A U.S. District Court judge on Monday denied a restraining order that would have temporarily halted work on the hotly contested Dakota Access Pipeline.
The ruling allows Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners to continue drilling in order to complete the final stretch of the pipeline beneath the Missouri River in North Dakota as a legal challenge brought by Native American tribes plays out.
The Army Corps of Engineers in December denied Energy Transfer Partners the easement it needed to complete the final stretch of the $3.8-billion project, but President Donald Trump ordered the Army secretary to move forward the process shortly after he took office.
The Corps granted the easement last week and terminated plans to conduct an environmental review to identify alternative routes for the pipeline.
“We’re disappointed with today’s ruling denying a temporary restraining order against the Dakota Access Pipeline, but we are not surprised. We know this fight is far from over,” Chase Iron Eyes, lead counsel in the Dakotas for Lakota People’s Law Project, said in a statement.
“The tribes will continue to pursue legal remedies through the courts, seek an injunction against the pipeline and push for the full Environmental Impact Statement to be completed,” he said.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe filed a motion last week seeking the restraining order. The tribe, along with the Standing Rock Sioux, has opposed Energy Transfer Partners’ plan to route the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River that provides drinking water and is held sacred by the Sioux.
Their protest has drawn thousands of people at times to camps near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where protesters have clashed with local authorities and private security firms.
In the motion, the tribe argued that the construction of a pipeline and flow of oil beneath Lake Oahe obstructs the free practice of the tribe’s religion, Matt Vogel, a legislative associate for the Cheyenne River Sioux, told reporters on a conference call on Monday.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington rejected the request at a hearing on Monday afternoon, Reuters reported.