Obama Administration Orders Halt On North Dakota Pipeline Construction

Months of protest, culminating in a violent confrontation over Labor Day weekend, has led the Obama Administration to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline until an environmental assessment can be completed. The decision comes on the same day that a federal judge denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s suit to halt construction.

“Aware of the indignities visited upon the Tribe over the last centuries, the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care,” Judge James Boasberg, the federal judge who denied the suit, wrote, reports ABC News. “Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.”

“The Army will move expeditiously to make this [environmental] determination, as everyone involved — including the pipeline company and its workers — deserves a clear and timely resolution,” the Army, US Department of Interior, and Justice Department wrote in a September 9 joint statement, reports The Hill. “In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe.”

The Standing Rock Sioux argues that the Dakota Access Pipeline is built across historically and religiously significant tribal land, and that the pipe’s proximity to the Missouri River raises concern over water safety.

“These [federal provisions] are intended to slow this process down, so that they can make sure the right environmental decision is being made,” Sarah Krakoff, professor of environmental resource and Indian law at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told The Atlantic. She later added, “the Clean Water Act has substantive provisions that prefer good environmental outcomes to bad. And the proximity of this pipeline to their main water source does make their legal case stronger than some I’ve seen.”

Sources: The Hill, The Atlantic, ABC News / Photo Credit: Alyssa Schukar / The New York Times