Opposition from local communities is growing against a proposed oil refinery near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

The Davis Refinery, from California-based Meridian Energy Group, is awaiting air quality and water permits to start construction of its facility near Belfield, ND. Groups such as the Badlands Area Resource Council (BARC), an affiliate of the Dakota Resource Council, say it will hurt their community members in the backyard of this refinery.

Laura Grzanic, a member of BARC, lives a mile from the proposed site. “The heavy traffic, in combination with other projects going on, is going to create a lot of hazards,” she says. “The area does not have any traffic lights, traffic signs, turning lanes. It’s just going to be rather hectic for the locals to commute back and forth to work.” Grzanic has a water well for livestock and is concerned the refinery could impact the aquifer she draws from.

The scope of the refinery has changed several times over the past year. First proposed to process 55,000 oil barrels per day, Meridian changed the figure to 49,500 to skirt regulations from the Public Service Commission, which conducts reviews of facilities that process 50,000 barrels or more.

Commissioners have urged Meridian to submit to a review anyway, saying that without one, legal hurdles could take longer to clear. Grzanic says Meridian has increased its estimates for traffic on its permits too, from 80 trucks per day to 170.

Groups such as the National Parks Conservation Association also say it will hurt Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota’s only national park. The refinery will be within three miles of it.

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A North Dakota oil well owned by Oasis Petroleum Inc blew out on October 30, 2015 leaked more than 67,000 gallons of crude and endangered a tributary of the Missouri River. The blowout may have been caused by hydraulic fracturing of a nearby well in a situation referred to in the industry as “communication” between wells.

Thick gray smoke rose from the Helling Trust 11-15H well site as dozens of tractor-trailers hauled in vacuum trucks and other cleanup equipment. Oasis capped the well by pumping in a thick mixture of mud and clay, state officials said.

State officials reported approximately 84,000 gallons of saltwater also leaked from the well. Crude oil extracted from the state’s Bakken shale formation typically contains high concentrations of brine (salt water) that must be separated.

When you are deciding whether or not you should support the #NoDAPL protectors or corporate profits, take this oil spill into consideration.

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One million gallons of saltwater and an unknown quantity of crude oil have leaked from a North Dakota pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River.

The spill was on Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation land approximately 15 miles north of Williston, North Dakota. The leak comes from a saltwater collection line owned by Summit Midstream Partners LP. The saltwater is a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process.

The Saltwater is usually filtered and re-injected back into the earth after the oil is extracted.

Williston is considered a center of the oil boom in the state of North Dakota.

Chairman Tex Hall said that the spill has been isolated and contained. A quantity of 1 million gallons of the liquid entered Bear Den Bay, which leads into Lake Sakakawea, a source of drinking water on the reservation.

This is precisely why Native Americans have been protesting #NoDAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline).

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Now, Native Americans are living here again. They sleep in teepees and nylon tents. They ride horses and drive quad cabs. They string banners between trees and, when they can get a signal, they post messages with hashtags such as #ReZpectOurWater, #NoDakotaAccess and #NODAPL. For weeks, they have been arriving from the scattered patches of the United States where the government put their ancestors to protest what they say is one indignity too many in a history that has included extermination and exploitation.

It is called the Dakota Access oil pipeline and it could carry more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken region of western North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa to connect with an existing pipeline in Illinois.

New resistance against what they say is a seemingly endless number of pipelines, export terminals and rail lines that would transport fossil fuels across or near tribal reservations, risking pollution to air, water and land.

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To care for these places, Congress in 1916 created the National Park Service, one of the country’s most beloved institutions. During this year’s 2016 Centennial, all visitors to our national parks—in 2014, a record 292.8 million of them—can discover and learn about the many struggles and triumphs of the citizens who committed to protecting what they valued most: the nation’s lands and heritage. The statistics alone are remarkable: as of 2015’s end, 409 national parks; 49 national heritage areas; more than 2,500 national historic landmarks; 597 national natural landmarks; 43,162 miles of shoreline; 85,049 miles of rivers and streams; and more than 75,000 archeological sites.

But that’s not all. Our nation’s parks are places where Americans can honor and remember the lost, those who fought and died to protect their lands and traditions, the values they cherished most. In Montana and the Dakotas alone it includes the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Dakota, and Lakota. Members of these tribes traded furs for manufactured goods at Fort Union trading post, which 50 years ago this year MonDak-area residents helped to protect as a national historic site. Still others lived in the towns now preserved in central North Dakota’s Knife River Indian Villages, also a national historic site. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, members of these tribes sacrificed their lives to defend their northern plains homes and families, just as they have in World War II, Vietnam, and more recent wars.

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The explosion occurred at approximately 3:30 a.m. on March 7, 2015. Emergency responders from both Williston and Alexander, ND established a perimeter around the site to ensure the safety of anyone in the area. Five employees at the facility escaped unharmed, one of whom reported jumping out of the way just in time.

Firefighters were able to get the flames under control by midmorning, though the cause of the explosion is still unknown.

The complex, which undertook the treatment and disposal of oilfield waste, was completely destroyed during the incident. Rockvoy reported that any damage caused by the explosion was contained by a surrounding embankment.

The waste disposal site was owned by Tervita, a company which specializes in dealing with industrial waste.

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