US Army Corps Says Oil Should Keep Flowing Through Dakota Access Pipeline in Study

(Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Dakota Access Pipeline environmental impact statement, recommending that the pipeline keep operating but with some new conditions for its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota.

The pipeline has been operating since June 2017, carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field to Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has opposed the project and challenged it in court, citing concerns about impacts to the tribe’s Missouri River water supply.

A judge ordered the Army Corps to conduct the study in 2020 after he found the federal government unlawfully had granted an easement allowing the pipeline to pass underneath the Lake Oahe reservoir on the Missouri without taking a full account of the potential environmental impacts. The pipeline has been operating without the easement for the past five years.

The 464-page environmental impact statement evaluated five paths forward for the project. One option would allow the pipeline to continue operating with no changes, while another would add new conditions. Two options involve shutting down the pipeline, either leaving the pipe in the ground or removing it. A fifth option would reroute the pipeline north of Bismarck, requiring more permitting and new construction.