OMAHA, NE – Omaha District Commander Col. John W. Henderson has signed the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) Project. The FONSI summarizes the environmental effects evaluation that occurred during development of the
draft environmental assessment and the decision to grant Section 408 permissions that allow the Project to cross 2.83 miles of federal flowage easements at the Missouri River upstream of Lake Sakakawea in Williams County and approximately 0.21 miles of federally-owned property at Lake Oahe in Morton and Emmons Counties, North Dakota. The proposed Project would connect the Bakken and Three Forks crude oil production areas in North Dakota to existing infrastructure in Illinois.
The draft EA was available for public review online from December 9, 2015 to January 8, 2016. In addition, the Omaha District conducted National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation with Tribes, Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, State Historic Preservation Offices and interested parties to gather additional information prior to a decision being made. The District also participated in an outreach meeting in March 2016 to answer the public’s questions about pipelines, oil drilling and the impact to Lake Sakakawea.
All comments were considered and responses to substantive comments are included in the Final EA.
In addition to granting Section 408 permissions, the Omaha District has verified Nationwide #12 Permits under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act for the crossings at Lake Sakakawea and Lake Oahe.
The EA follows guidelines promulgated by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 1500-1508 and Corps regulation ER 200-2-2 [33 CFR 230]).
Release no. 20160728-001