BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Government orders for protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline to leave federal land could have little immediate effect on the encampment where scores of people have been gathered for months to oppose the $3.8 billion project.

A North Dakota sheriff on Monday dismissed a deadline from the Army Corps of Engineers as a meaningless move aimed only at reducing the government’s legal responsibility for hundreds of demonstrators.

The Corps “is basically kicking the can down the road, and all it is doing is taking the liability from the Corps and putting it on” the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said.

The Corps said last week in a letter that all federal lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed to the public for “safety concerns” starting Dec. 5.