Senators Allege DAPL Builder Didnt Have Permit to Build Under Lake Oahe
Top Senate Democrats are questioning whether the builder and manager of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) had a permit to construct a controversial stretch of the project near tribal land and water sources.
In a letter dated April 3, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and Tom Carper (D-DE), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, took the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which on February 8 granted an easement to Energy Transfer Partners to build the pipeline under Lake Oahe in North Dakota, to task on several fronts.
They argued that the Corps has provided “virtually no information to Congress regarding its oversight of the project” and that the Corps’ actions have left real questions over whether it made “efforts to make sure that Energy Transfer Partners complies with even the most fundamental environmental, safety and mitigation conditions of its easement and permits.”
In one of their most legally intriguing allegations, the senators wrote to Todd Semonite, the chief of engineers at the Corps, that the permitting process of the Lake Oahe portion of the pipeline appears suspect.
“We are concerned that Energy Transfer Partners or its subsidiaries might have been drilling under Lake Oahe without a permit and while project approval was under a court challenge given news reports and court documents showing that the pipeline is close to completion 50 days ahead of schedule,” the senators wrote.
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/politics/senators-dapl-builder-no-permit/
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