U.S. to Pay North Dakota $28M Settlement for DAPL Protest Costs

The federal government will pay North Dakota nearly $28 million to settle a lawsuit over the state's costs of policing the massive Dakota Access Pipeline protests nearly a decade ago, state officials announced Thursday. The settlement finalizes a 2025 federal court judgment and removes the financial burden from state taxpayers, according to Attorney General Drew Wrigley.

North Dakota is now “made financially whole,” Wrigley said at a press conference, joined by Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong. The settlement money will finalize the debts of loans taken from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. Armstrong called the settlement “long overdue” in a statement, thanking attorneys for reaching a deal “that removes the financial burden from North Dakota taxpayers and places it on the shoulders of the federal government where it belongs.”

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in 2019 concerning demonstrations against the construction of the crude oil pipeline, also known as DAPL, in rural south-central North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. The state alleged the federal government caused the protests to grow by unlawfully allowing demonstrators to camp on federal land managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said it disputes the court’s legal analysis, “but acknowledges in hindsight that, under the Obama Administration, the federal government could have done more to reduce the impacts to the people of North Dakota” from protests that included “unlawfulness and confrontational violence.” The department stated that the choice not to forcibly remove protesters from federal property at the time “had painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents.”

The final $27.8 million settlement amount matches what U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor determined the federal government owed after a trial last year. Judge Traynor had found the government liable on all claims, including negligence, gross negligence, civil trespass and public nuisance. As part of the settlement, the federal government agreed to dismiss its appeals and the parties asked the judge to void his previous rulings, which he did in May.

According to trial testimony cited by NewsDakota.com, North Dakota’s emergency response to the DAPL protests lasted over 230 days, involved 178 response agencies, and spanned four counties. Law enforcement made 761 arrests, 709 of which were out-of-state residents. The cleanup of protest camps required over 600 dumpsters for 9.8 million pounds of garbage and hazardous materials.

The settlement brings closure to a costly chapter for the state related to the pipeline, which has been operating for almost a decade. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure for moving Bakken crude oil to market.