In another attempt to challenge the Dakota Access LLC oil pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe asked a federal court to halt operations at the Energy Transfer LP-led project until a full environmental review is completed.
Earthjustice, on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, filed a motion Aug. 16 with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking the court to vacate an easement granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and order the agency to prepare an environmental impact statement for the project. The Standing Rock Sioux said that during the reevaluation of the easement, the Army Corps "never engaged with the tribe or its technical experts, shared critical information, or responded to the tribe's concerns."
"Instead, the Corps outsourced most of the remand to [Dakota Access], and ignored the tribe's criticisms as well as its demands for transparency," the tribe wrote in the legal filing. "The result is an irretrievably flawed decision, developed through a process that fell far short of legal standards."
The tribe also hit out at Energy Transfer's plan to nearly double Dakota Access' capacity to up to 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil from 570,000 bbl/d. "With [Dakota Access'] proposal to double the flow of the pipeline, the unexamined risks to the tribe continue to grow," according to the motion.
The case centered on the Army Corps' easement for the final portion of Dakota Access granted in February 2017, which allowed Energy Transfer to proceed with construction. In June 2017, the federal court ruled that the Army Corps failed to adequately consider all the environmental impacts of the pipeline, returning the matter to the agency for further review.
The Army Corps completed the extended review in September 2018, determining that the project has no significant environmental impacts on minority populations, including tribes. The review also found that the permits would not lead to any significant impacts on hunting and fishing resources from oil spills as the risk of such an incident is low.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe called the remand process "insincere" in an Aug. 16 statement. "This illegal and dangerous pipeline must be shut down," tribe Chairman Mike Faith said.
Dakota Access consists of about 1,172 miles of 30-inch-diameter pipeline that transports oil from the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations in North Dakota to a distribution center in Patoka, Ill., according to its website. The pipeline started service in June 2017. The planned expansion in North Dakota would cost between $30 million and $40 million, and construction work is expected to begin by late 2020, according to a June 20 fact sheet. (Case No. 1:16-cv-01534)
