County Still Waiting for 153-Thousand Dollar Damage Payment from Dakota Access

For over two years Dakota Access has not paid Jasper County an agreed to amount for damage that was left to County roads once their oil pipeline was installed.

That’s County Engineer Russ Stutt as he discussed the situation with County Supervisors Denny Carpenter and Doug Cupples this week. Pamela Olson, the assistant to Stutt, says the agreement goes back to the fall of 2017. She adds the County’s repeated attempts to get paid have been unsuccessful, with no indication why.

The payment issue came up when representatives of ISG Field Services, the inspection firm for the local pipeline work, asked the Supervisors to declare their part of the project complete. ISG is the third party that helps negotiate differences between land owners and Dakota Access. The company says they have done all they can to resolve not only the issue between the County and Dakota Access, but between one other Jasper county landowner and the pipeline company. Carpenter is addiment about not closing out ISG’sinvolvement.

Cupples, after talking with Stutt, Olson, and County Attorney Scott Nicholson, is also unwilling to sign ISG’s project completion document. Construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline was basically completed in mid-May of 2017. 34 miles of the pipeline runs across Jasper County from just north of where Highway 330 crosses the Polk/Jasper County line, southeast to where Jasper/Marion/ and Mahaska counties meet…south of Sully.