Construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock reservation has been halted. But the federal government quickly stepped in Friday by stopping work on one section and asking the pipeline company to do the same on a larger 40-mile swath.
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Industry consultant Brigham McCown, a former acting administrator for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said the Obama administration’s involvement has “changed the lay of the land forever” for infrastructure projects.
The plaintiffs claim the tribe was not properly consulted before the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipeline project, which would run from North Dakota to South Dakota, Iowa and IL.
The move came shortly after US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington rejected a request from Native Americans for a court order to block the project.
It follows clashes between protesters and private security guards at the Dakota Access pipeline construction site in North Dakota on September 3, with Goodman’s footage showing bite injuries inflicted on protesters picked up by major national news outlets.
The language which the Obama Administration used in halting the construction, though, is essentially a request to the company, but whether or not they choose to comply and voluntarily stop their project has yet to be seen. “It’s a win for indigenous people”, said Dave Archambault Standing Rock Sioux Chairmen. Construction has already damaged sites of significant cultural significance to the Standing Rock Sioux, and continues to threaten further sites.
Environmental and local activists believe that the transporting of up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil a day will imperil local waterways.
A joint statement from the Army and the Departments of Justice and the Interior in the USA said construction bordering or under Lake Oahe would not go forward, and asked the Texas-based pipeline construction company Energy Transfer Partners to stop work 20 miles to the east and west of the lake, while the government reconsiders “any of its previous decisions”.
Four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured, officials said, while a tribal spokesman said six people including a child were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. Before speaking to the crowd, Archambault told reporters that the pipeline fight is a long way from over, but called the federal announcement “a handsome start”.
The agencies’ decision also prompted a jubilant celebration 35 miles south, where an estimated 5,000 opponents descended for a historic, and mostly peaceful, protest against the pipeline’s construction.
In Des Moines, Iowa, a nonviolent civil disobedience event was scheduled for Saturday to protest the use of eminent domain to seize land for DAPL construction in that state.
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In their joint statement, the three departments said they would invite Native American leaders to meetings this fall to discuss how the federal government can better consider the tribes’ views and respect their land.
