Meanwhile, film actress Shailene Woodley, who has been involved with the months-long pipeline protest, will headline a solidarity rally at 1 p.m. Wednesday outside U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with a hearing on the tribe’s request for an injunction to halt construction of the 1,172-mile pipeline.
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However, Bret Dublinske, a Des Moines lawyer for Dakota Access LLC, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, countered that the landowners claims were without merit and the company should be able to proceed under a state permit and eminent domain authority granted by the Iowa Utilities Board. The pipeline route will transport crude oil approximately 1,172 miles from North Dakota’s Bakken and Three Forks oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa, into IL.
“It’s disappointing, but not really unexpected”, landowner Richard Lamb said of the judge’s decision. The project will place 346 miles of pipeline in 18 Iowa counties, crossing the state on a diagonal from northwest to southeast. He says they filed the motion with the I-U-B Monday afternoon.
Crops have been cut down on Lamb’s land near Boone in central Iowa to make way for the pipeline.
The company argued in court on Friday that if the board or the court grants the landowners’ motion to stop work it would be required to move construction crews and equipment around the 15 parcels at a cost of more than $500,000 for each move. Their attorney says if the board rejects their request, they will again re-file in court.
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So the attorney for the landowners filed the motion a few hours later.it asks to temporarily prevent construction of the Bakken Oil Pipeline being built by Dakota Access while a lawsuit remains pending in Polk County District Court.
