PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Dakota Access won’t have to continue posting a bond against any road damage from its oil pipeline through South Dakota.

The state Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday released the $24 million bond that the regulators had required.

The commission approved the permit for the project’s South Dakota segment on December 14, 2015.

The line began operating in June 2017. It carries crude oil from the Bakken / Three Forks production area in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois.

“We’re quite confident that no road construction issues remain this long after,” Brett Koenecke, a Pierre attorney representing the project, told the commission Tuesday. “We’d have heard about it, and the Public Utilities Commission would have heard about it — no question in my mind about that.”

The commission also decided on Tuesday that Dakota Access no longer needs to have a public liaison officer to field questions and complaints about the project in South Dakota.

“One of the intervenors did mention that some of the landowners may not feel comfortable contacting the PUC. Has that ever been an issue that you have heard from the public, or the liaison officer may have relayed to you,” acting commissioner Rich Sattgast asked the PUC staff.

“No, I have not heard any concerns from landowners that they’re apprehensive to contact our office,” answered Deb Gregg, who leads the PUC’s consumer affairs staff. She added, “And we’re happy to help.”

The South Dakota portion of the route covers approximately 271 miles through Campbell, McPherson, Edmunds, Faulk, Spink, Beadle, Kingsbury, Miner, Lake, McCook, Minnehaha, Turner and Lincoln counties, with a pump station near Redfield.

The company must still comply with 17 pages of permit conditions set by the commission.