Standing Rock Sioux Tribe seeks hearing on expansion of Dakota Access Pipeline

Thursday, July 11, 2019  

The backers of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline are seeking to double operations in North Dakota.

The pipeline is currently approved to transport up to 500,000 barrels of oil a day. The operators are seeking to move up to 1,100,000 barrels a day, according to documents on file with the North Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

The application, submitted June 20, was deemed complete by the commission on Wednesday. That same day, the members approved a notice of opportunity for a hearing on the proposed expansion.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose leaders continue to oppose the existence of the pipeline running through their homelands, plans to push for a hearing, The Bismarck Tribune reported. Requests are due August 9, the paper said.

“The tribe wants the pipeline shut down; however, there is a proposal on the table,” attorney Jan Hasselman of the non-profit Earthjustice law firm, told the paper. “Someone needs to be accountable to make sure that’s safe and legal.”

Earthjustice is representing the tribe in an ongoing lawsuit against the pipeline. A federal judge recently ordered the Trump administration to turn over more documents related to the way the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviewed the project, which runs through federally-managed land that was originally promised to the tribe by treaty.

Judge James Boasberg previously ruled that the Army Corps approved the final portion of the pipeline near Standing Rock without fulling considering all of the impacts on the tribe. However, he repeatedly refused to halt operations since it went into service in June 2016.

The final portion of the pipeline crosses the Missouri River at Lake Oahe. The site is about a half-mile from the reservation border.

The tribe, as well as other Sioux Nation signatories to treaties with the federal government, retain water, hunting and other rights on the land.

The North Dakota Public Utilities Commission docket for the Dakota Access Pipeline expansion is PU-19-204. The docket for the original project is PU-14-842.

Tribe, pipeline opponents plan to request state hearing on DAPL expansion (The Bismarck Tribune June 11, 2019)
PSC looking at Dakota Access capacity plans (Prairie Public Broadcasting July 11, 2019)

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