On Monday, an attorney for landowners against the building of the Bakken Oil Pipeline filed an emergency motion with the Iowa Utilities Board.
Advertisement
Tribal officials are challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision last month to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that is meant to carry oil from North Dakota to IL. That suit has not come before a court yet, and the board will hear arguments Thursday on the landowners’ motion to halt construction until that happens.
Landowners opposed to the pipeline asked a judge to stop the project, but a district judge ruled Monday that the courts can not intervene because landowners had not yet exhausted administrative remedies before bringing legal action. The group’s attorney Bill Hannigan contends that condemnation hearings for turning over private land to pipeline company Dakota Access LLC have been faster than what was reasonable for the landowners to anticipate.
Dakota Access also must to provide detailed information about the construction progress in Iowa, the board said, as well as more information about costs the company will incur if it’s required to work around the landowner’s parcels.
Advertisement
The controversial 1,154-mile pipeline would carry oil from the Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota to IL, but its construction has been stuck at a site near the Missouri River, where local police forces and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have reached a standoff in recent weeks. The pipeline would transport up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily and will cross from northwest to southeast Iowa, spanning 346 miles and 18 counties.
