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The US army corps of engineers, who are responsible for planning Dakota Access Pipeline has decided to change the route of the pipeline.

As RIA Novosti reports, Energy Transfer Partners began construction of Dakota Access in early 2016. The pipeline was designed to pass half a mile of the native Indians’ reservation, and, therefore, became a reason of protests of the local population. 

The participants of the protest built a tent camp in the spring of 2016, which blocked the company’s excess for half a year to the site. The state authorities repeatedly tried to disperse demonstrators. The confrontation reached its peak in the second half of November, on Thanksgiving Day, when the police tried to occupy the camp. The police arrested several activists in the retaliatory attacks but did not attack the tent city.

By the request of the local administration, the US armed forces took the responsibility to settle the conflict.  The local administration has repeatedly blocked access of resources to the camp. The authorities fined those who were bringing fuel and food to the tent city.

The heads of the northern US and Canadian native tribes had earlier decided to join their efforts in the fight against the construction of the new energy routs. Representatives of 50 nations of the North America opposed the decision of oil sands’ development in their settlements and in the adjacent territories.  In their opinion Dakota Access highway could cause an irreversible damage to the local ecosystem and create issues of access to potable water. In addition, the construction of the pipeline would endanger   Indians’ burial sites and sacred landmarks. 

It was planned, that the pipeline would transfer 470 thousand barrels of oil per day from North Dakota's shale deposits to the refineries of Illinois. The project was estimated $ 3.6 billion and would have been completed by the end of the year.

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