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Senator: Army Corps told to approve Dakota pipeline easement

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cleanup began Monday at a North Dakota encampment near Cannon Ball where Dakota Access oil pipeline opponents have protested for months. The Standing Rock Sioux organized the cleanup with the help of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corp. from South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.

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Grandma Redfeather of the Sioux Native American tribe walked in the snow, Nov. 29, to get water at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D. “It’s for my people to live and so that the next seven generations can live also,” said Redfeather of why she came to the camp. “I think about my grandchildren and what it will be like for them.”

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Law enforcement officers, left, dragged a person from an Oct. 10 protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of St. Anthony in rural Morton County, N.D. North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said, Tuesday, that the Acting Secretary of the Army has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with an easement necessary to complete the Dakota Access pipeline.

BISMARCK, N.D. >> The acting secretary of the Army has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to allow construction of the Dakota Access pipeline under a Missouri River reservoir, a North Dakota senator said, the latest twist in the months-long legal battle over the $3.8 billion project.

The Standing Rock Sioux, whose opposition to the project attracted the support of thousands of protesters from around the country to North Dakota, immediately vowed to return to court to stop it.

Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican, announced late Tuesday that Robert Speer directed the Army Corps of Engineers to “proceed” with an easement necessary to complete the pipeline. President Donald Trump signed an executive order signaling his support for the project a week ago.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost today said the Army has begun its review.

“These initial steps do not mean the easement has been approved,” Frost said.

Hoeven spokesman Don Canton said Speer’s move means the easement “isn’t quite issued yet, but they plan to approve it” within days.

The crossing under Lake Oahe, a wide section of the Missouri River in southern North Dakota, is the final big chunk of work on the pipeline designed to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.

The pipeline has been the target of months of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation lies near the pipeline’s route and who have argued that it’s a threat to water and tribal artifacts.

The tribe has vowed to challenge any granting of the easement in court, and Chairman Dave Archambault renewed that vow Tuesday night.

“If it does become a done deal in the next few days, we’ll take it to the judicial system,” Archambault said. He added: “This is a good indicator of what this country is going to be up against in the next four years. So America has to brace itself.”

The developer, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, said the pipeline would be safe.

An environmental assessment conducted last year determined the crossing would not have a significant impact on the environment. However, then-Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy on Dec. 4 declined to issue an easement, saying a broader environmental study was warranted.

Energy Transfer Partners called Darcy’s decision politically motivated and accused then-President Barack Obama’s administration of delaying the matter until he left office. Two days before he left the White House, the Corps launched an environmental impact study of the crossing that could take up to two years to complete.

On Jan. 24, just four days after he took office, Trump signed an executive action telling the Corps to quickly reconsider the Dec. 4 decision.

The company appears poised to begin drilling under the lake immediately. Workers have already drilled entry and exit holes for the Oahe crossing, and the company has put oil in the pipeline leading up to the lake in anticipation of finishing the project, its executive vice president Joey Mahmoud said in court documents filed earlier this month.

Hundreds and at times thousands of pipeline opponents calling themselves “water protectors” have camped on federal land near the crossing site since August, often clashing with police and prompting more than 625 arrests. The camp’s population has thinned to fewer than 300 due to harsh winter weather and a plea by Archambault for the camp to disband before the spring flooding season.

One response to “Senator: Army Corps told to approve Dakota pipeline easement”

  1. Kukuinunu says:

    The Corps presents itself as an impartial regulator of the nation’s laws. Let us see if they make an impartial decision in the Standing Rock case. Being told to grant a permit by a political appointee appears to taint the decision-making process. If that is the order, they why even have a review process?. Why even issue a permit? This is sounding like a two-bit banana republic where thugs issue orders. If this is how the government is to operate now, we no longer need any environmental reviews. Uniformed personnel swear to refuse unlawful orders. Both civilian and uniformed employees swear to uphold and defend the constitution. We saw some backbone in the leadership of the DOJ earlier this week, is there backbone in the Army? In the Corps?

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