Washington, February 2 (RHC)-- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appears poised to approve the final permit required to build the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from hundreds of indigenous nations and non-Native allies. 

North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said he had spoken with acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer and that Speer has directed the Army Corps to issue the easement for Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, to drill underneath the Missouri River. 

The Standing Rock Sioux and many more fear a pipeline spill could contaminate the river, which serves as a drinking water source for millions.  Water protectors say that if the easement is granted, the government would be illegally circumventing the process of an environmental impact statement, which was ordered in December under President Obama’s administration. 

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said: "To abandon the EIS would amount to a wholly unexplained and arbitrary change based on the President’s personal views and, potentially, personal investments." Members of the resistance camp Sacred Stone on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota have called for water protectors to come to support the resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline.