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<h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3">Note: attachment is also copied here:</font></span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="6">Breaking: DAPL Approval Illegal, Judge Finds</font></span></h1>
<h2 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="5">Judge James Boasberg’s 91-page decision says
U.S. Army Corps ‘did not adequately consider’ oil spill impacts; no ruling on
whether to keep DAPL operational</font></span></h2>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><a title="Posts by ICMN Staff" href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/author/icmn-staff/"><font color="#b22217" face="Times New Roman" size="3">ICMN Staff</font></a></span></span><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> • </font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">June 14, 2017 </font></span></span></div>
<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the
law in its fast-tracked approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a U.S.
District Court Judge in Washington
D.C. has ruled. Judge James
Boasberg said the Corps did not consider key components of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in granting the Lake Oahe
</font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">easement under the Missouri River
when directed to do so by President Donald Trump shortly after his swearing-in.</font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3"> </font></span></div>
<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, with the Cheyenne River Sioux as
interveners, had challenged the approval on the grounds that adequate
environmental study had not been conducted. Boasberg agreed on many points,
though he did not rule on whether the pipeline should remain operational. It
has been </font><a href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/dapl-approval-illegal-judge-finds/news/environment/oil-flowing-dakota-access-dapl/"><font color="#b22217" size="3">carrying
oil since June 1</font></a><font size="3">.</font></span></div>
<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">“Although the Corps substantially complied with NEPA in many
areas, the Court agrees that it </font><a href="http://news/politics/senators-dapl-builder-no-permit/"><font color="#b22217" size="3">did not adequately
consider the impacts </font></a><font size="3">of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or
environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely
to be highly controversial,” Boasberg said in his 91-page decision. “To remedy
those violations, the Corps will have to reconsider those sections of its
environmental analysis upon remand by the Court. Whether Dakota Access must
cease pipeline operations during that remand presents a separate question of
the appropriate remedy, which will be the subject of further briefing.”</font></span></div>
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<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">A status conference will be held next week, according to the
environmental law firm EarthJustice, which is representing the tribes in this
case. Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s builders, did not respond to
requests for comment by press time.</font></span></div>
<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">“This is a major victory for the Tribe and we commend the courts
for upholding the law and doing the right thing,” said Standing Rock Sioux
Chairman Dave Archambault II in a statement. “The previous administration
painstakingly considered the impacts of this pipeline and President Trump
hastily dismissed these careful environmental considerations in favor of
political and personal interests. We applaud the courts for protecting our laws
and regulations from undue political influence, and will ask the Court to shut
down pipeline operations immediately. ”</font></span></div>
<div><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">The fight over the 1,172-mile-long pipeline that runs hotly
contested through four states has been the source of controversy since it was
first proposed. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe became the flashpoint for the
issue when thousands of water protectors and hundreds of tribes gathered at
camps along the Missouri River over the summer
of 2016. They were protesting the routing of the pipeline through treaty
lands—especially in light of the fact that it had been rerouted from more
affluent Bismarck for the same reason the tribe didn’t want it nearby, because
of the danger to drinking water—in a </font><a href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/dapl-approval-illegal-judge-finds/news/native-news/tigerswan-counter-terrorism-intercept-nodapl/"><font color="#b22217" size="3">conflict
that involved a militarized police force</font></a><font size="3">.</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">“This decision marks an important turning point. Until
now, the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have been disregarded by the
builders of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trump Administration—prompting a
well-deserved global outcry</font><strong><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3">,” </font></span></strong><font size="3">said Earthjustice attorney Jan
Hasselman in a </font><a href="http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2017/in-victory-for-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-court-finds-that-approval-of-dakota-access-pipeline-violated-the-law" target="_blank"><font color="#b22217" size="3">statement</font></a><font size="3">. “The federal courts have stepped in where our
political systems have failed to protect the rights of Native communities.”</font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); font-family: freight-text-pro;"><font size="3"> </font></span></div>
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