Dakota Access pipeline had right to take Iowa land, judge rules

The builders of the Dakota Access pipeline acted lawfully in seizing private land through Iowa's eminent domain laws, a Polk County judge ruled this week.

Lawyers representing the Sierra Club and a group of 14 Iowa landowners had previously challenged the Iowa Utilities Board's decision to grant the pipeline's parent company eminent domain authority, which allowed it to secure easements to bury pipe along the project's 346-mile route through 18 Iowa counties — even when landowners don't want the pipe on their property.

In a Wednesday ruling, District Court Judge Jeffrey Farrell said the Iowa Utilities Board acted properly in employing eminent domain for the 1,172-mile interstate pipeline, which is set to run from North Dakota to Illinois. Farrell ordered the plaintiffs to pay all court costs of the case.

"The legislature clearly gave the board authority to grant rights of eminent domain to pipeline companies," Farrell wrote in his ruling.

The lawsuit was viewed as a last line of defense for pipeline opponents in Iowa, though the plaintiffs have vowed to appeal Farrell's decision to the Iowa Supreme Court, and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court. The pipeline is nearly complete, save for a small stretch in North Dakota under the Missouri River. Several Native American tribes have challenged the project in federal court, though a judge's ruling earlier this week allowed work to continue in the North Dakota.

“We are disappointed, but we're not deterred," Bill Hanigan, the lawyer representing the 14 landowners, said in a statement Wednesday.  "A private, out-of-state company, which doesn’t serve Iowans, should not be able to use eminent domain to seize Iowa farmland for the purpose of exporting crude oil.”

Hanigan had argued that the Iowa Utilities Board misinterpreted a 2006 Iowa law intended to protect Iowa farmland. He also said Iowa and federal law protects landowners because Dakota Access is a private, interstate pipeline, not a public utility.

The Iowa Utilities Board has defended its decision to approve the pipeline, saying the board considered safety, environmental factors, economic benefits and landowners' rights. It determined the public benefits of the giant infrastructure project outweighed other factors.

An attorney for Dakota Access urged the court to defer to the IUB's expertise in the area of pipelines. And he rebutted arguments that the project provides no benefits to Iowa because it originates and ends elsewhere. With no oil production in Iowa, attorneys argued, Iowans are dependent on other states for petroleum products.

Representatives of Dakota Access could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Dick Lamb, a Boone County landowner along the pipeline route, said the lawsuit would continue on.

"We’re not giving up," he said in a news release. "We don’t want this pipeline, and I think most Iowans don’t want it either."