Great news for people standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline. A federal court Wednesday approved a request by North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to strike down federal permits for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, environmental law group Earthjustice reports.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it affirmed 2016 federal permits for the pipeline. The decision also noted that documented concerns over oil spillage and its potential impact on area residents, primarily members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, remain unresolved.
“This validates everything the Tribe has been saying all along about the risk of oil spills to the people of Standing Rock,” said Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman. “The Obama administration had it right when it moved to deny the permits in 2016, and this is the second time the Court has ruled that the government ran afoul of environmental laws when it permitted this pipeline. We will continue to see this through until DAPL has finally been shut down.”
The Court ordered the Corps to prepare a full environmental impact statement on the pipeline, something that the Tribe has sought from the beginning of this controversy. The Court asked the parties to submit additional briefing on the question of whether to shut down the pipeline in the interim.
“After years of commitment to defending our water and earth, we welcome this news of a significant legal win,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chair Mike Faith. “It’s humbling to see how actions we took four years ago to defend our ancestral homeland continue to inspire national conversations about how our choices ultimately affect this planet. Perhaps in the wake of this court ruling the federal government will begin to catch on, too, starting by actually listening to us when we voice our concerns.”
