Landowner not surprised by court rejection of eminent domain argument

By: 
Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor

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Cyndy Coppola isn’t finished fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, despite a court ruling last week that the Iowa Utilities Board properly granted pipeline officials eminent domain powers last year.
“I’m not happy, but we’re not done,” Coppola told The Graphic-Advocate Thursday morning, the day after a Polk County District Court judge issued the ruling in a civil case Coppola and a handful of other Iowa landowners brought against the IUB. “I have a lot of faith in the Iowa Supreme Court.”
Coppola said she and other plaintiffs knew the case would be appealed, no matter the ruling. If her party lost, they always planned to ask the high court for a second opinion. If they won, Dakota Access officials were guaranteed to appeal it. Considering the judge who ruled against the landowners last week was the same judge who denied a request for a stay of construction in August, the ruling wasn’t a shock, Coppola said. 
Read more in the Feb. 22 edition. 

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