Dakota Access is on the 6/29 agenda at 11AM for the permit signing. The Supervisors' Chambers are on the 2nd floor of the Boone County Courthouse: 201 State St., Boone, Iowa if you'd like to be there for the proceedings. You can also email your concerns and letters to request that the BoS reject the permit application to: BooneCoAud@boonecounty.iowa.gov My open letter to the Boone County Supervisors: The Boone County Supervisors stood up for our community in November 2015 to say that they strongly opposed the construction of the Bakken pipeline. The reasons they cited for their opposition still hold true to this day. The combined surety bond and insurance of $25,250,000 won't even touch cleanup efforts alone in the event of a disaster. There is no Emergency Management training provided to our community other then "put up caution tape". Our EMS first responders aren't legally allowed to stop a leak even if they know how. It could take up to 3 hours to shut down the pumping stations and flip shut-off valves. This could mean a spill of 2-3 million gallons. With cleanup costs at around $550 per gallon, Dakota Access' insurance and surety bond will be spent within the first 45,000 gallons or 3 minutes of an uncontrolled leak at peak capacity and pressure. Their concerns about damage to our drainage districts still hold true. As the custodians of the drainage districts, we hope that they've been paying attention to how Dakota Access has been cutting tile lines in North and South Dakota and refusing to repair them according to landowner tile plan specifics - even going so far as to cite landowner opposition to the pipeline on social media as their reasoning in formal communication. Tomorrow our Board of Supervisors will either sign or not sign a permit for construction of the pipeline to cross our drainage district. Our community doesn't need a pipeline full of fracked crude oil out of North Dakota that is continuously poisoning that state's drinking water. Our community NEEDS family farms and a guarantee that at least a few Iowans in positions of power will stand up to protect the richest remaining agricultural land in the world from current and future devastation. We need a few brave souls in Boone, Iowa with the power to stand up and say, "We farm here. We grow food, we raise animals, we hunt, we fish, we swim in and drink from our rivers. That's what we do. We protect the Des Moines River because 3.1 million people rely on it for drinking water and irrigation. We can't afford to go along to get along with a company that threatens our way of life and our children's futures." In the words of Lida Burton, one of the few female elected leaders in our County and Districts today, "Xenia water is our backup plan. We don't know what we'll do if a spill contaminates that too". We have stood up to the Legislature repeatedly. We have stood up to the IUB. Seventy four percent of Iowans disagree with what the IUB has been allowed to do. Collectively we have written thousands of letters with tens of thousands of pages worth full of figures, facts, and pleas. It has all fallen on deaf ears. Recently even I have been taunted and harassed in public by tough-looking men driving pipeline company trucks from out of the area for daring to wear t-shirts advertising my heartfelt desire to protect the land and water for future generations. Please gentlemen, we know none of you think that this power and land grab by the Iowa Utilities Board should be tolerated. At the fast pace that everything is moving, Dakota Access will have ripped up farmland all across Iowa before the courts even catch up. We have all seen how those scars don't heal. Show us the courage of your convictions and say no to the Dakota Access permit request. Protect our community, even if it's only for a short time while the other gears of government grind on. We have vested our power as a community in your able hands. With close to 30,000 people in the county, each one of your voices counts for almost ten thousand of ours. We beg you, stay true to your convictions. If it is in your power to say yes, common sense dictates that it is also in your power to say no. Send a message so loud that your grandchildren's children will hear it 20 years from now. Say no. April Burch Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition member website: http://www.nobakken.com twitter: https://twitter.com/nobakken facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nobakken