Plans are progressing for a pipeline designed to carry crude oil from the Bakken oil fields to Illinois. Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners is building the $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. Spokesperson Vicki Granado says the 1,100-mile route includes North and South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
She says they’re just finishing up land owner meetings in South Dakota to determine the route and the next step will be permitting.
Informational meetings are just starting in Iowa, but so far Granado says they haven’t seen the negative backlash that’s surrounded the Keystone XL Pipeline project. In fact the reception has been good because the pipeline could displace nearly half of the 1.1 million barrels per day of Bakken oil currently moving by rail and truck.
Granado says the goal is to be on a land owners property just three to six weeks and leave the area better than they found it. Once the pipeline is completed they have a 24-7 monitoring system and can remotely and immediately turn off a valve if there is any sign of a leak.
