Members of the Red Lake Nation participate during a rally on Dakota Access Pipeline August 24, 2016 outside U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. | Getty Dakota Access pipeline gets final approval

The Trump administration cleared the way for the Dakota Access Pipeline to be be completed, approving an easement for the oil project that had triggered months of protests from Native American tribes and environmentalists.

The Army Corps of Engineers said in a court filing today that it had completed the review of the 1,172-mile pipeline that will connect North Dakota's oil fields to Illinois, a process that President Donald Trump had ordered the U.S. Army to finish quickly.


"Today's announcement will allow for the final step, which is granting of the easement," Robert Speer, Acting Secretary of the Army said in a statement. "Once that it done, we will have completed all the tasks in the Presidential Memorandum of Jan. 24, 2017."

The project had drawn sometime violent protests from the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation ends half a mile from where the pipeline will cross under the Missouri River. The tribe had complained about lack of consultation over the pipeline route and threat to its water supply from potential oil spills.

The Obama administration had stopped construction on the final link in the pipeline, saying the Army Corps had not consulted sufficiently with the tribe. The agency was to conduct an environmental review of alternative routes, but today's documents say the Army has terminated the review.

Like the Keystone XL pipeline, which Trump also hopes to approve, Dakota Access has become a symbol of environmental opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure.