Judge: Redo part of analysis for Dakota Access pipeline

FARGO, N.D. — A federal judge has handed a lifeline to efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline, ruling Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn’t adequately consider the possible impacts of an oil spill where the pipeline passes under the Missouri River. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in a 91-page decision that the corps failed to take into account how a spill might affect “fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.” The judge said the Army must redo its environmental analysis in certain sections and he’ll consider later whether the pipeline must halt operations in the meantime. “Until now, the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have been disregarded by builders of the Dakota Access pipeline and the Trump Administration. “Now that the court has rejected these two lines of attack, Standing Rock and Cheyenne River here take their third shot, this time zeroing in DAPL’s environmental impact,” Boasberg wrote.