"The Court will nonetheless require the oil to stop flowing and the pipeline to be emptied within 30 days from the date of this opinion and accompanying order,” US District Court Judge James Boasberg said.
The 30-day period, which ends on 5 August, was suggested by the tribes and should provide enough time to cease operations in a “safe and efficient manner,” Boasberg said.
The Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes had taken the US Army Corps of Engineers and the pipeline’s parent company Energy Transfer Partners to court for constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline to pass through their sacred land and threaten vital water resources.
The $3.7 billion pipeline was subject to continual protests from 2016 to 2017 and law enforcement used violence against protesters to enable completing its construction.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is used to move some 570,000 barrels of oil per day from Stanley, North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois to a tank farm in Patoka, Illinois.