There's a good chance you've been hearing the stories out of a small town called Cannon Ball, ND. Over the past several months, thousands of protestors representing all First Nations of the US (and many abroad) and their supporters, have been rallying to stop further construction on Energy Transfer's Dakota Pipeline project.
Shifting Landscape
This past Sunday, something rather unlikely happened. The Army Corps of Engineers refused the final permit for construction easement under the dammed section of the Missouri River in question. Instead, the Corps announced they would be seeking alternative routes. In essence, this move granted protesters what they have been demanding all this time: protection of their regional water source and respect for ancestral burial grounds.
Without question, the politics of this situation as well as the direct actions of the protesters are emotionally charged and even divisive. The on-going situation has incited accusations of sabotage and trespassing on behalf of protestors, as well as accusations retaliatory threat and even physical assault from law enforcement.
Ripple Effects
In this case, even a form of infrastructure traditionally regarded as "invisible" to the public -- an underground pipeline -- has triggered an incredible domino effect of awareness, media attention, and ultimately...resistance.
The cost for a public reaction of this magnitude is far more than just bad publicity and social media noise. Requests for emergency funding by the state of North Dakota, in order to manage this situation, have reached $17M. This burden will fall mainly on ND taxpayers, as so far, no requests for federal reimbursement have been approved. Additionally, the corporate stakeholders in the pipeline have seen a decline in share prices and, in one case, complete divestment from a Norweigan bank.
Planning With Care
What does this mean for our dreams of a 2050 transportation future? To begin with, no project is an island, no matter how small. That being said, imagine the number of individuals, small communities, patterns of population growth, and cultural boundaries a nationwide effort to reimagine infrastructure would affect. Consider that transportation affects people's ability to become and stay employed, attend school consistently, and even reach the health services they count on to survive. A design for transportation infrastructure, like any kind of urban or rural planning, must account for the real outcomes and user experiences as much as cost of materials or even perceived "political will." Roads, like pipelines, have the power to provide access to life-giving resources. Also like pipelines, they have the power to create an ocean of division, resentment, and further alienate different groups of people. We are called, in the effort to elevate our whole society, to take this power seriously. With only ten days left to submit entries, may this be a lesson all Infrastructure Vision 2050 innovators can take to heart.
