WEST LIBERTY, Iowa — While several groups are fighting to put a permanent stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline, one Iowa landowner says he's OK with it.
Elmer Hebl and his wife have a 160-acre farm. He says pipelines are best for both public and environmental safety. He cited the oil train explosion that killed 47 people in Canada three years ago, and Alaska where the biggest oil disaster came not on the Alaska Pipeline, but from the 11 million gallons that flowed out of the Exxon Valdez.
"This country has seemed to have lost it's common sense, 'cause common sense tells you this is the way to transport that kind of oil product," said Hebl.
Iowa Sierra Club Attorney Wally Taylor would disagree. He says every pipeline that's ever been built has leaked. The government reports 2,000 pipeline leaks over the past 20 years.