Meetings on pipeline plans start Monday
“Informational meetings begin Monday about a Texas-based company’s proposal to build an underground pipeline that would carry 320,000 barrels of North Dakota crude oil daily through 18 counties in Iowa.
Dakota Access LLC, a unit of Energy Transfer Partners, plans to conduct meetings in each of the 18 counties.
Thirty days after informational meetings are finished, Dakota Access may file a state petition for a permit to build the pipeline and to request the right of eminent domain from the Iowa Utilities Board.
Eminent domain sets up a legal process to allow the company to acquire easements and determine compensation if landowners and the company can’t reach an agreement.
The 30-inch-diameter pipeline would pass through 343 miles of land in Iowa, affecting thousands of farmers and other property owners. The pipeline would extend to Patoka, Ill., about 50 miles east of St. Louis. From there, the oil would be either transported in railroad tank cars or switched to another pipeline en route to the Texas Gulf Coast.”
The Des Moines Register 28 November 2014.