{"id":9849,"date":"2020-03-04T19:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T00:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/meade-county-oks-man-camp\/"},"modified":"2020-03-04T19:55:01","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T00:55:01","slug":"meade-county-oks-man-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/meade-county-oks-man-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Meade County oks man-camp"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In contrast to a Meade County permit meeting in South Dakota, one at Holt County in Nebraska was packed. (Photo courtesy Shannon Graves)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

STURGIS \u2013The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Ft. Belknap Indian Community held off the Keystone XL Pipeline in federal court on Feb. 25, as agents for the private Canadian tar-sands crude oil proposition garnered permission from Meade County Commissioners, meeting here, to start man-camp construction in South Dakota this March.
\nHowever, the representatives of project proponent TC Energy Corp. (formerly TransCanada Corp.) didn\u2019t fare as well before Holt County Commissioners in Nebraska, who denied a construction permit there three days later.
\nTC Energy Corp. has been trying for 10 years to secure permits to build the pipeline more than 1,000 miles \u2014 from the oil shale fields of Alberta Province, across Montana and South Dakota, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would link to existing infrastructure.
\nThe product in the pipeline, which would be diluted bitumen, or dilbit, must reach Texas refineries in order to be processed for shipment abroad via Gulf of Mexico ports.
\nThe Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) and the Fort Belknap Indian Community (Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes), in coordination with their counsel, the Native American Rights Fund, submitted two new filings to Montana U.S. District Court on Feb. 25 in their 2018 lawsuit challenging a federal permit for the pipeline.
\nIn these filings, the tribes highlight a TC Energy Corp. admission that the Keystone XL Pipeline would cross Rosebud mineral estates held in trust by the United States.
\nThe prosecution submitted that the mineral estates qualify as Indian lands and the tribe has jurisdiction over them. \u201cTrespassing into Rosebud\u2019s mineral estates, held in trust, without Rosebud\u2019s consent is a violation of the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie treaties,\u201d it claimed.
\nThe activities described in the project\u2019s Environmental Impact Statement, namely rock ripping, blasting, trenching, topsoil removal, and backfilling, would adversely affect Rosebud\u2019s mineral estate, it claimed, adding, \u201cFederal agencies have a duty to prevent mineral trespass and protect Indian lands and tribal mineral estates.\u201d
\nAlso in the filings, the tribes sustained that, contrary to defendants\u2019 arguments, neither the President\u2019s foreign affairs power nor his role as Commander in Chief provide him authority to permit the pipeline, as he has announced doing.
\nThe authority to permit the pipeline falls within Congress\u2019 exclusive and plenary power to regulate foreign commerce, they argued.
\n\u201cAs much as they would like to, TransCanada cannot ignore the laws that protect Native American people and lands,\u201d said Native American Rights Fund Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth.
\nMeanwhile, on the same day as the court filings, the Meade County Commission voted to give TC Energy Corp. an extension on its expired construction permits for Pump Station 17 and for a 1,200-employee man-camp near Opal, population 31.
\nTC Energy Corp. Attorney Bill Taylor told commissioners the company paid $194,000 for the permits, which were granted on Oct. 22, 2018.
\nHe said that company contractors conducted only preliminary work \u2014 mowing vegetation to discourage raptors from using its right-of-way \u2013, because the Montana U.S. District Court imposed a building ban while considering the merits of the case challenging the federal permit.
\nWhen an appeals court lifted the ban in July 2019, TC Energy Corp.\u2019s Missouri-based consulting firm KLG Engineering, named after founder Kelly Green, asked for an extension, and Deputy Director of Planning Bill Rich tentatively agreed, Taylor said.
\nRich told commissioners he received an Oct. 8, 2019 email request for an extension, which he answered with an email to a KLG Engineering permit specialist saying he would not grant it.
\nHe noted that standard practice is to allow an extension for a maximum of six months on a valid building permit. A permit becomes invalid if construction work does not commence or is abandoned for six months after the time it commences.
\nBuilding permits expire within one year of issuance, if no significant construction occurs within that time frame, he added. After that, a permit holder must apply for another permit and, if approved, pay the associated fee.
\nHowever, the KLG Engineering specialist \u201csaid she didn\u2019t get the email, and I actually believe her,\u201d Rich said. Commissioner Talbot Wieczorek and Taylor noted that a \u201cvariance\u201d clause within the building ordinance could be employed to address \u201cunique circumstances.\u201d
\nAfter going into a closed executive session with State\u2019s Attorney lawyers to discuss legal ramifications of a decision, commissioners returned to vote publicly and unanimously in favor of an extension of six months from the Oct 22, 2019 expiration date of the permit.
\nThe decision provides TC Energy contractors until April 22 to finish the construction or come back and ask for a permit extension that will cost an amount pro-rated on the percentage of the work that remains to be finished.
\nTaylor said plans are to restart work in March. \u201cWe could be back here two weeks from now and grade on the Opal Camp,\u201d conditions permitting, he said.
\nTarget Hospitality, aka Target Lodging, is the man-camp operator. It changed its name from Target logistics in 2018 after being purchased by the Maryland-based transnational Algeco Scotsman in 2013.
\nIts track record stems from housing more than 4,000 workers in the camps of North Dakota\u2019s Bakken oil fracking fields and another 1,000 in the Permian Basin camps of Texas and New Mexico.
\nTaylor said, \u201cAssuming the Montana court doesn\u2019t enjoin this again,\u201d contractors plan to put up modular units and include room for the recreational vehicles that house some workers in \u201can entirely self-contained facility.\u201d He added, \u201cI call them trailer houses.\u201d
\nCommissioner Doreen Creed said she is familiar with the company and the man-camps are \u201cvery livable.\u201d However, she noted, road inspection should precede construction. When previous construction stalled out, roadwork was left in \u201cdisastrous\u201d shape, she recalled.
\nPublic input at the commission meeting was foiled by heavy snows, high winds, no-travel advisories and road closures.
\nIn contrast, the courtroom was packed with participants at the Holt County permit hearing in O\u2019Neill, Nebraska, 50 miles southwest of the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation.
\nCommissioners denied permits until the company can prove it has secured easements and until issues with drainage are resolved.
\nThe Oglala Sioux Tribal Finance Committee\u2019s Feb. 27 meeting to hear a report from the tribal attorney on a $50,000 check to the tribe from TransCanada Corp. was cancelled due to a prolonged full Tribal Council schedule that interfered. The next date for that report was set for March 5.
\nThe Native Sun News Today headline on a story about a previous postponement of the report was inaccurate in saying that Pass Creek District Council voted to accept KXL Pipeline money. The investigation has not revealed the check\u2019s whereabouts. TransCanada Corp. has not answered the newspaper\u2019s questions about the check\u2019s return.
\nIn that story, this author also incorrectly identified Everett Little Whiteman as a tribal council representative. The Little Whiteman on the Council is Beau, who is a representative for the Medicine Root District.
\nAll the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty tribes are on record in opposition to the pipeline construction.<\/p>\n

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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In contrast to a Meade County permit meeting in South Dakota, one at Holt County in Nebraska was packed. (Photo courtesy Shannon Graves) STURGIS \u2013The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Ft. Belknap Indian Community held off the Keystone XL Pipeline in federal court on Feb. 25, as agents for the <\/p>\n

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Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> March 4, 2020<\/p>\n

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