Pipeline oil, and protests, keep flowing at Dakota Access pipeline.
Judge orders more hearings on Dakota Access review WASHINGTON — Oil will continue to flow through the underground Dakota Access pipeline during the summer while authorities conduct additional review of the environmental impact, after a judge Wednesday ordered more court hearings.
The tribes said the 1,170-mile pipeline that starts in North Dakota and ends at a hub in Illinois — crossing 18 counties in Iowa along the way — violates their hunting, fishing and environmental rights.
On Wednesday, Boasberg set out a schedule of hearings that will decide what will happen to the line while additional review is completed.
The pipeline began commercially shipping crude oil June 1.
The company said Wednesday it was “pleased with the judge’s decision” for operations to continue while the process “unfolds.” We make it easy to stay connected: Follow @TwitterDev Subscribe to our email newsletters Download our free apps The Native American tribes have been protesting the line’s construction for more than a year, notably near Cannon Ball, N.D.
Opponents argued that the route threatens tribal drinking water supplies where it crosses the Missouri River and disrupts sacred lands.
Thousands of protesters from around the world gathered at a “spirit camp” near the river crossing, many enduring a bitter Plains winter before disbanding when the disputed river segment was bored underground.
Earlier this month, Iowa regulators scolded the pipeline developers after they allowed documents showing they had the required $25 million worth of insurance to lapse.
Additionally, environmentalists asked the state regulators to shut down the pipeline pending the new environmental review.

North Dakota drought worrying crop and livestock producers.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A severe drought plaguing nearly a third of North Dakota is creating concerns for the state’s agriculture industry.
National Weather Service Hydrologist Allen Schlag told The Bismarck Tribune (http://bit.ly/2sATGTs ) that there’s no relief in the near future.
The situation is considered severe because of the near absence of rain since April, when crops went into the ground and alfalfa and grasses began reaching for moisture to continue growing.
Schlag said Bismarck recorded the fourth driest May in more than a century.
"In my career, this is the driest I’ve seen — the longest time without rain in a growing season," said Chad Weckerly, a crop producer.
It’s so dry, the weeds won’t grow."
Crop producer Stan Blickensderfer said he’s selling his winter wheat for livestock feed, and a pair of cattle producers said they’re glad to get it because their pastures don’t look like they’ll end up supporting grazing into fall.
"It’s deteriorating fast.
"In a few weeks without rain, there’ll be no harvest, and we’ll be dependent on crop insurance."

Dakota Access Pipeline ruling favoring Standing Rock Sioux a victory, but the battle is not over.
What happened at Standing Rock is a movement, and you don’t see the benefits of a movement until way later.” ~David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, addressing court ruling ++ ++ ++ The 91-page decision issued Wednesday by a federal court ruling against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for violating the law with an inadequate environmental review of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline garnered some long-delayed activist hurrahs this week.
Most of that run is built on private land.
While this is clearly a major win for the tribe, the details show the decision to be a mixed victory.
For one thing, despite saying the Corps failed to follow the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in granting an easement under Lake Oahe, he did not tell Energy Transfer Partners, the builder, to shut off the oil that has been flowing through the pipeline for more than two weeks.
The judge also ruled against the tribe on other issues.
Boasberg did not say one way or another whether the Corps’ had made the wrong decision in granting the easement, only that it had failed to cover ground NEPA requires to be reviewed before making a decision.
We hope this decision leads to the stoppage of oil flowing in the Bakken crude oil pipeline as a permanent remedy to protecting the drinking water of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Nations.
We will continue to support any and all efforts to divest from fossil fuels and stop the Dakota Access Pipeline once and for all.” Although the pipeline does not cross reservation land, it has been installed on ancestral Sioux territory.
He doesn’t see the cost in the future, he just sees the dollars gained today.” That, sadly, is not something only Donald Trump does.

Richland County is a green mecca as crops are on track with seasonal averages.
Many farmers and ranchers in North Dakota will not pull a second cut from ditches or fields as grass and alfalfa is withering in the fields.
Eighty-four percent of the state is experiencing moderate drought and now 13.5 percent is in a severe drought, according to the U.S. drought monitor map.
Richland is in a moderate drought since the region has not received adequate precipitation the past there months.
The absence of moisture in April, May and June is severely impacting pastures for cattle producers, while crops in central and south-central North Dakota are barely making a stand in overly dry soil.
“Keep in mind the spring of 2017 was the ninth driest of the 123 years of recorded history.
That’s a big deal,” Akyuz said It’s hard to think drought after the region was pummeled by rain Tuesday, but North Dakota still has a long way to go to recover from a lack of normal precipitation.
On average, the southeastern corner of the state received an average of 1 1/2 inches of rain in one day, which still isn’t enough to circumvent the moderate drought, although it may lessen the overall severity in Richland, Akyuz said.
Farmers and ranchers in drought ravaged areas of the state watched the radar to track Tuesday’s massive storm that started in South Dakota and swept northeast.
The drought is dire in many parts of the state, prompting some farmers and ranchers to take drastic measures to feed livestock.

LINTON, N.D. — Rain has fallen in much of central North Dakota in the past week, but that wasn’t enough to keep the area in severe drought in the state from doubling.
The June 13 U.S. Drought Monitor, released on June 15, reports 27 percent of North Dakota is in severe drought, compared to 13.54 percent the week prior.
An additional 56.4 percent is considered to have moderate drought conditions, while the remainder of the state is abnormally dry.
South Dakota’s severe drought area increased to 13.14 percent from 11.37 percent the past week.
There also needs to be an improvement in the effects of the drought to consider pulling the area out of the severe drought designation, he says.
Some may not have gotten tall enough to harvest — Egeland says some small grains are shorter than 10 inches.
But pastures and row crops might recover now given the more than 2 inches that fell in the area in the past week, especially if more timely rains follow.
Egeland says pastures near the South Dakota border were brown.
The land can’t recover immediately from months of too little moisture, but people’s spirits were up right away, Egeland says.
A lot could change as the summer wears on.

Drought conditions worsen.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 27 percent of the state is in severe drought, up from 13.5 percent last week.
Those severe conditions spread into most of Burleigh County this week, which previously had a moderate drought rating.
All of Morton County is in severe drought, as well as all of McLean, Mercer, Oliver, Grant Sioux, Emmons and McIntosh counties.
Fireworks have long been banned within the city limits of Bismarck without a public display permit, but, with the dry conditions, a number of others municipalities have added temporary bans of their own.
No fireworks of any kind, regardless of the fire danger rating, may be launched in Lincoln or in Burleigh or Morton counties.
Mandan will decide Friday whether or not to ban them.
Mandan’s public displays, such as the one at Mandan Rodeo Days, would not be affected by a ban.
Chances of rain through the weekend range from 20 to 40 percent in the southwest and south central portions of the state.
Chances of at least one-quarter inch of rain Saturday are as high as 80 percent in the northeast, according to the National Weather Service.

Recent rains brought some relief to areas of the state in severe drought, but not nearly enough.
More than a half inch of rain was recorded by noon Tuesday in most of these areas, including Sioux, Emmons, Grant, Morton and Burleigh counties.
That number moved to about 2.75 inches below average after the recent rain.
This follows .04 inches in 1901, .09 inches in 1934 and .12 inches in 1936.
The forecast shows a daily chance of showers through Friday.
There will be some localized thunderstorms that will be a "hit or miss" with some areas receiving heavier rain than their neighboring towns.
There will be some cool, seasonable temperatures Wednesday, with highs in the 70s and maybe 80s in the eastern part of the state, according to NWS meteorologist Alex Edwards.
Multiple power outages were reported in the eastern part of the state as a result of the storm Tuesday.
Last week, Morton County also banned fireworks.
The U.S. Drought Monitor places most of Morton County and a small portion of Burleigh County in severe drought.

Drought could affect pheasant season in North Dakota.
BISAMRCK, N.D. – Without much rain, pheasant nesting habitat could be in danger, which means populations could take a hit.
With peak hatching season just about a week away, mother pheasants could really use some rain.
The pop of a shotgun is a sound pheasant hunters love to hear.
"Families are brought back together that maybe have spread throughout the United States or elsewhere in North Dakota.
But with rain refusing to fall on pheasant habitats in the state… "We’re in for trouble," said Howard.
Howard says the biggest hit to his business would come in ammunition.
With fewer birds, hunters would need fewer cartridges to shoot them.
Williams says it’s unclear if the pheasant population has dropped yet, but these next few weeks are critical.
"Getting a chick raised to adult stage sometimes can be challenging enough, if you throw dry conditions on top of that, generally you’re going to be reducing the amount of cover and habitat out there that protects those birds," said Williams.

US Drought Monitor: Parched conditions expand across Dakotas.
About 87 percent of North Dakota is in drought, while just more than half of South Dakota is experiencing drought conditions, according to updated monitoring information released Thursday.
The parched conditions have expanded and deteriorated compared to last week, and roughly 700,000 people across both states are living in drought areas.
There have also been significant winter wheat losses in central South Dakota, she said, adding that she doesn’t anticipate conditions will improve in the near term.
“The drought’s pretty bad, I’d say, especially in the agricultural sector, which is often where we see the first impacts,” Edwards said.
Selling calves now that would get a good price this fall means producers will likely take a hit on the animals’ value, said Silvia Christen, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association.
“We’ve seen that over the last few years.
But I think we can’t discount the toll that this kind of a drought takes on our agriculture community and what it’s going to do to a lot of our neighbors and friends here across the state this year, if this drought doesn’t break.” Terry Beastrom, who farms mostly in Stanley county in South Dakota, said he’s leaning toward destroying nearly all of his wheat and hopes to turn most of it into cattle feed.
In North Dakota, drought conditions have the potential to cause future feed shortages, said Scott Ressler, environmental services director for the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association, which represents the cattle industry.
Producers are selling older cattle because, without precipitation, some pastures aren’t going to be able to support as many animals as they normally do, he said.

RICHARDTON, N.D. — As drought spreads across the upper Great Plains, some cattle producers in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana are reducing their herds.
The latest Drought Monitor, released June 8, shows all of North Dakota in at least abnormally dry conditions, with 13.54 percent in severe drought and 73.92 in moderate drought.
South Dakota’s worst conditions are to the north, where 11.37 percent of the state is in severe drought.
Montana’s worst conditions are to the east, with moderate drought conditions on 16.56 percent of the state and abnormally dry conditions on 20.13 percent.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin listed 35 percent of North Dakota pastures, 40 percent of South Dakota pastures and 24 percent of Montana pastures as in poor or very poor condition.
Vetter says hay crops already are too far gone to bale in some places.
"There are people who would have liked to have gotten some hay with their grains, but it was already heading out."
At least half of the 500 pairs were sold because of drought conditions, and a good chunk of the feeder cattle were heifers that had been intended for replacement.
Pairs that were bringing $2,600 a few months back now are worth only about $1,900.
Eastern Montana hasn’t been quite as dry as North Dakota and South Dakota, but they still are in need of rain, he says.