March 29, 2024

IUB denies Dakota Access request to expedite final permit

A request filed by Dakota Access with the Iowa Utilities Board March 16, asking the utility regulator to expedite the final permit to construct a crude oil pipeline through 18 Iowa counties, has been denied.

The Texas-based pipeline company also requested IUB keep documents associated with a board-mandated $25 million insurance policy for the project confidential. The IUB did not indicate in its March 18 response if this request would be granted, but the three-member panel said the five day-period Dakota Access recommended to allow interested parties review pre-permit compliance filings was not sufficient.

As part of the conditions of the IUB permit, Dakota Access’ parent company Energy Transfer Partners will have to give unconditional guarantees it would pay for damages associated with a pipeline oil spill or leak. The company also filed a modified agricultural mitigation plan, provide a timeline explaining when construction notices will be given and modify landowner condemnation easement forms.

The Iowa Sierra Club filed a motion of resistance March 17 asking IUB to deny the request and said a March 25 deadline should be sufficient time to review the required documents the pipeline company submitted last week.

IUB approved an order March 10 granting a conditional construction permit and eminent domain rights to the pipeline company. The 1,168-mile pipeline could ship up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the North Dakota Bakken Oil Fields through four states to a hub and refineries in Patoka, Ill. Approximately 343 miles of the project is slated to run underneath public and private land in Iowa, with 34 miles of the pipeline going through Jasper County.

Dakota Access hopes to begin construction this spring and complete the project by the end of 2016.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at
mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com