Map of Bakken pipeline route from the Dakota Access website.
A federal judge has ordered the Dakota Access oil pipeline that runs through Iowa to shut down until an environmental review is completed.
The pipeline carries oil from North Dakota to Illinois. It runs 350 miles through 18 Iowa counties, entering the state in northwest Iowa’s Lyon County and exits from Lee County in the southeast.
Oil began pumping through the pipeline more than three years ago. The company that runs the pipeline is seeking permits to double its capacity.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s lawsuit asks the court to throw out the federal permit for the pipeline. In 2016, the Sierra Club and more than a dozen Iowans who owned land along the pipeline’s route unsuccessfully sued in state court to try to block operation of the pipeline.