BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers and a pipeline developer to complete an oil spill response plan for a section of the Dakota Access pipeline beneath the Missouri River in North Dakota.
Judge James Boasberg on Monday granted the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes’ request for additional protections for the river’s Lake Oahe (oh-AW’-hee) reservoir, from which they draw water.
Boasberg says completion of a response plan and additional monitoring are warranted while the Corps conducts another study he has ordered on the pipeline’s impact on the tribes.
Boasberg on Monday ordered the Corps and Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners to work with the tribes on the spill response plan.
The $3.8 billion pipeline began moving North Dakota oil to Patoka, Illinois in June.