Standing Rock Appeals Dismissal of Latest Dakota Access Pipeline Lawsuit

(BY: MARY STEURER. North Dakota Monitor) – The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a federal judge’s decision to dismiss its latest lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Standing Rock filed the lawsuit in October, asking the court to find the pipeline must be shut down because it still lacks an easement authorizing it to pass under the Missouri River’s Lake Oahe reservoir, which is regulated by the Army Corps.

“The Corps of Engineers has not earned the trust of our Tribe,” Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire said in a statement last week announcing the appeal. “We cannot rely on the Corps to properly evaluate DAPL, so we are continuing our legal efforts to protect our water and our people from this dangerous pipeline.”

The Army Corps originally granted the easement to the pipeline’s developer in 2017, but Boasberg revoked it in 2020 after finding the agency had issued the permit without completing the full environmental review required by federal law. The matter was brought to him through a lawsuit the tribe filed against the Army Corps in 2016.