by Ben Nuelle
A Pilot Mound landowner/farmer says no amount of money will change his mind about opposing the Bakken Pipeline?which happens to pass by? 50 feet from his house.
LaVerne Johnson is a landowner and farmer in Pilot Mound, Iowa. He is one of nine landowners suing the Iowa Utilities Board for granting Dakota Access eminent domain to build the Bakken Pipeline.
?My uncle Charlie?s dad August Johnson bought this farm July 11th in 1896. It then went to Charlie V Johnson, my uncle, and my aunt Dora; there children, my dad, my mother, my sister and I which we separated and got our land straightened out. It?s my official residence. They [Dakota Access] want to run the pipeline 46 feet from my residence.
Johnson says the pipeline is a blatant abuse of eminent domain. The Bakken pipeline will stretch from North Dakota to Illinois crossing 18 Iowa counties.
Bill Hanigan of Davis Brown Law Firm says the lawsuit is not about delay. They?re in it to win it.
?This lawsuit is whether Iowa law allows a private company, which provides no service to anyone from Iowa to use the state?s power of eminent domain over farmland. We believe this is illegal under the legislature?s 2006 amendments to the Iowa code and under the United States and constitutions of the state of Iowa.?
Hanigan adds before Polk County District will even set a calendar date on this lawsuit, 40 days must pass to give time for people to intervene.
In a recently released statement, the Iowa Utilities Board says Dakota Access has committed it will file with board permits and approval documents from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Iowa Department of Natural Resources prior to commencing construction.
