Photo: Kaylynn Lee Strain
On Monday, December 5th, members of the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition delivered the following letter to the IUB demanding they revoke Dakota Access’ Bakken Pipeline permit.
Thanks to Coalition partner Jess Mazour at Iowa CCI for capturing this great video of pipeline fighter Brenda Brink of Huxley, IA reading the letter at the IUB. Press from the day can be found here and here. You can check out some of the great media from this week’s actions at the IUB here and here. Thank you to Greta Anderson of Ames and Peter Clay of Des Moines for continuing to keep the pressure on by writing letters to the editor of our local and state papers!
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Dear Iowa Utilities Board staff and commissioners:
On behalf of the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, we respectfully ask you to revoke the permit for the Dakota Access Bakken crude oil pipeline.
As you may know, yesterday the Army Corps of Engineers denied the 408 permit granting the easement for Dakota Access to put the pipeline under Lake Oahe and the Missouri River. The Corps is calling on the company to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement – something that should have been done prior to any permits being granted or construction beginning.
In light of this action by the Army Corps of Engineers, it is likely that the pipeline process will be delayed for many months and potentially rerouted of denied all together.
Construction on the pipeline should have never been allowed to begin anywhere until all permits were granted.
In March, when the Iowa Utilities Board granted the permit to Dakota access, which stipulated numerous requirements that Dakota access must meet prior to construction. Among those requirements were that construction could not begin until all the permits were approved and all requirements were met.
In June, the IUB broke your own rules and allowed the company to proceed with construction without having met any of the requirements. Dakota Access had NONE of the Iowa permits and was still missing several other permits along the route in other states.
The IUB granted the use of eminent domain without proving any real public benefit for the people of Iowa and without any of the requirements met that you stipulated.
The actions by the Iowa Utilities Board were both irresponsible and unconscionable.
Your duty is to the people of Iowa, not to out-of-state corporations.
Your duty was to determine a clear and irrefutable benefit to the people of Iowa. You failed to do that.
Your duty was to protect the interest of Iowans. You fail to do that.
Your duty was to enforce your own rules and regulations. You failed to do that.
Your actions have resulted in the destruction of miles and miles of Iowa’s precious farm land and natural areas, and unimaginable threats to our water and soil.
The pipeline construction crew, mostly from out of state, has failed to meet the basic guidelines laid out in the permit and have caused potentially irreparable damage to the some of the best farmland in the world. Farmland that belong to Iowa families – not big oil – and you have failed to step in, stop them from doing damage and you have failed to hold them accountable.
This is a failed project. The Iowa Utilities Board must now do the responsible thing and stand with Iowans. We are calling on you to revoke the permit and require Dakota Access to stop any and all remaining construction in Iowa. In addition, Dakota Access should be made to pay reparations to land owners and Iowans to cover the cost of damage that they caused.
Sincerely,
The Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition
Members of Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition demand IUB revoke the Dakota Access’ Bakken Pipeline permit on December 5th, 2016. Photo: Kaylynn Lee Strain