A federal judge has sided with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down until a more extensive environmental review is carried out.
US district judge James Boasberg had previously said the pipeline, which has been in operation three years, remained “highly controversial” under federal environmental law, and a more extensive review was necessary after an environmental assessment by the US army corps of engineers.
In a 24-page order on Monday, Boasberg wrote that he was “mindful of the disruption such a shutdown will cause” but said he had concluded that the pipeline must be shut down for an environmental impact statement (EIS).
“Clear precedent favoring vacatur [an order setting aside a previous judgment] during such a remand coupled with the seriousness of the Corps’ deficiencies outweighs the negative effects of halting the oil flow for the 13 months that the Corps believes the creation of an EIS will take,” Boasberg wrote.
Boasberg had ordered both parties to submit briefs on whether the pipeline should continue operating during the new environmental review.
The $3.8bn (£3bn) pipeline was the subject of months of protests, sometimes violent, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.
The 1,172-mile (1,886km) underground pipeline carries oil from North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa and to a terminal in Illinois. Just north of the Standing Rock reservation, it crosses beneath the Missouri River. The tribe draws its water from the river and fears pollution. The Texas-based Energy Transfer insists the pipeline is safe.
In December 2016, the Obama administration denied permits for the pipeline to cross the Missouri River and ordered a full environmental review to analyze alternative routes and the impact on the tribe’s treaty rights.
In his first week in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order to expedite construction. Construction was completed in June 2017.
The tribe challenged the permits – and won. As a result, the corps was ordered to redo its environmental analysis, which it did without taking into consideration tribal concerns or expert views.
The court ordered Energy Transfer to shut and empty the 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) line within 30 days, closing off the biggest artery transporting crude oil out of North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin to midwest and Gulf coast regions.
Energy Transfer said it was looking at legal and administrative measures to avoid a shutdown and was considering an appeal if those efforts failed.
In a filing seeking a temporary stay to the order, the company argued that time-consuming and expensive steps were required to shut the pipeline down safely and empty it of oil, which would take much more than 30 days.
If the motion for stay pending an appeal was denied by the district court, the company said, it intended to file one in the Washington DC circuit court.