Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind Dakota Access, is also proposing to build the Trans Pecos Pipeline to ship Texas natural gas to Mexico, a matrix of cryogenic and fractionation plants in western Pennsylvania, and the Mariner East Pipeline system to bring natural gas liquids to from the Marcellus Shale to coastal chemical plants and export.
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The tribe argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had a duty under the National Historic Preservation Act to consult with the tribe before issuing a permit for the pipeline, but the judge wrote that the corps probably has complied with the law.
Protests across the country brought in a small victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their many supporters when the USA government promised to temporarily halt all construction on government owned land.
The US government conceded that this case has “highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects”.
‘I was doing my job by covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray on Native American protesters’. The corps was not required to consider the effects along the entire pipeline route because the corps has jurisdiction only where the route crosses water, he noted. Despite vast cultural differences, Native tribes see themselves as protectors of the land, said Hopkins of Indian Country Today.
The government intervened and said the matter needed more consideration, and blocked any work on federal land near or underneath Lake Oahe, a major water source formed by the damming of the Missouri River.
“It’s solidarity with No Dakota Access Pipeline that we’re here for and for our treaties’ rights as indigenous peoples – to keep those sacred treaty rights”, she added.
The government is also asking the pipeline company to voluntarily pause all construction within 20 miles of the lake pending a thorough review of the permits, which they pledged would be conducted “expeditiously”.
A protest is planned at the North Dakota Capitol from until 6 p.m. Friday.
Barack Obama has paused the construction of a massive oil pipeline after thousands of Native Americans protested against it.
North Dakota authorities announced a mobilization of law enforcement at the protest site and National Guard members were dispatched to work security at traffic checkpoints. The Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association has asked the federal Justice Department to send monitors to the site because it said racial profiling is occurring.
Late last month, more than two dozen people were arrested across two states while protesting the project.
On Thursday, North Dakota’s archaeologist said a piece of private land that was not previously surveyed by the state would be surveyed for artifacts next week.
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The company plans to complete the pipeline this year. The Departments of Justice and Interior said they would not comment beyond what was written in the joint press release.
