I retired as Trails Coordinator from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources after 30 years of public service. I have worked across the state with the Army Corps of Engineers, Native American people and many other government organizations.

During this time I managed millions of dollars for trail development on state land. I also represented the people of Iowa on state and federal trail grant committees awarding multi-millions of dollars.

If the DNR wanted to build a new hiking foot trail – not a concrete bicycle trail, just a trail in the woods – if we even wanted to move an existing trail over 12 feet to the side to reduce erosion, we would be required to go through more scrutiny than the Bakken pipeline will.

To build the trail would require an official agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Transportation, many Native American tribes, the State Historical Preservation Office and various other federal government requirements related to the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Endangered Species Act, Sovereign Lands Construction Permit, and Floodplain permits.

As of February of this year many of the permits for the pipeline had not even been applied for. Trail projects needed environmental review and rarely happened in under three years after starting the paperwork permitting process.

How can a hiking trail project less than a 100 feet in length take longer and receive more scrutiny than this hazardous 1,134-mile-long pipeline?