Bakken pipeline decision expected Thursday

DES MOINES - State regulators are expected to rule Thursday on a permit to build an interstate crude oil pipeline through Iowa, ending months of waiting on whether the $3.8 billion project can move forward.

Several opponents of the Bakken pipeline are expecting the three-member Iowa Utilities Board to grant approval but say that likely won't be the last word.

'Everyone I've talked with is expecting an approval, but there will be legal action” from several landowner groups, said Cheryl Valenta, a member of the Bakken pipeline Resistance Coalition and Iowa 350.

The Iowa Utilities Board met in closed session to review the project Wednesday. The board is slated to emerge from a closed session at 1 p.m. Thursday at board headquarters in Des Moines and make a decision in open session.

The meeting is open to the public, but space will be limited, and public comment will not be allowed. People can also watch the meeting streaming online at: https://iowautilitiesboard.eduvision.tv/LiveSched.aspx.

In January 2015, Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, filed a request for a permit to build the hazardous liquid pipeline. It is also seeking permission for eminent domain, or the right to condemn private land along the route when a landowner refuses to grant an easement.

Dakota Access has said it has about 80 percent of the 346 miles of Iowa land needed for the pipeline but has yet to strike deals for 296 parcels.

Iowa has the longest stretch of the proposed 1,168-mile, 30-inch-diameter underground pipeline. It would stretch from the Bakken and Three Forks region of North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a terminal in Patoka, Ill.

Up to 570,000 barrels of light sweet crude oil could be shipped per day, and it would ultimately be shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

North Dakota, South Dakota and Illinois have all granted permission for the project.