Toxic crude oil has been flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline since June 1, but that still doesn’t mean that the pipeline is a done deal.
On top of two lawsuits pending against the Iowa Utilities Board — one from nine brave landowners and one from the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club — a federal judge recently found that the Army Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fishing rights, hunting rights or issues of environmental justice when it issued the permits needed to complete the project. Consequently, the Sierra Club has also petitioned the IUB to revoke the DAPL permit, which had initially been granted on the basis of the Army Corps’ go-ahead.
For Jasper County, this means that — although incredible damage has already been done to a great deal of farmland — we could still see the end to the threat that the pipeline poses to our soil and waters in the case of a leak. Let’s let the IUB know that we don’t want a pipeline without a legitimate permit to continue to pump up to 500,000 barrels of toxic crude per day through our county.
Go to iub.iowa.gov and search for Docket HLP-2014-0001 to submit your comments. We can still shut this thing down.
Kathy Holdefer
Mingo