Corps sees no new impact in Dakota Access pipeline review

BISMARCK, N.D. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday completed more than a year of additional study of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, saying the work substantiated its earlier determination that the pipeline poses no significant environmental threats.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in June 2017 ruled that the Corps “largely complied” with environmental law when permitting the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline built by Texas-based Energy Transfers Partners.

However, the judge also ordered more study because he said the agency didn’t adequately consider how an oil spill under the Missouri River might affect the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fishing and hunting rights, or whether it might disproportionately affect the tribal community — a concept known as environmental justice.

In its initial analysis of the Missouri River crossing that skirts the northern edge of the Standing Rock Reservation along the North Dakota-South Dakota border, the Corps studied the mostly white demographics in a half-mile radius, which the agency maintained is standard. But if the Corps had gone another 88 yards — not quite the length of a football field — the study would have included the reservation.

The tribe accused the Corps of gerrymandering. The tribe believes an oil spill from the pipeline under the Lake Oahe reservoir on the Missouri River — from which the reservation draws its water — could have a detrimental effect on the tribal community. Standing Rock is leading a lawsuit joined by three other Dakotas tribes seeking to shut down the pipeline.

The Corps said in its summary filed with the court Friday that the chances of an oil spill are low and any impacts to hunting and fishing “will be of limited scope and duration.” On the environmental justice issue, the agency said minority populations, including the tribe, and low-income groups are not at greater risk of “adverse human health or environmental effects.”

Mike Faith Jr., the Standing Rock chairman, said the corps failed to take a fresh look at the risks as was ordered by Boasberg.

“Instead, we got a cynical and one-sided document designed to paper over mistakes, not address the tribe’s legitimate concerns,” Faith said in a statement. He said the tribe is deciding on its next step.