Pa., N.J., De. Sierra Club Chapters To Protest Dakota Access Pipeline

Sierra Club chapters from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware along with Delaware Lenape Indian Tribe and other environmental groups and organizations from throughout the region are planning a protest of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline Wednesday.

The groups will organize at 11 a.m. outside the Sunoco Logistics Partners Corporate Headquarters, 3930 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, as the Sierra Club states Sunoco Logistics Partners is "one of the largest owners of the pipeline."

“We are united with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in their fight against this destructive and damaging pipeline cutting through their lands," Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club Jeff Tittel said in a statement. "The Dakota Access pipeline is a threat to the environment, natural lands, wildlife habitat, and their water supply. The construction of this pipeline would do irreparable harm to lands held in Trust for the Standing Rock Sioux. This pipeline is a disaster waiting to happen with a possible spill or explosion. We are gathering at the Sunoco because they are a partner in this willful destruction of this sacred and environmentally sensitive land."

According to the pipeline's fact sheet, pipeline will move about 470,000 barrels of oil a day over 1,172 miles of 30-inch pipe from North Dakota to Illinois with hopes of brining more energy independence to the United States.

However, activists say the pipeline threatens native American water supplies due to it running under the Missouri River. The Sierra Club says an oil spill would threaten public health and safety.

"We are joined together in their fight because it is our fight; the same forces that are trying to destroy their lands are trying to destroy ours," Tittel said in a statement. "There are currently 15 proposed pipelines in the Delaware River Valley that threaten our drinking water and environment such as Sunoco's Mariner project. We must stop all this fracking and dirty infrastructure and keep fossil fuels in the ground. The battle against pipelines is part of the battle to save our planet. It's about climate change, it's about our water, it's about our lands, and it's about our future."

The pipeline has led to many protests and even a song by Neil Young.

Image via Fibonacci Blue