Dakota Access pipeline: judge rules environmental survey was inadequate

In what's being hailed a 'significant victory' for pipeline's opponents, a judge said he would consider whether operations must halt until assessment is redone

A federal judge has handed a lifeline to efforts to block the Dakota Access pipeline, ruling Wednesday that the US Army Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the possible impacts of an oil spill where the pipeline passes under the Missouri river.

US district judge James Boasberg said in a 91-page decision that the corps failed to take into account how a spill might affect "fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline's effects are likely to be highly controversial".