Document
November 29, 2023
The Tonawanda Seneca Nation filed a lawsuit in the Western District Court of New York challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to grant a right-of-way permit for an industrial wastewater pipeline through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. The pipeline permit approval and subsequent drilling, which violates the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, has caused multiple spills of hundreds of gallons of drilling fluids onto federally protected land and wetlands, prompting several pipeline construction stop orders.