ELR Citation: 50 ELR 20070
No(s). 16-1534 (JEB) (D.D.C. Mar 25, 2020) (Boasberg, J.)

A district court held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must prepare an EIS for the Dakota Access Pipeline that runs from North Dakota to Illinois. Native American tribes argued that the Corps failed to comply with a previous court decision requiring it to adequately consider whether the pipeline's effects were likely to be "highly controversial," the impact of an oil spill on the tribes' fishing and hunting rights, and the environmental justice effects of the pipeline. The court found that unrebutted expert critiques regarding leak detection systems, operator safety records, adverse conditions, and worst-case discharge meant that the easement approval for the pipeline remained highly controversial under NEPA, and thus that the Corps had violated the Act by determining that an EIS was unnecessary even though one of the EIS-triggering factors was met. It therefore remanded to the Corps to prepare an EIS.