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A timeline of the Dakota Access oil pipeline

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Notable events in the dispute over the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

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Dec. 2014 - Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners applies to the federal government to build the 1,200-mile Dakota Access pipeline to carry North Dakota oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Illinois. The pipeline is projected to cost $3.8 billion and carry half a million barrels of oil daily. The proposed route skirts the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's reservation and crosses under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota that serves as the tribe's drinking water source.

March 2016 - Iowa regulators approve the pipeline, making it the fourth and final state to grant permission.

April 2016 - Opponents establish a camp at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in southern North Dakota for peaceful protest. Camps in the area would later swell to thousands of people.

July 2016 - The Army Corps of Engineers grants pipeline permits at more than 200 water crossings. The Standing Rock Sioux sues. The Cheyenne River, Oglala and Yankton Sioux tribes later join the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

Aug. 10 - North Dakota authorities make the first arrests of protesters. The total has since surpassed 750, including actress Shailene Woodley and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Sept. 9 - U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg denies an attempt by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt pipeline construction. The same day, the Army, the Department of Justice and the Interior Department declare that construction bordering or under Lake Oahe won't go forward pending further review.

Nov. 20, 21 - Authorities use tear gas, rubber bullets and water sprays on protesters who they say assaulted officers with rocks and burning logs at a blockaded bridge, in one of the most violent clashes of the protest. At least 17 protesters are taken to hospitals. One officer was injured when struck in the head with a rock.

Dec. 4 - Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy declines to allow the pipeline to be built under Lake Oahe in part because she says alternate routes need to be considered. Energy Transfer Partners calls the decision politically motivated and accuses President Barack Obama's administration of delaying the matter until he leaves office.

Jan. 18, 2017 - The Army Corps launches a full environmental study of the pipeline's disputed Lake Oahe crossing that could take up to two years to complete. Boasberg, the federal judge, rejects an ETP request to stop the study.

Jan. 24 - President Donald Trump signs executive actions to advance the construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.

Feb. 8 - The Army forgoes further study and grants an easement necessary to complete the pipeline and the company immediately begins drilling under Lake Oahe. The two tribes challenge the move in court two days later.

Feb. 13 - A federal judge in Washington denies the tribes' request for an emergency order halting construction of the pipeline, saying he'll consider it more fully at a Feb. 27 hearing.

Feb. 22-23 - Authorities clear out the last remaining holdouts in the main protest camps in southern North Dakota in advance of spring flooding season.

March 7 - Boasberg again declines to temporarily stop construction. The tribes appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

March 10 - Pipeline opponents rally in Washington, D.C., demonstrating outside the White House and Trump's Washington hotel.

March 18 - The appeals court refuses to grant an emergency order stopping oil from flowing through the pipeline.

March 20 - ETP announces "coordinated physical attacks" along the pipeline. Authorities in South Dakota and Iowa confirm people apparently used a torch to burn holes through empty sections of the pipeline at aboveground shut-off valve sites.

March 27 - ETP says it has pumped oil into the disputed section of pipe under Lake Oahe and is preparing to put the full line into service.

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