Regulators could vote to approve Bakken construction Monday

State regulators could approve an order allowing a Texas oil company to begin construction on the majority of an interstate crude oil pipeline through 18 Iowa counties on Monday.

The three-member Iowa Utilities Board directed staff to draft an order to allow Bakken pipeline developer Dakota Access to begin construction on land where it has easement agreements, which is about 90 percent of the land in Iowa. The board will review the order at noon, Monday, at the board hearing room in Des Moines. The board has the option to vote on the order, and may go into closed session, according to a meeting notice.

When the board met this week, two members supported construction while a third questioned whether it would jeopardize the process and if the board had jurisdiction.

The original hazardous liquid pipeline permit agreement approved on March 10 required Dakota Access to have permits for the entire pipeline in hand before construction. The Army Corps of Engineers still is reviewing a handful of parcels and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suspended its sovereign lands approval for a parcel in Lyon County to investigate impact on a possible sacred tribal burial ground.

The $3.8 billion, 30-inch diameter underground pipeline would pump up to 570,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bakken and Three Forks region of North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, to a distribution hub in Illinois.

Opponents of the pipeline including Bold Iowa, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and the Bakken Resistance have already planned a protest for 2 p.m. on the west Capitol Terrace outside the Iowa Statehouse.