Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI), a membership-based grassroots organization, will continue its protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, despite a hold being placed on construction for the winter.

Bret Dublinske, attorney for Dakota Access, the company building the pipeline, released a letter Dec. 19 on behalf of Dakota Access stating construction activities will conclude no later than Dec. 24. 

Construction will resume in spring 2017.

“At present, all pipeline construction has been completed in Iowa with the exception of a limited amount of post-construction restoration activities on some remaining parcels in Iowa (the “Remaining Restoration Activities”),” the letter read. “The Remaining Restoration Activities will be deferred until the spring of 2017 as set forth herein.”

Matt Ohloff, climate justice organizer for Iowa CCI, said the news was warming for the activists, but there is still work to be done.

“This pipeline can be stopped on many different fronts,” Ohloff said. “The fact that [Dakota Access] isn’t going to continue construction for a couple more months was welcomed news, but we’re going to continue to stop this and fight it.”

Ohloff, a native of Des Moines, has been protesting the pipeline since it was announced in 2014. 

He protested with Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization and consumer rights group, before joining Iowa CCI in October 2016.

“We need to push [the construction] back and delay the process,” Ohloff said.

Iowa CCI protests are part of a coalition named the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, a coalition whose main concern is the potential environmental hazard the pipeline will have on Iowa’s waterways. Iowa CCI also participated in the Standing Rock protesting in North Dakota throughout 2016.

“The [Standing Rock] protests definitely helped slow down the construction,” Ohloff said. “We are winning this, and we will continue to support the cause.”