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The federal judge overseeing a tribal lawsuit against the Dakota Access Pipeline is allowing nine groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Congress of American Indians to weigh in on whether federal officials who permitted the pipeline properly consulted tribes.

Texas-based pipeline developer Dakota Access unsuccessfully opposed the groups’ request, arguing that the issue of tribal consultation has already been resolved.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, in Washington, D.C., also is allowing 14 other tribes from Washington state to Florida to provide input in the lawsuit filed by four Sioux tribes in the Dakotas. Those tribes fear a spill from the $3.8 billion pipeline that’s moving North Dakota oil to Illinois could contaminate the Missouri River, which they rely on for drinking water, fishing and religious practices.

The Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Oglala and Yankton Sioux all recently filed what amounts to their final legal arguments in the three-year-old case. They want Boasberg to order the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut down the pipeline and do more environmental study.