The Hill is reporting that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington wrote that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn’t go far enough in defining the environmental impacts or the effects of a possible oil spill on Tribal hunting and fishing rights.
The $3.8 billion pipeline began the interstate delivery of crude oil in May. The parties involved in the order are expected to meet Boasberg next Wednesday to discuss further steps that may need to be taken. The Standing Rock Sioux are expected to call for a halt to the pipeline operations.
In Judge Boasberg’s 91-page opinion, he wrote that the Army Corps of Engineers “did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.”
Basically, Judge Boasberg ruled that the Army Corps, which granted the permit, would need to conduct a new environmental review that takes into consideration the factors that he outlined. As for the pipeline being shut down, the judge wrote that it is a “separate question” that he will consider in the future.
The judge’s decision centers around the fact that after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, he ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up the permitting of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they did. The Corps decision, made on February 3, was “devoid of any discussion” of the evidence of risk that the tribe had submitted, the judge wrote.
The Army Corps has all along dismissed the tribe’s concerns, citing the project’s “state-of-the-art construction techniques” and “use of high-quality materials and standards.”In their environmental assessment, the Corps stated: “There will be no direct or indirect effects to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.”
