The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is considering a Sovereign Lands Permit for the Bakken Pipeline, which includes the crossings of the Big Sioux, Des Moines, and Mississippi Rivers, as well as the Big Sioux Wildlife Management Area.
You can submit comments to the DNR asking them to deny this permit to protect our land and water through January 19th.
Tell the DNR to reject this permit TODAY by emailing sler@dnr.iowa.gov.
The Iowa DNR has the authority to deny this permit to protect our state from the proposed Bakken Pipeline. The public comment period ends January 19th, so email slew@dnr.iowa.gov today!
Here are talking points to help you in crafting your email:
- The Threat to Iowa’s Soil and water: The proposed Bakken pipeline would represent an on going threat to Iowa’s precious natural resources, as countless crude oil pipeline accidents have proven. Just this January, the Bridger Pipeline poured between 40,000 and 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude into the pristine Yellowstone River. In Iowa, the Bakken pipeline would run beneath virtually every major waterway in the state, including the Big Sioux, Des Moines, and Mississppi rivers. The Des Moines Reiver is a major source of Des Moines’ drinking water and is already compromised because of nutrient runoff.
- The Threat to Iowa’s Economy: Current Iowa law would require Dakota access to provide a surety bond of just $250,000 to cover potential damages. In reality, that is just a drop in the bucket for actual clean up costs and would leave Iowa tax payers holding the bill. Cleanup costs for just one spill, that pumped one million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, have already cost over one BILLION dollars. And there is more clean up still to do. Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access, wrote, “We may incur substantial environmental costs and liabilities because of the underlying risk inherent to our operations.”
- The Assault on Landowner Rights Through Eminent Domain Abuse: Dakota Access has formally asked the three-member Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to grant the company the power of eminent domain, which would give the company the power to force Iowa landowners to provide easements against their will. This would be an egregious abuse of eminent domain, which, by law, only can be granted when there is significant “public convenience and necessity.” However, all three members of the IUB have been appointed by Governor Branstad, whose re-election campaign received support from former Texas governor Rick Perry, now an Energy Transfer Partners’ board member.
- The Threat to the World’s Climate: Every established scientific organization in the world has affirmed that the earth’s climate is rapidly changing and that human use of fossil fuels is the primary cause. According the former NASA climatologist, James Hansen, who was the first to address Congress on climate change nearly 30 years ago, 80% of fossil fuel reserves already discovered must remain in the ground if we are to avoid cataclysmic climate change.The Bakken pipeline would do just the opposite, facilitating the daily extraction of an additional 570,000 barrels of climate changing crude oil.