People protest against US President Donald Trump's directive to permit the Dakota Access Pipeline during a demonstration at the White House in Washington, yesterday.
Cannon Ball: Construction of the Dakota Access pipeline under a North Dakota reservoir has begun and the full pipeline should be operational within three months, the developer of the long-delayed project said yesterday, even as an American Indian tribe filed a legal challenge to block the work and protect its water supply.
The Army granted Energy Transfer Partners formal permission on Wednesday to lay pipe under Lake Oahe, clearing the way for completion of the 1,200-mile, $3.8bn pipeline. ETP spokeswoman Vicki Granado confirmed that construction resumed “immediately after receiving the easement”. Workers had already drilled entry and exit holes for the crossing, and oil had been put in the pipeline leading up to the lake in anticipation of finishing the project.
Work was stalled for months due to opposition by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux, as well as a prolonged court battle between the developer and the Army Corps of Engineers that oversees the federal land where the last segment of the pipeline is now being laid.
