Indianz.Com > News > Native Sun News Today: Pipeline operator defies shutdown order and tribal opposition
Ousted oil pipeline operators irk Indians, defy permit withdrawals
Monday, May 24, 2021
Native Sun News Today Health & Environment Editor
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On May 13, the U.S. Circuit Court here denied Dakota Access Pipeline’s request for approval to keep its permit while the oil company appeals a ruling that tribes secured cancelling it. Meanwhile, other pipeline operators also faced permit challenges.
The DAPL ruling, handed down January 26, reaffirms a lower court finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for the pipeline to cross the Missouri River was illegal and must be vacated, at least until the conclusion of an environmental impact statement to determine viability.
The Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Oglala, and Yankton Sioux tribes — in litigation for five years – obtained the court mandate for the environmental review only after the pipeline construction finished and operation commenced. Throughout the legal battle, the courts have rejected or overturned tribal pleas for injunctions to prevent deliveries of crude across the river until the review is done. So the oil still flows.
The route cuts across unceded treaty rights territory and through the Oahe Reservoir, just upstream from the tribes’ drinking water intakes.
“We are gravely concerned about the continued operation of this pipeline, which poses an unacceptable risk to our sovereign nation,” Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chair Mike Faith reiterated to media in April.
Permit cancellation means DAPL is operating illegally, according to the tribe’s attorneys at EarthJustice.
In that light, the pipeline company told the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on April 29 that it intends to seek a Supreme Court review of the ruling. The judges’ May response was to deny the company’s request for a stay of the decision to cancel.
Another oil pipeline that is operating illegally across a major public water body is Enbridge Energy Inc.’s Line 5 beneath the Great Lakes’ Straits of Mackinac, according to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In November, she revoked its state easement there and ordered Enbridge to cease operations by May 12.

As part of the banishment resolution, the council requested any regulatory bodies with oversight authority to enforce it. The agencies involved include the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the State of Michigan, and the United States.
“The pipeline segment beneath the straits has thankfully not burst,” Gravelle observed.
However, in 1999, the pipeline leaked 226,000 gallons of crude and natural gas liquid, forcing 500 residents to evacuate, she recalled. Line 5 has spilled 33 times since 1968, leaking over 1.1 million gallons of oil, according to records. Gravelle hinted that some additional spills may not have been documented.
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