St. Pete residents join national DAPL protest day

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - At least 50 people gathered in a St. Pete park Tuesday to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The pipeline is being built on Native American lands in Standing Rock, North Dakota and has attracted thousands of Native Americans and their supporters who say it will destroy sacred sites and potentially contaminate their water.

Protesters at the pipeline site have clashed - sometimes violently - with police and security.

Energy Transfer Partners, which owns the nearly $4 billion pipeline, calls it an ‘economic boon’ that will lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

The Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity says the group wants to help protect our nation's water, Native American rights and national law.

Standing Rock residents asked people all over the world to stand with them Tuesday to stop the pipeline.

President Obama has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to look for another pipeline route that would bypass the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.