US officials have temporarily halted the building of part of a contentious oil pipeline in North Dakota.

Protests and a lawsuit led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have swirled around the project in recent months, as Native Americans and other groups have raised concerns that the pipeline will disturb culturally significant sites and threaten water supplies.

“All pipelines leak eventually,” says Wayde Schafer of the North Dakota branch of environmental organisation the Sierra Club. “We want to leave clean water for our great-great-grandchildren.”


The Dakota Access pipeline, if completed, would link the oil fields of North Dakota to an existing pipeline in Illinois. At nearly 1900 kilometres, it would be about the same length as the Keystone XL pipeline, which was proposed to carry Canadian oil through the US but was cancelled last year amid protests from environmentalists.

Smaller-diameter pipes mean the new pipeline would convey just over half the capacity of Keystone XL, or about 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

One crucial section would snake underneath a dammed portion of the Missouri River called Lake Oahe, less than a kilometre from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Several federal departments announced in a joint statement on Friday that they would not permit construction of that segment – at least for now.

The halt will give the government a chance to determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding environmental permits for this part of the pipeline, according to the statement. The government also urged the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, to voluntarily pause construction within about 30 kilometres of the lake.

Sacred sites

In late July, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the US Army Corps of Engineers, alleging that the agency improperly granted building permits for the pipeline. Its construction would disturb sacred sites and burial grounds, the tribe said, and a spill at the Lake Oahe crossing could contaminate the water that the tribe relies on for drinking, irrigation, and cultural and religious practices.

A large enough spill could have even more far-reaching consequences, says Schafer. “Once it’s in the Missouri River system, that goes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico,” he says.

The announcement of the halt came just minutes after a federal judge had ruled that development could continue while the lawsuit winds its way through the courts.

Protests about the pipeline have drawn supporters from across the country over issues such as tribal sovereignty and water quality. In addition to the pause in construction, the federal announcement also called for formal meetings with tribal governments to discuss how future decisions that affect tribal lands will be made.

But the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline isn’t over yet, says the tribe.

“I want to take a moment and reflect on this historic moment in Indian Country,” said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, in a statement. “But I know that our work is not done. We need to permanently protect our sacred sites and our water.”