Pipeline protestors vowing to stay

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault says it’s time for Dakota Access oil pipeline opponents to leave a camp along the pipeline route in southern North Dakota.

But many of the opponents who’ve been protesting for months are vowing to stay. They believe the four-state pipeline threatens tribal drinking water and cultural sites.

The Army Corps of Engineers has denied a permit for the pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in the area. Archambault says the protest camp’s purpose has been served and there’s no need for people to stay in dangerous winter weather.

Pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners could still prevail over the Corps in federal court. Some opponents also fear President-elect Donald Trump could reverse the Corps’ decision.

But Archambault doesn’t think there will be any developments for months.

Monday was the government’s deadline for the several hundred people to leave the camp that’s on federal land. But authorities have said they won’t forcibly remove them. Gov. Jack Dalrymple last week also issued a “mandatory evacuation” but said no one would be removed by force.

Another snowstorm was hitting the area Monday, and people in camp were busy shoring up housing and stockpiling firewood. Andy Shute of St. Louis said he’s “staying until it’s over.”

That could be months from now. Robin Pegel, of Mead, Nebraska, said she thinks the weather might force some people from camp over time.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t saying what he’ll do about the $3.8 billion, four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline once he takes office in January.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Monday that the incoming president supports construction of the pipeline. But he wouldn’t say whether Trump would reverse an Army Corps of Engineers decision to deny a permit for the pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota.

The segment under Lake Oahe is the only remaining big chunk of construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline to carry North Dakota oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux says the project threatens cultural sites and drinking water on its nearby reservation. Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners says the Corps’ decision was politically motivated.

Miller says the Trump administration will review the situation “and make the appropriate determination.”

The leader of the Standing Rock Sioux says the tribe “will be forever grateful to the Obama administration” for the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to refuse to allow the construction of a pipeline under a North Dakota reservoir.

Chairman Dave Archambault says he hopes Dakota Access pipeline developer, Energy Transfer Partners, and the incoming Trump administration will respect that decision.

The Corps denied an easement for construction of the section of the pipeline Sunday. Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said the company must consider alternative routes.

The tribe believes the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites. Archambault says the Corps’ decision “took tremendous courage.”

ETP says the decision was politically motivated. The company continues to seek permission for the crossing from a federal judge.

Previously….

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP)  Hundreds of demonstrators near the Dakota Access pipeline protest camp broke into cheers and chanted “water is life” in the Lakota Sioux language as news spread that the federal government won’t grant an easement for the project in southern North Dakota.

Some in the crowd banged drums.

Miles Allard of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said he was pleased by the decision but remained cautious, saying opponents of the pipeline “don’t know what Trump is going to do.”

Allard says he’s been telling his people “to stand up and not to leave until this is over.”

Carla Youngbear of the Meskwaki Potawatomi tribe traveled from central Kansas to be at the protest site. She says she has grandchildren and is going to have great-grandchildren who will need water and that’s why she was there.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Office says that it has lifted the blockade on a bridge north of the large Dakota Access oil pipeline protest encampment.

In a statement, it said that it won’t be near the bridge as long as protesters stick to the conditions outlined on Saturday, including only coming to the bridge for predetermined meetings with law enforcement.

The release did not comment on the U.S. Army Corps’ decision to not grant an easement for the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir from which the Standing Rock Sioux tribe gets its drinking water.

The large Oceti Sakowin camp is south of the Backwater Bridge, and several hundred people are camped there.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says that the Department of Justice will still monitor the protest in North Dakota and is ready to “provide resources” for those who “can play a constructive role in easing tensions.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday afternoon that the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline cannot be built under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir where construction had been on hold.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said in a statement that the Corps’ decision “is a serious mistake,” ”prolongs the serious problems” that law enforcement faces and “prolongs the dangerous situation” of people camping in cold, snowy conditions.

The federal government has ordered the several hundred people at the main encampment, which is on Corps land, by Monday. Lynch said in a statement that the safety of those in the area, including officers, residents and protesters, “continues to be our foremost concern.”

North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer says that the Army Corps’ decision not to grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline is “a very chilling signal” for the future of infrastructure in the U.S.

Cramer said in a statement that infrastructure will be hard to build “when criminal behavior is rewarded this way,” apparently referring to the large protest encampment on federal land and the clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement.

The Corps said Sunday afternoon that the pipeline cannot be built under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir where construction had been on hold.

The route has been the subject of months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others, who have argued the pipeline threatens a water source and cultural sites.

Cramer also said that “law and order” will be restored when Donald Trump takes office and that he feels bad for the Corps having to do “diligent work … only to have their Commander-in-Chief throw them under the bus.”

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters argue that extending the project beneath Lake Oahe would threaten the tribe’s water source and cultural sites. The segment is the last major sticking point for the four-state, $3.8 billion project.

Despite the deadline, authorities say they won’t forcibly remove the protesters.

The company constructing the pipeline, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, released a statement Sunday night slamming the Army Corps’ decision as politically motivated and alleging that President Obama’s administration was determined to delay the matter until he leaves office.

President-elect Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, will take office in January, although it wasn’t immediately clear what steps his administration would be able to take to reverse the Army Corps’ latest decision or how quickly that could happen.

That uncertainty, Allard said, is part of the reason the protesters won’t leave.

“We don’t know what Trump is going to do,” Allard said.