Buena Vista and Cherokee counties submitted letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, urging the corps to reissue an easement to the Dakota Access Pipeline that has generated millions in tax revenue for both counties since it was built in 2017.
The letters the counties issued were cast from the same template.
Kelly Snyder of Buena Vista County urged the corps “to reissue DAPL’s easement” under alternatives that would allow the pipeline keep flowing crude oil through the county. Rick Mongan of Cherokee noted the pipeline is estimated to generate $5.1 million for the county since 2017.
“The (pipeline’s tax revenues) is used to contribute to the ongoing critical and essential needs of the county,” reads Buena Vista County’s letter to the Army Corps. “A few examples include the funding of bridge and dam projects and the purchase of equipment for secondary road maintenance… Additionally, these revenues also enable the county to fund the Hanover Historical Society and the Upper Des Moines of Opportunity, Inc., a nonprofit that addresses poverty with free health clinics and rent and energy assistance.”
The letters were spurred by a draft environmental impact statement the Army Corps released in September. It was released three years after a federal judge ordered the environmental review and revoked the pipeline’s permit for the Missouri River crossing, upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe is concerned a spill from the pipeline could contaminate its water supply, Lake Oahe.
The letters from Buena Vista and Cherokee argue the current environmental impact statement “does not take into consideration the negative impacts our county would experience should the Corps choose not to reissue the (pipeline’s) easement.”
“Denying the easement… would temporarily or permanently deprive our county of the critical revenues described above and negatively impact our ability to sustain and advance the previously mentioned essential needs,” both letters read. “We urge the Corps to update its final environmental impact statement to fully account for and consider the significant economic, safety and environmental harms and injuries that we and the citizens of our county will be forced to bear if such a decision were made.”
The letter templates were submitted by the communications consultant LS2 Group of Des Moines to Buena Vista supervisor Kathy Croker and Cherokee supervisor Donnie Skou, according to Auditors Sue Lloyd and Kris Glienke. Bruceann Phillips, a vice president with LS2, encouraged Croker to bring up the letter to the supervisors because the environmental impact statement reflects “a lack of consideration… of the significant social and economic impacts to (the counties) as a result of revenue that will be lost,” according to an email exchange between Phillips and Croker.
When asked why the supervisors considered the letter, Croker pointed to a story in The Storm Lake Times in February 2019 that reported the board of supervisors lowered its overall levy and bolstered most of its reserve funds thanks to an additional $57 million in valuation booked from the Dakota Access Pipeline. The general basic fund’s carryover percentage increased by two percentage points. The secondary roads fund carryover increased five-fold.
“It’s had a positive impact on our budget,” said Croker, who was the assessor at the time the pipeline hit county tax rolls. “If we didn’t have it, we’d definitely have to change how we budget things, how much we give out to outside agencies. Things would be much tighter.”
A final environmental impact statement will follow public input and environmental analysis, and a formal decision will be made, according to Corps Omaha District spokesman Steve Wolf, as quoted by the Associated Press. The environmental impact statement details five options for the pipeline for the Missouri River crossings. Two alternatives recommend leaving the pipeline where it’s at. Two others recommend abandoning the 7,500 foot segment. And another is a 111-mile reroute to north of Bismarck, over 38 miles upstream from the current crossing.
Buena Vista and Cherokee counties want the alternatives that leave the pipeline in place. When asked what the alternatives meant, Croker said she wasn’t sure. She deferred comment to LS2, who deferred comment to Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for the pipeline. Granado said she wasn’t sure about the alternatives referenced in the counties’ letter.
“It was typical outreach,” Granado said of the communications between LS2 and Croker. “It was outreach about our pipeline project.”
The pipeline currently transports 600,000 to 650,000 barrels of oil per day through Buena Vista and Cherokee counties from North Dakota to a distribution hub in Pakota, Ill.
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