Latest news with #ArmyCorps
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
What you need to know before you go: June 2, 2025
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Here are the top headlines from this morning. Boaters expressed delight now that the Sioux City Marina is open for business. Pleased boaters using the Sioux City Marina The dam road is closed at Gavins Point, shut down for maintenance of the dam road and dam gates. Army Corps doing some dam maintenance at Gavins Point A group of riders in all types of vehicles were on a poker run to help raise funds for Saint Florian Burn Foundation. Rides for Smiles event raises money for St. Florian Burn Foundation Check out these headlines and more in the video above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
E&E News
2 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Army Corps advances Michigan pipeline tunnel
Building a pipeline tunnel under a Michigan waterway would cause some environmental damage but would also have 'beneficial' effects, according to a long-awaited environmental analysis from the Army Corps of Engineers. The agency concluded in its draft environmental impact statement that Enbridge's proposed Line 5 tunnel project would reduce the risk of a leak, while its construction could damage wetlands. The planned underground tunnel is designed to encase a replacement segment of the Line 5 pipeline, which moves light crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada. The tunnel would run 3.6 miles underneath the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac, making it a divisive project. Last week, Line 5 opponents gathered on Mackinac Island to speak against the project. Advertisement The Line 5 project is seeking a permit to cross the Straits of Mackinac and affect adjacent wetlands. The Army Corps fast-tracked the federal permitting process this spring, citing President Donald Trump's 'energy emergency' executive order, and plans to make a final decision by the end of this year.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Standing Rock appeals dismissal of latest Dakota Access Pipeline lawsuit
Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline gather Nov. 1, 2023, in Bismarck ahead of a public meeting on an environmental impact statement. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes the pipeline, citing concerns for its water supply and sovereign rights. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a federal judge's decision to dismiss its latest lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the Dakota Access Pipeline. Standing Rock filed the lawsuit in October, asking the court to find the pipeline must be shut down because it still lacks an easement authorizing it to pass under the Missouri River's Lake Oahe reservoir, which is regulated by the Army Corps. 'The Corps of Engineers has not earned the trust of our Tribe,' Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire said in a statement last week announcing the appeal. 'We cannot rely on the Corps to properly evaluate DAPL, so we are continuing our legal efforts to protect our water and our people from this dangerous pipeline.' Greenpeace seeks reversal of verdict, arguing jury wanted to 'punish' someone for pipeline protests The Army Corps originally granted the easement to the pipeline's developer in 2017, but Boasberg revoked it in 2020 after finding the agency had issued the permit without completing the full environmental review required by federal law. The matter was brought to him through a lawsuit the tribe filed against the Army Corps in 2016. Boasberg at the time directed the Corps to withhold making a decision on the easement until it completes a full environmental impact study. He also ordered the pipeline to be shut down, though that demand was later reversed by an appellate court. Five years later, the Army Corps still has not finished the environmental review. It published a draft in late 2023. Standing Rock in its latest suit argues that keeping the pipeline open without an easement is a violation of federal law. The tribe also alleges the Army Corps is at fault for a number of other regulatory violations related to the pipeline. In court filings, Standing Rock has said it intends to present new evidence related to the pipeline's safety. The pipeline company has indicated previously it does not consider that information credible. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg tossed the suit in March, finding that the courts cannot intervene in the matter until the Army Corps wraps up its environmental study. 'No matter its frustration with Defendants' sluggish pace, it is not yet entitled to a second bite at the apple,' he wrote in his March order. Boasberg previously indicated that while the agency works on the study, it has the option of enforcing its property rights since the pipeline is operating on federal land without authorization. 'The Corps has conspicuously declined to adopt a conclusive position regarding the pipeline's continued operation, despite repeated prodding from this Court and the Court of Appeals to do so,' he wrote in a 2021 order. Standing Rock leaders say they hope the D.C. Circuit will overturn Boasberg's decision to dismiss the case. In her statement, Alkire said the tribe fears the Army Corps' study will 'whitewash' the pipeline's risk to the surrounding environment. The pipeline crosses Lake Oahe just north of the Standing Rock Reservation. The tribe opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline as a threat to its sovereignty, water supply and cultural heritage sites. Federal judge dismisses Standing Rock's latest lawsuit over Dakota Access Pipeline Alkire also underscored the tribe's dismay over a March jury verdict that found the environmental group Greenpeace at fault for damaging the pipeline developers property and business as part of its protests against Dakota Access Pipeline. The jury ordered Greenpeace to pay the company, Energy Transfer, roughly $667 million. Standing Rock has criticized the verdict as based on a false narrative that Greenpeace, and not Standing Rock and other tribes, led the protests. 'We saw Energy Transfer's efforts to re-write history as we know it and lived it in their lawsuit against Greenpeace,' she said. In April, another federal judge ordered the Army Corps to pay North Dakota $28 million in connection to the anti-pipeline protests, finding the agency's actions had wrongfully forced the state to pay millions policing the protests and cleaning up the aftermath. The Dakota Access Pipeline passes through unceded land previously recognized as belonging to the Sioux Nation in 19th century treaties with the U.S. government. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
After Trump administration axes $500 million from Washington dam project, Patty Murray says she won't let it happen again
May 31—WASHINGTON — The most fundamental job of Congress is to fund the government each year, typically through a bipartisan process that distributes dollars more or less evenly between red states and blue states. But a dustup over a dam construction project in Washington state has thrown a wrench into that process and raised the stakes of a government funding showdown in September. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has accused President Donald Trump's administration of pulling $500 million that Congress allocated last year to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a fish passage project on the Green River, east of Tacoma. In a news conference at the Capitol alongside her fellow Democratic senators from Washington and California, Murray said that move undermines the trust lawmakers rely on to negotiate spending bills. "Trump is robbing our states in broad daylight, and we are not going to be quiet about this," Murray said. "President Trump is ripping up the road map that we all agreed on, even the House Republicans, and turning the Army Corps construction funds into his personal political slush fund." After Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed last year to appropriate the money for construction at Howard Hanson Dam, Trump shot down the bipartisan funding bill they had negotiated and Congress eventually passed a short-term funding bill, with the help of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and a handful of other Democrats. Murray staunchly opposed that legislation, warning that its wording would give extraordinary leeway to the White House. Her fears came to pass when Trump's Office of Management and Budget — helmed by Russell Vought, a lead architect of the policy initiative known as Project 2025 — intervened to redirect Army Corps funding from states represented in the Senate by Democrats to those represented by Republicans. As the Columbian of Vancouver, Washington, reported, an analysis by Murray's office found that the Trump administration reallocated funds that were split roughly 50-50 between red and blue states so that only 33% of the money goes to states with two Democratic senators, while 64% goes to states with only GOP senators and 4% to "purple" states with one senator from each party. In addition to zeroing out the funding for Howard Hanson Dam, the Trump administration cut overall funding for the Army Corps' civil works projects by about $1.5 billion and slashed the Columbia River Fish Mitigation program — intended to reduce the impact of dams on salmon and steelhead runs — by nearly half. In response to questions from The Spokesman-Review, the Office of Management and Budget didn't directly say what role it had played in redirecting Army Corps' resources or why it had defunded the Howard Hanson Dam project. But the office said the new Army Corps work plan "will generate billions of dollars in economic activity by building American energy dominance and shipping capacity while investing in important conservation projects." "The available funds were allocated by the administration based on need and urgency, in accordance with the guidelines set by Congress," the office said in a statement. In a House subcommittee hearing on May 21, Army Corps official Robyn Colosimo confirmed that it was the Office of Management and Budget, and likely Vought , that made the decision to shift the money to red states. The Army Corps didn't respond to a request for comment from The Spokesman-Review, but a spokesman for the agency previously told the Columbian that the Columbia River Fish Mitigation funding is "an important source for many projects in the basin" and the Army Corps would "work with our partners in the region to prioritize projects depending on how much funding we actually receive from Congress." That proposition gets more complicated if the Trump administration, which has taken a maximalist view of executive power, can change how much money agencies receive from Congress. At the news conference, Murray said she intends to "explore every opportunity and every wording" as she crafts the language of the next funding bill "to make sure that we have funds protected." Congress has been historically unproductive this year, and the annual appropriations process is so far behind schedule that another short-term spending bill is the most realistic option to avert a government shutdown when the current stopgap bill expires at the end of September. Even with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, they need Democratic senators to help pass a spending bill. That gives Democrats some leverage to include language in the legislation to require that funds be spent as Congress directs, but it would require the party to be willing to let the government shut down. By choosing to help Republicans pass the partisan spending bill in March, Schumer may have squandered that leverage and encouraged the GOP to try the same move again. If Murray can help it, she said, the government won't operate under such an open-ended funding bill when the next fiscal year begins in October. Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis on Line 5 project identifies short and long term risks
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Federal regulators have released a long-awaited study on the environmental impact of the Line 5 Project. On Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District published its initial analysis for the project that would seek to build an underground tunnel for the aging Enbridge oil pipeline that runs along the Straits of Mackinac. The federal review took over a year longer to publish than expected. Enbridge Energy wants to build a tunnel to hold a portion of its 70-year-old oil pipeline that sits at the bottom of the straits connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The project was proposed in 2018 at $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The four-mile pipeline currently moves about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario. According to the report, building the tunnel would reduce the risk of things like boat anchors rupturing the pipeline, which could cause a potentially disastrous oil spill. In the short term, the report says construction lights and cranes would significantly impact views and disrupt recreational areas like the dark sky park. In the long run, the a loss of vegetation along both sides of the straits and the loss of hundreds of trees along the shoreline that contain numerous species of bats. Included in the analysis is a pledge from Enbridge saying they're determined to comply with all safety standards and replant vegetation where possible and contain erosion. The report is just an initial assessment. A final analysis is expected by autumn, with a permitting decision to follow. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District is conducting a 30-day public comment period on the project that lasts from May 30 to June 30. Anyone is welcome to provide comments or concerns using these methods: The . Virtual public meetings: Wednesday, June 18, 2025, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on or via audio: +1 646 558 8656 Wednesday, June 25, 2025, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. or via audio: +1 301 715 8592 Written comments (postmarked by June 30, 2025) mailed to: Line 5 Tunnel EIS 6501 Shady Grove Road, P.O. Box 10178 Gaithersburg, MD 20898 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
