Judge to hear request for brief stop on oil pipeline work

A Native American tribal chairman said his people were “disappointed” that a company agreed on Tuesday to temporarily halt construction of an oil pipeline only in some but not all parts of North Dakota where the tribe says it has sacred sites.

In a video posted to the Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page, Stein said, ” This pipeline is especially critical, it will be over half a million barrels of poisonous Bakken oil every day that is pumped through that is poisonous to the water.it will be crossing some 200 rivers and streams and tributaries, it puts at risk not only the water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation it puts at risk the water supply for millions of people downstream in the Missouri River so it’s absolutely critical to protect this land, to protect these sacred sites and to protect this water we must win this battle”. Indigenous people from across the United States are living in camps on the Standing Rock reservation as they protest the construction of the new oil pipeline which they fear will destroy their water supply.

The tribe’s outstanding lawsuit attempts to halt construction of the pipeline, which is due to be finished this year.

A group of firms led by Energy Transfer Partners is building the 1,100-mile pipeline. Phillips 66 PSX, +0.30%, the refiner, owns 25%.

No pipeline workers were at the site, and no arrests have been made.

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The memorandum says that less than 24 hours after filing the evidence, the area had been bulldozed by Dakota Access construction workers.

Following the incident, an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order on Dakota Access Pipeline construction was filed by legal counsel for the Standing Rock Sioux.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II compared the actions taken by protesters to those of Rosa Parks.

A weekend confrontation between protesters and construction workers near Lake Oahe, North Dakota, prompted the tribe to ask Sunday for a temporary stop of construction.

Boasberg said he’ll issue a decision by the end of Friday on the tribe’s broader push that challenges federal regulators’ decision to grant permits.

Kirchmeier said authorities plan to pursue charges of trespassing and vandalism against Stein.

The area was the scene of protests this weekend by tribal members and opponents of the pipeline.

Mentz said that the tribe’s historical preservation experts had only recently been granted access to private land that would be disturbed by construction when, after a short examination, they found signs of burial rock cairns of historic significance.

The fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline was being fought on several fronts today, including two courtrooms and a worksite.

James Boasberg said that work will temporarily stop between North Dakota’s state highway 1806 and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, but the US district court judge is allowing work to continue west of the highway because he believes the US Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction on private land.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filed a brief supporting the temporary injunction on land it controls. Judge Boasberg is expected to make a decision on the case by Friday.