Pipeline company petitions IUB to begin work next week

DES MOINES — Dakota Access, LLC — the subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners which is developing the Dakota Access Pipeline — is seeking permission from the Iowa Utilities Board to begin construction as early as Tuesday.

This is according to filings made by the IUB on May 3 and 6 and from Dakota Access on May 5 and 10.

The IUB gave approval for Dakota Access to build 346 miles of the 1,168-mile pipeline through 18 Iowa counties in March, but construction permit is contingent on gaining the required permits from other regulatory agencies. The filings last week ask the IUB to let the pipeline company begin construction on all areas of the pipeline not designated “pre-construction notification” sites by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The federal agency has jurisdiction of roughly 37 miles of the total project, which includes major U.S. waterways such as the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and adjacent lands.

Dakota Access will have to undertake horizontal boring underneath multiple waterways in Iowa to lay the pipeline, which will have the capacity to transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Bakken Oil Fields of North Dakota to a hub in Patoka, Ill.

Dakota Access claims preventing the company to progress with construction of the approved pipeline in locations not under the Army Corps. jurisdiction is against federal regulations and “imposes an exceptional and arbitrary burden” to the company and landowners — particularly those with farmland.

Environmental groups and other opposition claim the request violates past IUB orders. The IUB gave Dakota Access until Tuesday to provide regulators with more information regarding its request and outside parties can make filings until May 16.

In the documents filed May 10, Dakota Access said it wants to finish construction of the pipeline within “one growing season” and to “avoid as much winter construction as possible.” Dakota Access Vice President of Engineering Joey Mahmoud filed documents with Tuesday outlining a potential construction schedule from May 17 through Oct. 14. The construction would take 150 days and be done in three regions. Ground and topsoil restoration would continue into the fall.

Mahmoud said any further construction delays would push the pipeline instillation into the winter and, possibly, 2017.

In conjunction with its response to the IUB, Dakota Access also announced Tuesday it has received voluntary easements from 95 percent of property owners on the four-state pipeline route. In the state of Iowa 87 percent of landowners have granted the pipeline company an easement. Landowner approval in Illinois is up to 98 percent and 100 percent of the easements have been signed in North and South Dakota.

In the written statement, Dakota Access spokesperson Vicki Granado said the company is still negotiating easements with landowners. In Iowa, 1,295 properties are on the pipeline route. Of that, Dakota Access has roughly 167 parcels which have not filed voluntary easements. In Jasper County, an appointed condemnation board will facilitate hearings between affected landowners and Dakota Access representatives to come to an agreement on easement compensation.

The notice also gave a brief update on job and economic impact estimates Dakota Access has been pushing to sell the project to the public.

“Dakota Access will employ up to 4,000 union construction workers per sate to build the 1,168 miles of 30-inch pipeline with up to 50 percent sourced from local union halls,” Granado wrote. “During construction, Dakota Access will pay substantial sales taxes to each of the four states along with state property taxes once the pipeline is in service.”

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com