Iowa judge favors property owners in pipeline dispute

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) — Opponents of planned liquid carbon dioxide pipelines in the Midwest won a victory when an Iowa judge ruled that a state law that gives surveyors the right to enter private property is unconstitutional. In his ruling Wednesday, District Judge John Sandy denied a pipeline company’s request for an injunction that would allow survey crews access to Martin’s Koenig’s farmland near Sioux Rapids in northwest Iowa. Sandy says a law giving crews that access violated the state constitution because it doesn’t provide just compensation for damages to landowners in exchange for the loss of their right to deny entry to their land. Pipeline company Navigator CO2 Ventures says it will appeal the ruling.