The tribe at the forefront of the fight against the Dakota Access oil pipeline has filed a new legal challenge to the line’s continued operation, saying the owner lacks official permission to cross federal land — and shouldn’t get it.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe also argues its petition that the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the pipeline’s presence violates treaties signed in the 1800s and ignores the environmental record of Energy Transfer, which owns the pipeline that runs from western North Dakota to a storage terminal in Illinois.
The tribe also alleges that contractors for Dallas-based Energy Transfer intentionally destroyed tribal burial sites during construction preparations in 2016. The suit was filed Monday — Indigenous Peoples’ Day — in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The legal action represents a new tactic on the part of the tribe, which for years has tried to shut Dakota Access down by arguing the Army Corps did an inadequate environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act when granting the original easement under Lake Oahe. The Army Corps-operated reservoir, which is in both North Dakota and South Dakota, serves as the primary water supply for the tribe’s reservation. The litigation over the environmental review is ongoing.