Army ends study of disputed pipeline
Dakota protesters place hopes in court
BISMARCK, N.D. — The Army on Friday formally ended further environmental study of the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s disputed crossing beneath a Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota.
Meanwhile, its Corps of Engineers branch continued efforts to accelerate cleanup at a protest camp near the drilling site that’s threatened by spring flooding.
The Corps launched the study on Jan. 18 in light of concerns from the Standing Rock Sioux and other Native American tribes that a pipeline leak beneath Lake Oahe would pollute drinking water.
President Donald Trump a week later pushed to advance pipeline construction, and the Army gave Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners permission for the crossing on Feb. 8. Work quickly began on the final chunk of construction.
Pipeline opponents have continued to call for more study despite the fact that ETP has said the $3.8 billion pipeline to move North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois could be operating as early as next month. More than 100,000 comments had already been submitted for the study, according to the Indigenous Environmental Network.
The Army published notice Friday in the Federal Register that it was scrapping the study.
The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux also are fighting the pipeline work in court, with the next hearing set for Feb. 28. In the meantime, hundreds of pipeline opponents have continued to occupy a camp near the drilling site in North Dakota.
State and federal authorities have told the few hundred people remaining in the camp to leave by Wednesday.