The US government on Monday hit the brakes on a controversial oil pipeline in the state of North Dakota, handing a partial victory to protesting Native Americans. The US Army Corps of Engineers, which needs to grant final permission for the Dakota Access Pipeline to be built under the Missouri River and the man-made Lake Oahe, said it has determined that more analysis and discussion are necessary instead.
"While these discussions are ongoing, construction on or under Corps land bordering Lake Oahe cannot occur," The Army said in a statement. The decision is a partial victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The waterways are its drinking water source, and the tribe has objected to building the 1,172-mile (1,886 km) pipeline underneath the river and lake for fear that it might leak. The tribe wants the pipeline's route altered away from lands near its reservation, which the tribe claims also contain sacred historic artifacts.
"Millions of people have literally and spiritually stood with us at Standing Rock. And for this, you have our deepest thanks and gratitude," the tribe's chairman Dave Archambault said in a statement hailing the decision. "The harmful and dehumanising tactics by the state of North Dakota and corporate bullies did not go unnoticed because of you." But the pipeline's owners denounced the Army's move, saying it lacked "legal or factual justification."
"This action is motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules it was given," Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, said in a written statement, claiming the process was a "sham" that "sends a frightening message about the rule of law."