The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has approved a route permit for a petroleum pipeline near the Pipestone National Monument. On Thursday, commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a route farther from the Monument than Magellan Pipeline Co. wanted.

But while the PUC went with a route that had initially been suggested by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, members of area tribes also said the pipeline project shouldn’t move forward at all.

The PUC discussed the proposed pipeline route in a Thursday meeting, which was livestreamed.

In 2023, Magellan applied to re-route about 0.74 miles of a petroleum pipeline that is currently on federal land within the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge and the Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone County. The federal government shut down that portion of the existing pipeline in 2022.

At Thursday’s meeting of the PUC, Magellan representatives said re-opening the pipeline would allow them to more reliably supply customers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. However, area tribes including the Upper Sioux Community, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, the Yankton Sioux Tribe and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe all voiced opposition to the re-route.

Tribe members said the area around Pipestone National Monument was both sacred and culturally important. Samantha Odegard, tribal historic preservation officer for the Upper Sioux Community, said it was also not known how a pipeline leak could potentially affect pipestone, which is quarried in the area.

Both the Upper Sioux Community and the Mille Lacs Band had proposed alternative re-routes that would go farther away from the Pipestone Monument. But during Thursday’s meeting, the Mille Lacs Band voiced support for the Upper Sioux Community’s proposed route instead.

PUC members approved the route that the Mille Lacs Band initially put forward, and also required a survey and tribal input before construction of the final route could start.