‘Long-Delayed’ Review of DAPL Issued as Lake Oahe Crossing Still in Limbo

After a three-year wait, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), marking another chapter in the drawn-out fight over a pipeline that began flowing Bakken Shale crude in 2017.

The Army Corps prepared the EIS in response to a 2020 court decision regarding DAPL’s roughly one-mile crossing beneath the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, a man-made lake that runs from Pierre, SD, to Bismarck, ND.

The agency published the draft EIS in the Federal Register late last week and is seeking public comments until Nov. 13.

DAPL previously obtained Army Corps approval for the crossing after an environmental assessment was completed in 2016. 

However, after the previous easement was vacated by the courts,...