Dakota Access pipeline could open next week after activists face final court loss

A federal judge declined Tuesday to temporarily stop construction of the final section of the disputed Dakota Access pipeline, clearing the way for oil to flow as soon as next week.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux had asked the US district judge James Boasberg in Washington to direct the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw permission for the Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners to lay pipe under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

The stretch under the Missouri river reservoir in southern North Dakota is the last piece of construction for the $3.8bn pipeline to move North Dakota oil to Illinois.

The tribes argued that construction under the lake violated their right to practice their religion, which relies on clean water, and they wanted the work suspended until the claim could be resolved.

When they filed the lawsuit last summer, the tribes argued that the pipeline threatened Native American cultural sites and their water supply. Their religion argument was new, however, and disputed by both the corps and the company.
Boasberg in his ruling Tuesday said the tribes hadn’t raised the religion argument in a timely fashion.

“Only once Dakota Access had built up to the water’s edge and the corps had granted the easement [for drilling] to proceed did Cheyenne River inform defendants that the pipeline was the realization of a long-held prophecy about a Black Snake and that the mere presence of oil in the pipeline under the lakebed would interfere with tribe’s members’ ability to engage in important religious practices,” the judge said.

Boasberg said he was likely to allow the tribes to continue making the religion argument, though he did not think it was likely to succeed.

“Although the tribe’s members may feel unable to use the water from Lake Oahe in their religious ceremonies once the pipeline is operational, there is no specific ban on their religious exercise,” he said.

The judge’s decision came as Native Americans from across the country gathered in Washington to protest Donald Trump’s policies encouraging oil pipelines. Native Americans are planning four days of activities, including lobbying lawmakers and culminating in a march on the White House. Tribal members and supporters plan to camp each day on the National Mall, with tipis, a ceremonial fire, cultural workshops and speakers.

In February, Boasberg declined the tribes’ request to order an immediate halt to the pipeline construction, ruling that as long as oil wasn’t flowing through the pipeline, there was no imminent harm to the tribes.

The tribal attorney Nicole Ducheneaux countered in court documents that the mere existence of an oil pipeline under the reservoir the tribes consider to be “sacred waters” violated their right to practice their religion. The court battle is not over, as no final decision has been made on the merits of the tribes’ overall claims.

Both tribes also have asked Boasberg to overturn the federal permission for the Lake Oahe crossing and to bar the corps from granting permission in the future. 

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd