The Iowa Utilities Board will reconvene Thursday and return to an open session meeting on the Dakota Access, otherwise known as Bakken, pipeline. The session is expected to lead to a decision either Wednesday or Thursday.

The Bakken pipeline, proposed by Dakota Access LLC., is a 1,168-mile long pipeline that would extend diagonally across Iowa and three other states, including North Dakota, South Dakota and Illinois. 

The pipeline has been approved in all states except for Iowa, and construction for the pipeline has already begun. If approved in Iowa, the pipeline will be expected to be functional by the end of 2016.

Appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad, the board consists of three members: Geri Huser, Elizabeth Jacobs and Nick Wagner.

The board approved a motion for a recess Feb. 19, 2016, in which the staff would draft an order for the board’s review and consideration, according to a press release by IUB spokesperson Don Tormey.

“No additional evidence will be taken and no witnesses will be called,” the release read. “In addition, there will be no opportunity for the parties or the general public to address the board, and no signs or placards will be permitted in the hearing room.”

However, during the past week, the board overruled objections from Dakota Access and allowed three new pieces of evidence to be introduced before the final decision is made, according to an Ames Tribune article regarding the pipeline.

The decision from the IUB falls months behind the other three states, and the decision comes two years after Dakota Access originally proposed the pipeline in 2014.