Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline To Shut Down
A ruling Monday morning may signal a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal members and environmentalists who have opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The pipeline runs from the North Dakota Bakken oil fields area to the southeast ending around Patoka, Illinois. There has been great controversy concerning the safety of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the fact that it runs beneath Lake Oahe in North Dakota and South Dakota.
The pipeline was completed in 2017. Prior to its completion, there was a much-publicized protest that evolved it to a national effort to stop the pipeline's construction. In 2016 thousands of native Americans and others set up a protest camp to obstruct the pipeline works and impede the progress of the project.
CNN is reporting that a decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has “vacated an easement granted by the US Army Corps of Engineers that allowed Dakota Access to build a segment of the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe in North and South Dakota.”
The court had previously required that an environmental impact study as a provision for the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline. That study was never done.
Now the court has ruled that the pipeline be shut down and emptied while the environmental impact study is completed. This could take around 13 months.