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“The corps puts our water and the lives and livelihoods of many in jeopardy”, Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement.
The company, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, plans construction of a $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile project that’s already begun in Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Corps spokeswoman Eileen Williamson said she couldn’t comment on pending litigation, but that the agency’s review of the pipeline found “no significant impacts to the environment or historic properties”.
Williamson said similar permits are pending in IL and South Dakota. It would transport crude oil from the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation to an interconnect with ETP’s existing Trunkline pipeline at Pakota.
Williamson said the Corps listened to the concerns of tribes and has done its best to address them.
The Corps of Engineers did not immediately return telephone calls from The Associated Press on Thursday.
“We can now move forward with construction in all areas as quickly as possible in order to limit construction activities to one growing season and have construction completed by the end of this year”, said pipeline spokeswoman, Lisa Dillinger.
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Energy Transfer Partners announced the project in 2014, just days after North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple urged industry and government officials to build more pipelines to keep pace with the state’s oil production. Bold Iowa, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and other groups in the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition say they remain steadfast in their opposition to the pipeline for environmental, social and moral reasons. “Everybody feels hurt by this project, including our kids. I think that we are hopeful as the folks who are committed continue to ratchet up the tension and ratchet up the direct action, that we’ll see more folks from Iowa and from outside Iowa really come to Iowa to get involved in this”, according to Mason.
