These maps help fill the gaps on the Dakota Access Pipeline

Posted by Jeff on Nov 8, 2016 @ 4:54 pm in Conservation | 0 comments | Last modified: November 8, 2016

As protests escalated in North Dakota, Jennifer Veilleux sat in her office at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, reading an environmental assessment of the Dakota Access Pipeline over and over again. The report, prepared by the company developing the pipeline, raised red flags. An international water security and transboundary river post-doctoral researcher, Veilleux was used to vetting assessments. The one in front of her didn’t have information about appropriate methods for monitoring what people, waterways, and ecosystems leaks in the pipeline could affect.

She scoured the internet, searching for the major waterways the pipeline would impact, and where Indigenous people lived in relation to those – basic information she couldn’t find anywhere.

So she decided to map it herself.

What resulted were two detailed socio-ecological maps of the Missouri River Basin, created by Veilleux and the team she assembled, in total 16 geographers, cartographers, lawyers, and researchers who are all collaborating voluntarily. One outlines major waterways the pipeline would intersect and possibly leak into and the nearby tribal lands. The other shows the percentage of Indigenous people by county living near waterways that could be affected by the pipeline, which crosses four Western states.

Learn more here…