NAWS Ruling - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

NAWS Ruling

Construction on the Northwest Area Water Supply project has come to a screeching halt.

A federal judge ordered pipeline construction on the project to stop, saying it might influence a federal government study on the project's impact.

Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington, D.C. says in her latest ruling that federal officials must finish studying all aspects of the project including the water source.

Congress first authorized NAWS in 1986 to bring Missouri River water to northwestern North Dakota.

It's been under construction since 2002 but the state of Missouri and the Canadian province of Manitoba have sued.

Judge Collyer previously ordered a more thorough environmental review of NAWS in response to Manitoba's lawsuit dealing with their fear of the possible transfer of harmful organisms into the Hudson Bay Basin.