Corps fights tribal request for more pipeline study records
Source: Associated Press
Blake Nicholson, Associated Press Updated 2:23 pm CDT, Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Photo: Tom Stromme, AP
FILE - This Feb. 13, 2017, aerial file photo shows a site where the final phase of the Dakota Access Pipeline crosses beneath the Missouri River in North Dakota, just north of the Standing Rock Reservation in Emmons County in Cannon Ball, N.D. Federal officials who permitted the Dakota Access oil pipeline are turning over a few documents sought by American Indian tribes suing over the project. But they say a request for dozens more records is vague and overly broad and should be rejected by a federal judge. The pipeline developer also is asking the judge to deny the tribal request, saying it's meritless and will cause needless delay in an already protracted legal fight. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File)
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal officials who permitted the Dakota Access oil pipeline are turning over some documents sought by American Indian tribes suing over the project, but said a request for dozens more records is vague and overly broad and should be rejected by a federal judge.
Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which built the pipeline that's now moving North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois, also implored U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Monday to deny the tribal request, saying it's meritless and will "inject needless delay into a case that already has seen more than its fair share."
The tribal lawsuit has lingered since July 2016. Boasberg in June 2017 ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers "largely complied" with environmental law when permitting the $3.8 billion pipeline, but he ordered more study on tribal impacts. The Corps in August 2018 said more than a year of study had substantiated its earlier determination that the pipeline doesn't pose a higher risk of adverse impacts to minorities.
The agency last month turned over to the tribes documents it used in making that determination. The Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Yankton and Oglala Sioux are challenging the Corps assertion and accused the agency of withholding about 50 documents .
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Corps-fights-tribal-request-for-more-pipeline-13682788.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
