Photo courtesy of Shirley Gerjets/ Bold Iowa

Landowners in Iowa fight controversial pipeline over claims of eminent domain

Protesters in North Dakota claimed victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on Sunday, following the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ refusal to issue an easement to drill under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe. But the issue is far from over as Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the controlling partner to Dakota Access, LLC, appealed to a federal judge on Dec. 5 to grant the company a permit to drill despite the Corps’ decision.

The Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation lies just south of the drill site, and other protesters have vowed to remain in their protest camps throughout the winter. The 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline is mostly complete along its four-state route, and Dakota Access wants to start transporting up to 570,000 barrels of oil a day from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to refineries and terminals in Illinois by January.

While it still remains to be seen how the scene will play out in North Dakota, farther down the pipeline a group of landowners in Iowa are fighting the use of eminent domain to bury the controversial pipeline diagonally across that state and through private property. Additionally, law enforcement has made several hundred arrests over the last several months in Iowa as landowners, environmental activists and Native Americans have continually sought to halt the pipeline’s construction throughout the state.

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