The US government’s move effectively blocks the firm behind Dakota Access Pipeline from construction around a lake and its surrounding areas, until further consultation with Native American tribes.
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The $3.8 billion pipeline will carry 450,000 barrels of crude oil each day from North Dakota to IL.
Late Friday afternoon, a federal judge denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s motion to stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota. “We request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe”.
Immediately after Friday’s decision by the U.S. District Court to deny the Standing Rock Sioux’s request for an injunction to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Obama Administration swooped in to temporarily stop construction bordering Lake Oahe on the Missouri River. Meanwhile, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to send federal monitors to the protest, alleging racial profiling.
The statement by the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior said it would “reconsider any of its previous decisions” on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe, one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River and the drinking water source for the tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
He called the federal announcement “a lovely start” and told reporters that the dispute is a long way from over.
“In Bismarck, there’s a lot of people on the ground”, said Brave Bull Allard, a community leader on whose land a camp of demonstrators has grown in recent weeks. “Our message is heard”.
The three departments released an official statement mentioning the case highlights the need to consider “nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects”.
The 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline, which would have spanned four states and cost £2.9billion, would have run right through the path of important spiritual, historical and cultural landmarks.
The administration said construction would halt until it can do more environmental assessments, Kallanish Energy reports. Almost 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. “They should be thinking for the future and how it’s going to be then”, said Jordin, who is 13. The agency also said it does not oppose extending a temporary restraining order until September 16, when the parties meet again for a status conference.
The company building the hotly contested North Dakota oil pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, went to extraordinary lengths to avoid trampling Native American ritual sites.
Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for the company, said it had no comment. About a dozen Guard members are manning a traffic information point on State Highway 1806 to free up law enforcement to have a visible presence near the protest site.
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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.
