Judge approves North Dakota’s request to intervene in Dakota Access pipeline lawsuit

Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline gather Nov. 1, 2023, in Bismarck ahead of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public meeting on an environmental impact statement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes the pipeline, citing concerns about their water supply. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

A federal judge this week approved the state of North Dakota’s request to intervene as a co-defendant in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The demand, presented in Octoberaccuses the Army Corps of illegally allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to operate without an easement, sufficient environmental study or robust emergency spill response plans, among other alleged violations. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe ultimately wants a federal judge to order the pipeline shut down.

North Dakota argued in court filings last month that shutting down the pipeline, also known as DAPL, would cause the state government to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. putting thousands of jobs at risk and hampering regional supply chains. North Dakota also asserted that a federal court order exhausting DAPL would violate the state’s right to regulate its own lands and resources.

The Army Corps of Engineers has regulatory jurisdiction over a portion of the pipeline that passes under the Missouri River directly upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation.

Standing Rock opposes the pipeline out of fear that it infringes on the tribe’s sovereignty, has disturbed sacred cultural sites and threatens to contaminate the tribe’s water supply.

Energy Transfer, the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline, has not requested to intervene in the lawsuit.

The case is before U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who oversaw the tribe’s 2016 lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers against the pipeline.

In 2021, North Dakota filed a motion to join that lawsuit as well, but Boasberg denied the request because the case was in the process of concluding.

In a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in 2019, North Dakota is seeking $38 million from the U.S. government for costs it says it incurred policing Dakota Access pipeline protests due to alleged negligence by the Corps. of Army Engineers. the suit went to trial in February.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, in operation since 2017, transports crude oil from northwestern North Dakota to Illinois. Their path includes unceded lands recognized as belonging to the Sioux Nation under an 1851 treaty with the United States government.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES IN YOUR INBOX