Format of public comment meetings for Dakota Access oil pipeline upsets opponents

Two meetings in Bismarck this week are receiving public comment on the draft environmental review of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Bismarck Tribune reports pipeline opponents are frustrated with the format of private oral testimony in the meetings. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson says the meetings are following the law and their format enables them to take more oral comments. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has long opposed the pipeline for the risk of an oil spill contaminating its drinking water supply. The meetings are part of the process playing out for whether the federal government grants or denies the easement for the pipeline's Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock reservation.