William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has asked Iowa utility regulators to block plans by a Texas-based company to start construction next week on the Bakken oil pipeline in Iowa.

Dakota Access LLC, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, asked the Iowa Utilities Board this week to permit construction to begin next Tuesday on the vast majority of the project to allow time for the pipeline to be completed this year. The company said it proposes to construct the project "at its own risk," except in areas where pre-construction notification is required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The state board has given other parties until Monday to file comments.

The Standing Rock Sioux in a brief filed with Iowa regulators Thursday said while it is not a party to the Iowa proceedings, it is significantly affected by the pipeline and the company's plans for Iowa construction.

"Specifically, the pipeline is currently facing regulatory delays and potential legal challenges in numerous areas along its nearly 1,200-mile length," the tribe said. "Individually and collectively, these challenges raise the question of whether the current proposed route, and even the pipeline itself, remain viable. Starting construction in the face of this uncertainty would be harmful to landowners, who could be hosts to a segmented and unfinished pipeline or an unnecessarily prolonged period of construction, as well as the Tribe."

The tribe, which is based in Fort Yates, N.D., has the sixth-largest Indian reservation in the United States, with about 8,500 people residing on 3,500 square miles along the North Dakota and South Dakota borders. The tribe set up a camp in North Dakota last month to protest plans for the $3.8 billion pipeline, which would carry up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch through South Dakota and Iowa to Patoka, Ill. It would pass through 18 Iowa counties.

The tribe says the latest route for the Bakken pipeline would cross the Missouri River at Lake Oahe less than a mile upstream from the boundary of its reservation in North Dakota. A spill or leak at the crossing would disable the reservation's sole drinking water intake, and would cause "extreme economic, environmental, and cultural harm to the tribe," the tribe's brief said.

The tribe also contends that the review and approval process by the Corps of Engineers has been deeply flawed and that no federal permits can be granted until there has been additional tribal government-to-government consultation, additional environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act, and a significant improvement in the Corps' compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act.

"Dakota Access in its request presents a one-side picture in which federal approvals for the pipeline are a mere formality, and are inevitably forthcoming in the immediate future. It's picture is inaccurate and outdated," the tribe said. The tribe also contends that Dakota Access took an enormous gamble by planning for construction to begin in May 2016 without providing sufficient time for the federal regulatory process to be completed.

Meskwaki tribe opposes Bakken pipeline

The Omaha district of the Corps of Engineers issued a statement last week that it is still reviewing plans for the Bakken pipeline and won't make any decisions on federal permits and other approvals needed for construction until all government requirements are completed. The Corps said it is not an "opponent or a proponent" of the pipeline and did not offer a timetable for when its reviews would be completed.

Ed Wiederstein of Audubon, president of the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now coalition, which supports the Bakken pipeline project, filed a statement with Iowa regulators earlier this week in support of Dakota Access' plans. Wiederstein is a former president of the Iowa Farm Bureau, and he said his preference as a farmer is that the pipeline project be completed in 2016 so the construction does not extend into the 2017 crop year.

Dakota Access has said it plans to have three "spreads" constructing the pipeline and each spread will cover about 1.25 miles per day with the pipeline trench being under construction for about 14 days from the opening to the closing of the trench. Wiederstein said winter and other inclement weather can come without warning in the late fall, and it is highly possible that weather conditions could make it impossible to continue construction in one or more of the spreads before the trench is closed and equipment is removed from the field.

If that should happen, it would have a significant adverse impact on farm property, Wiederstein said. Among other things, it would interfere with fall field work and preparation of the soil in the spring, which would delay planting crops, resulting in lost yields. It could also leave fences open in the fall and winter that would require repairs before cattle could be turned out into the field, he added.



