But today, a federal judge denied the tribe’s request to stop construction of the pipeline.
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The pipeline was to run just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Aware of the indignities visited upon the Tribe over the last centuries, the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care.
Nonetheless, the judge wrote, the tribe “has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here”. So he denied the request for an injunction. 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. According to Dallas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners, “it will transport approximately 470,000 barrels per day with a capacity as high as 570,000 barrels per day or more – which could represent approximately half of Bakken current daily crude oil production”. Relations between the tribe and corps didn’t improve in 2015, when tribal officials canceled several meetings, according to the ruling. Moreover, the tribe explains, the pipeline also might endanger their lands and water supply.
Shortly after, though, the federal government stepped into the fight, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to “voluntarily pause” action on a wider span that the tribe says holds sacred artifacts.
On Thursday, a state National Guard statement said the governor had asked it “to support law enforcement and augment public safety efforts, in light of recent activity with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest”.
The ruling said Dakota Access hired professional archaeologists to survey the entire route through the Dakotas and much of Iowa and IL for cultural resources.
The president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council said he was disappointed with the government’s decision to intervene and called it “flagrant overreach” that will result in more oil being moved by trucks and trains. On Sept. 6, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a temporary halt to work on a portion of the pipeline following a violent Labor Day weekend altercation between protestors and private security guards at the construction site.
In addition to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, almost 100 more tribes from across the USA, landowners and environmental activists have been voicing opposition to the project.
“The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws”.
If completed, the $3.8 billion pipeline would carry about 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota’s Bakken oilfield to IL. The company says that, pending regulatory approvals, oil was to start flowing late this year. The tribe claims water quality is at stake as the pipeline would be built under the Missouri River.
In a joint statement, the US Justice and Interior Departments and the Army acknowledged “important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations”. “The security officers were hit and jabbed with fence posts and flagpoles”.
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But protesters disputed that account, CNN affiliate KFYR said. They said some National Guard members will work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby.
