The Native Americans who put up a fight against construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota aren’t giving up and neither is the builder of the line.
Energy Transfer Partners based in Dallas and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have filed separate documents in Washington, D.C. federal court opposing plans by the tribes to strengthen protections for their water supply.
Lawyers for ETP and the Army Corps of Engineers contend the proposals from the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux are unwarranted and unnecessary. The tribes want stronger protections of the Missouri River’s Lake Oahe reservoir where the nearly $4 billion pipeline crosses. Both tribes get water from the lake and still believe a pipeline leak will contaminate their water.
The two are among four tribes that have sued to shut down the line. But U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is allowing ETP to move oil through the line while also requiring the Corps to review the project’s impact on the tribes.
