Additional review of environmental impact of Dakota Access Pipeline underway
A judge has ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline will continue to transport oil even though authorities are currently conducting an additional environmental impact review.
Last week in Washington, US District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled in favour of the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes who argued that a more detailed environmental analysis of the DAPL should have been carried out.
The two tribes went to court to argue that the pipeline that carries crude from the Bakken to the Midwest and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico violates their hunting, fishing and environmental rights.
Reuters reports on Wednesday, Boasberg released a schedule of hearings that will decide what will happen to the pipeline while the review is underway.
When asked by the judge for an estimate on how long the review would take, the lawyer for the US Army Corps of Engineers, the group handling the environmental review, would not give an answer.
The judge could shut down the pipeline at a later date following a series of hearings set to occur this summer.
Jan Hasselman, lawyer for the tribes said “Our view has been that the pipeline should be shut down.”
ETP, the company that owns and operates the line said on Wednesday that it was “pleased with the judge’s decision”.
Last summer protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline shut down construction of the contentious line for months.
