Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the Dakota Access Pipeline, is preparing to build a tunnel under Lake Oahe. The residents who live near the lake have protested its construction, although the last phase of the project is underway.

According to The Guardian, Energy Transfer Partners recently announced that the drilling underneath the lake will begin promptly despite the government’s request for them to wait. The pipeline is expected to be done by the end of 2016.

The protesters, which include the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have fought against this 3.7 billion dollar pipeline since the project began this April. The protesters say that the crude oil that is being sent from North Dakota to a refinery in Illinois could pollute the lake’s water and destroy culturally significant land. Alonia Needs ’19 expressed, “I don’t think they should put the pipes there. There’s already so many issues in America with us taking the Indian’s land and I don’t think it is a good idea to build the pipelines through this important area for them when we have already done so much to them in the past. I feel like they should find another route for these pipelines.” In September, the US Justice of Interior Departments and the Army Corps of Engineer asked for the Energy Transfer Partners to voluntarily stop the construction under the lake. Although the government requested for them to wait, Energy Transfer Partners ignored them and pressed their project towards the Missouri river, arguing that they had received all the permits and approvals they needed from the Army Corps. They are confident that they will get the approval of the two strips of land adjacent to the lake without causing a significant delay.

On November 2, the protests surrounding the pipeline’s construction erupted into violence when the police arrested 16 people and pepper sprayed the protesters. The police reportedly used beanbag guns, and in the live stream on Cempoalli Twenny’s Facebook page, protesters can be heard calling for a medic. The authority has defended their removal of the protesters by saying that they were trespassing private property near Highway 1806. The sheriff posted on Facebook that they have a Long Range Acoustic Device to control the crowd, which essentially damages your ears from its high-pitched speaker.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is extremely devoted to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline because it goes through the water source for their reservation, as well as sites with cultural significance. The tribe sued the Army Corps of Engineers for not having been consulted on the route, which caused the construction to temporarily halt in September.

“I would try and find a common ground probably. If you have this company that is going to disregard a reservation and a tribe of people who are going to answer with violence, it’s not going to go anywhere. I’d just try my best to find a happy medium,” commented Sloan Maas ’18. With construction proceeding, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe can only hope their voices will be heard and their sacred land preserved.