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Federal officials approved a long-contested easement that allows the Dakota Access oil pipeline to continue operating its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The decision, announced in Bismarck, North Dakota, arrives nearly a decade after large protests against the project on the North Dakota prairie.
The Corps said its decision means the pipeline will keep operating but under added conditions aimed at detecting leaks and monitoring groundwater and surface water. The agency described the approval as putting years of delays to rest while allowing federal officials to execute the crossing “beneath Lake Oahe” safely.
The pipeline developer, Energy Transfer, welcomed the ruling, saying the pipeline has operated safely for nearly 10 years and remains important to the country’s energy infrastructure. A company spokesperson, Vicki Granado, said the Corps spent significant time and effort to bring the matter to a close.
The approval relates to the section of the pipeline that crosses the Missouri River upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, which spans the Dakotas. The tribe has opposed the pipeline for years, saying it fears a spill and contamination of its water supply and has challenged the project in court.
Standing Rock’s opposition grew during the 2016 and 2017 protests, when thousands of people camped and demonstrated near the river crossing. The protests led to hundreds of arrests and related criminal cases, and they also spawned lawsuits; some of those cases remain in litigation, including litigation that threatens the future of the environmental group Greenpeace.
In a statement, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Steve Sitting Bear said the tribe will evaluate legal and political options to defend its Treaty rights, protect Mni Wiconi — “Water of Life” — and hold the federal government and private corporations accountable to environmental stewardship and tribal consultation. The tribe said it would continue to press its case in federal court, asserting that the Corps’ environmental review does not address threats to tribal homelands and drinking water and does not adequately address alleged federal law violations or spill response planning.
The Corps’ action came after the agency issued a final environmental impact statement in December, nearly six years after a federal judge ordered a more rigorous review. In that statement, the Corps endorsed granting the easement for the crossing and continuing the pipeline’s operation with modifications.
Among the modifications the Corps said it endorsed are enhanced leak detection and monitoring systems, expanded groundwater and surface water monitoring, and third-party expert evaluation of leak detection systems. The conditions also include water supply contingency planning and other studies coordinated with affected tribes.
The Corps said it weighed other options, including removing or abandoning the river crossing or rerouting it north. In explaining its choice, the Corps said its decision best balances public safety, protection of environmental resources, and leak detection and response considerations while meeting the project’s purpose and need.
Federal and state officials aligned with the decision. North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong, Interior Secretary and former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, and U.S. senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer — all Republicans — welcomed the approval, saying it would allow the pipeline to continue operating.
The decision was announced as energy and oil industry figures gathered in Bismarck for a trade conference. It also comes as Energy Transfer and Enbridge move through early stages on a project that would move about 250,000 daily barrels of light Canadian crude oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline by using another pipeline and building a 56-mile connecting line, with Enbridge expected to decide whether to proceed in mid-2026.