BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s oil-rich Three Affiliated Tribes wants a federal appeals court to quickly decide whether a Texas company needed tribal permission to put an oil pipeline and a natural gas pipeline beneath a Missouri River reservoir.
The tribes requested that the Sacagawea pipeline be halted last month, saying they had no assurances from the company that water supplies would not be harmed.
A federal judge temporarily allowed construction to continue last week. The tribes have appealed.
Paradigm Energy Partners says their $125 million, 70-mile (113 km) oil pipeline project already is complete. The company says it needs to complete its $16.6 million gas pipeline by Nov. 1, or the company’s future is in jeopardy.
The Sacagawea pipeline is the second such project being challenged by American Indians in North Dakota.
(Copyright 2016, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
