(Dow Jones) -- A federal judge said Friday that construction on a $3.8 billion four-state oil pipeline can proceed, handing an apparent defeat to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other opponents of the project.
But in an unusual move, three federal agencies immediately announced that they would ask the pipeline's builder to voluntarily halt pipeline work in a contested area in North Dakota.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn't authorize construction near Lake Oahe, an important site to the tribe, until the agency determines if it needs to reconsider its previous approvals under a federal national historic preservation law.
"This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes' views on these types of infrastructure projects," the Corps, Justice and Interior departments said in a joint statement.
A spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is building the pipeline with an affiliate company, declined to comment on the judge's ruling. Phillips 66, the refiner, owns 25%.
David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, didn't immediately comment on the court ruling or statement by the federal agencies.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in a 58-page opinion issued Friday that he wouldn't grant an injunction sought by the tribe because he didn't agree that the federal government failed to consult with the tribe as required by law and that the pipeline would cause irreparable harm to the tribe's heritage.
"Aware of the indignities visited upon the tribe over the last centuries, the court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care," Judge Boasberg wrote. "Having done so, the court must nonetheless conclude that the tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here."
The tribe, which has led months of increasingly tense protests against the pipeline, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July in federal court in Washington, D.C., to block the pipeline. The tribe argued that the agency improperly authorized the project, which it said threatened the tribe's drinking water and culturally important sites.
The pipeline has drawn national attention and become another flashpoint in the broader fight over drilling for and transporting crude oil. Clashes between protesters and police at a site in North Dakota have escalated in recent weeks, with protesters chaining themselves to equipment and both sides alleging that the other was provoking violence.
As with the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have carried crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast but was blocked by President Barack Obama last fall, opponents have linked the Dakota Access Pipeline to climate change and risks to drinking water.
Last month, 31 environmental groups asked the president in a letter to intervene again and repeal the permits for the pipeline. The pipeline's backers, meanwhile, say it will reduce the potential for accidents by cutting the amount of crude oil that travels by train.