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Groton Daily Independent
Monday, June 26, 2017 ~ Vol. 24 - No. 347 ~ 10 of 39
88 yards (80 meters) — about the length of a football eld — the study would have included the Standing Rock Reservation. The tribe accuses the Corps of gerrymandering.
Boasberg has ordered the Corps to reconsider those areas of its environmental analysis. HOW BIG A DEAL IS THIS, REALLY?
It depends on whom you ask.
The Standing Rock tribe and its supporters have hailed it as a major victory.
But ETP spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger said the company “believes the record supports the fact that the Corps properly evaluated both issues.” And Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman said attorneys will “continue vigorously defending the government’s actions.”
The White House said the administration is con dent the federal analysis of the pipeline’s environmental impact is legally sound.
WILL THE ADDITIONAL REVIEW AFFECT PIPELINE OPERATIONS?
It might.
To shut down the pipeline, Boasberg would have to invalidate the Corps’ permission for the project while
the agency does its review. He appears hesitant to do that, saying it “would carry serious consequences that a court should not lightly impose.”
The judge isn’t rushing to a decision. His schedule has both sides submitting written arguments in July and August.
ETP has expressed con dence that he won’t stop the pipeline in the meantime.
HOW WILL THE ADDITIONAL REVIEW PLAY OUT?
The tribes maintain that the “lawful” way to resolve it is through a full environmental study, which the
Corps had planned to do before President Donald Trump took of ce and pushed through completion. If the Corps simply revises its analysis, expect another round of litigation, Standing Rock attorney Jan Has- selman said.
“In effect, it resets the clock to where we were last fall, when we were pushing for (a full study) and asking for consideration of route alternatives,” he said. “We’ll be doing that again.”
The tribes also are pushing for a review that includes public and tribal input.
Corps and Justice Department of cials declined to comment on what they will do, but they said they expect to propose a timeframe for the review in mid-July. The Corps has said a full environmental study could take up to two years.
ETP expects a limited process, with the Corps reaf rming its conclusions. Spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger said “it is important to note that while Judge Boasberg asked the Corps to provide greater substantiation for its conclusions, the Court did not nd the prior determinations to be erroneous.”
The company has a point, said Connie Rogers, a Denver attorney who specializes in federal permits, natural resources and Indian law. She compared the matter to a middle school math assignment in which students wouldn’t get full credit for correct answers unless they showed their work.
“This could just be an issue that the Corps didn’t explain itself,” Rogers said. “They could do a supple- mental (analysis) in a month or, if they actually did not analyze those things, it might take longer.
“I think it’s going to come down to how con dent is the Corps in its determination that there are no signi cant impacts,” she said.
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Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake
South Dakota courts cope with judicial vacancies
YANKTON, S.D. (AP) — One-third of the judgeships in South Dakota’s 14-county First Judicial Circuit are vacant, creating a challenge in coping with the caseload.
Circuit Judges Paul Eng and Tim Bjorkman retired earlier this month, creating the rare situation of two judgeship vacancies at the same time, the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (http://bit.ly/2tW6zH6) reported.
A state of cial says Gov. Dennis Daugaard hopes to ll the two vacancies next month.