reservoir. They're attempting to balance a tangle 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.160 of different needs as they do this, from preventing flooding 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.200 to protecting endangered species, to letting people fish to making 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.480 sure companies can transport products. In Doug's view, the Army 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.080 Corps prioritizes the commercial needs of people outside the bounds 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.560 of the reservation Lake owahe ends up stuck in a 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:08.960 constant state of flux. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.400 So I call our Lake Hawaihi the bastard reservoir of 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:19.040 the Pixloan Act. And it is, and you've seen it 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.920 today today is you know what you guys. I am 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.960 so glad you guys came to Davis Don because you 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.520 guys are seeing firsthand what I have to go through 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.200 almost on a weekly basis. When we go out to 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.320 do sampling on the river, you can't get out there. 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:36.760 When Doug and the other Standing Rock members on the 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.520 boat today think about the threats to the water, it's 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.520 about not just the pipeline but also the dam. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.840 I mean, it's just it's so unjuff. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.080 But I just love this. It's so beautiful. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:52.040 I'm so glad we came on. I know me too, 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:53.160 It's so beautiful. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.840 The Army Corps denied my request for an interview. A 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.320 spokesperson told me that the Army Corps operates the reservoirs 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.360 according to the law, with guidance from a master water 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:09.360 control manual. The spokesperson said water levels fluctuate seasonally based 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:16.479 on precipitation, runoff, and multiple congressionally authorized purposes, including flood control, navigation, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:22.640 water supply, recreation, and fish and wildlife. These operations are 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.160 system wide and are not managed for any single user 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:33.880 or economic interest. There's another thing influencing Standing Rocks lawsuit strategy, 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.200 the Green Peace case. In its original conspiracy lawsuit, Energy 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.760 Transfer claimed that green Peace committed defamation by saying that 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.720 the pipeline would poison the Standing Rocks Shoo Tribe's water. 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.800 They also said it's defamation to say the pipeline would 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.080 catastrophically alter the climate. The threats to their water and 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.400 to the climate are two of the Standing Rocks Szo 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:01.160 tribe's key arguments against the pipeline. Energy Transfer suit was 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.480 suggesting these threats don't exist, and if you're going to 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.800 make claims like that in a lawsuit, then you have 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.040 to prove it. Energy Transfer would have to hand over 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.560 internal documents proving how safe the pipeline really was, but 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.680 they argued that sharing so many documents was too much 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.520 of a hassle. To avoid having to turn them over, 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.000 they dropped the claims about water and climate safety, but 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.880 Greenpeace did not drop their request for documents, and as 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.679 they continued to fight about it, some documents ended up 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.720 bubbling to the surface that weren't supposed to. A report 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.000 that was supposed to remain confidential appeared on a court 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:42.960 website for anyone to download. An engineering firm called Exponent 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.720 had prepared this report. It was co written by a 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.040 former Exxon engineer. Greenpeace had commissioned it as part of 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.080 its legal defense, and it described something the Standing Rocks 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.000 Too tribe had never heard about before. It said that 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.960 there had been problems when Energy Transfer's drilling contractor, Michaels, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:04.200 was drilling under Lake Owahe Doug brings the pontoon to a. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:10.080 Stop, so basically we're at ground zero and where there 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.600 would be a pipeline break. 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:18.280 That means we're floating above the Dakota Access pipeline. It's 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.720 buried ninety five feet below the lake bed. Doug explains 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.399 what the exponent report revealed. He takes us back to 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:31.280 January twenty seventeen, when energy transfers set up two huge 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:33.720 drills on either side of the river. 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.199 At the same time, we had a camp on the 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.600 other side of that cliff over there where people from 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.720 around the world were protesting to stop it, and these 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.400 guys over here were saying, gear it up, let's get 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:47.040 it done. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:52.800 The two drills, tungsten carbi teeth, cut and ground the 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.040 rock and soil under the river into fragments, each guiding 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.399 a drill pipe behind it. The drill pad had been 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.800 transformed to resemble a military base. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.959 If you guys remember seeing pictures, they had a berm 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.120 around the drill pad. They had these huge it looked 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.000 like Kuwait. They had armed twenty four to seven guards. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:15.960 They had these big flood lights. 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.399 Over the course of a week, the two drills chewed 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.960 away pilot holes underneath either side of the river until 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.000 they met in the middle the day after Valentine's Day. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.320 As they traveled, thick mud was pumped at high pressure 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.240 from the shore through the drill pipes and out the nozzles. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:35.760 At the drill bits at the end. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.680 And they use fluid the loop up the sediment and 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.000 the rock and it's just going and going. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.520 The drilling mud was made of betonit, clay, and water, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:50.479 along with some unknown chemical additives. Oil companies usually describe 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.800 drilling mud as being non toxic, but at times it 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.919 has been found to include harmful pollutants and it can 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:02.320 hurt delicate ecosystems. Drilling mud carried away the fragmented earth. 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.320 That mud and earth was supposed to flow back to 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.280 the shore into an excavated pit, but some of it 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:13.440 never did. The amount of drilling mud that disappeared was 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.800 enough to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools one point 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:23.320 four million gallons. All that drilling mud had apparently oozed 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.040 into the surrounding environment. 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.560 What does it contaminate? What does that mean to our 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.679 water intake? I mean, I got those kind of questions. 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.920 And so they don't know if it's still in or 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.680 if it's underneath the water, or if it's or went 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.760 down river. They don't know nothing. That word didn't say, 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.000 the board didn't say, so it's. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.680 Unclear what happened to all that mud. Exponent wrote that 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:51.160 there's no indication Energy Transfers contractors did any water testing 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.199 dug in the Tribeer concerned that there could have been 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.120 something poisonous mixed into the mud that disappeared under the river, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.879 which is a big problem because again, this is the 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:06.680 standing Rock Zioo Tribe's drinking water source. An Energy Transfer 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.080 has had issues with drilling mud before. The company was 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.640 building pipelines in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Around the same time 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:18.359 it was building Dapple in North Dakota. In Pennsylvania, thousands 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.200 of gallons of drilling mud leaked into wetlands. The company 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.119 didn't report it to state regulators, who found out that 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:29.480 some of the mud contained unapproved additives. It even polluted 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:35.200 tap water and caused sinkholes. The company's subsidiary, Sunoco, pleaded 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.359 no contest to fourteen criminal counts related to those drilling 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:44.160 mud spills. In Ohio, two million gallons of drilling mud 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:47.879 leaked into a wetland, and state regulators discovered that some 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.199 of it was laced with diesel, and they weren't told 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.040 about that by Energy Transfer and their contractors, and so 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.760 obviously they were pretty mad about it. This is Don Holmstrom, 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:03.360 the consultant who used to work at the Chemical Safety Poort. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:06.840 Energy Transfer got in pretty big trouble for its drilling 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.080 mud spills. The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed in twenty 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.560 twenty two that the company be banned from any contracts 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.480 with the federal government. The decision was never finalized, but 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.120 it meant that Energy Transfer was kept out of federal 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:25.439 contracts until earlier this year. Don has a plane to 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:27.080 catch and it's time to head back. 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:30.840 You guys got any other questions as we go? Just 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.840 asked Don. Let's let's maneuver back to the port. See 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:37.080 if we CANDOCT Titanic. 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:38.960 All right, let's go. 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.560 I need somebody to look out in the front for icebergs. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:45.679 No kidding, right, pull it. 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:55.960 As we motor back the way we came, I think 0:22:56.000 --> 0:23:00.440 about what I'd researched before this trip. The draft andvironmental 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.680 impact statement from the Army Corps says there's only about 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.760 a one in one thousand chance that the Dakota Access 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:10.000 Pipeline will spill under the Missouri River in a given year, 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.439 But as for the entire length of the pipeline, the 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.959 Dakota Access Pipeline has already leaked thirteen times since an 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.399 entered operation in twenty seventeen. The largest leak was nearly 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:28.240