Judge rejects Dakota Access pipeline request to stop closure
BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge rejected a request from the operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline to halt an order to shut down the oil pipeline during a lengthy environmental review. In arguing against the closure, pipeline operator Energy Transfer estimated it would take three months to empty the pipe of oil and complete steps to preserve it for future use, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Energy Transfer Vice President of Crude and Liquid Operations Todd Stamm wrote in a court filing that while the equipment that causes oil to flow through the line could be shut off by the judge’s deadline, “it is not physically possible to ‘empty it of oil’ in the thirty days provided by the order.” The line must undergo a “purge-and-fill process” that involves draining segments one at a time while the pipeline is operating to replace the oil with nitrogen, Stamm wrote. The tribe took legal action against the pipeline even after it began carrying oil from North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa and to a shipping point in Illinois in June 2017.
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