The Army Corps of Engineers approved the last remaining portion of the highly contentious Dakota Access Pipeline Tuesday.
The Corps will grant the final easement for the so-called DAPL, according to court filings on Tuesday. It needed a final permit to tunnel under Lake Oahe, an important source of water for Standing Rock Sioux.
Standing Rock said in a press statement following the news that it will continue to fight the DAPL’s construction.
The nearly 1,200-mile line, once completed, will shuttle crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale region to Illinois. The tribe has fought a vicious battle against the project, arguing the pipeline could poison its drinking water.
The protests eventually resulted in the Obama administration’s decision to delay a final permit that would allow construction along the Missouri River. The Corps, under Obama’s direction, rejected the pipeline before former President Barack Obama left office.
Opposition to the multi-billion pipeline ratcheted up recently after President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders in January approving the construction of the DAPL and Keystone XL.
Energy Transfer Partners, the company developing the pipeline, took a beating during the protests. The 1,172-mile-long DAPL is losing $20 million every day the project is delayed, an attorney representing Dakota Access to the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December.
Dakota Access reports nearly $500 million in lost profit during the time construction was stopped.
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