Attorneys dispute merits on controversial Iowa pipeline project

Iowa landowners’ constitutional rights were violated when a Texas company used state-approved authority to seize their property to build an underground oil pipeline that had no public use because the interstate project did not service Iowans directly, a lawyer argued.  Bill Hanigan, a Des Moines lawyer representing landowners in six counties, asked the Iowa Supreme Court to reverse a district court decision by ruling the state abused its eminent domain “police power” in allowing invalid land takings. Because of that, he asked the seven justices to view the pipeline and oil passing through it as a continual trespass necessitating a remedy for the aggrieved landowners.However, attorneys for the state and Dakota Access said the project was properly granted a permit and use of eminent domain condemnation proceedings because it met the statutory provisions and regulatory authority delegated to the Iowa Utilities Board to build the 1,172-mile pipeline through 18 Iowa counties.