Dakota Access pipeline owners want to pump more oil through Illinois. Critics worry the move will increase the risk of leaks or a devastating spill

Oil has been flowing through the Dakota Access pipeline across Illinois since the summer of 2017, traveling underground from the Mississippi River to a hub in a tiny central Illinois town.

Every day, an average of 560,000 barrels of oil flows through the pipeline.

Now the company that owns the pipeline, which begins in North Dakota, wants to nearly double the volume, pumping up to 1.1 million barrels from the oil-rich Bakken region through South Dakota and Iowa into Illinois.

To increase the flow, the company wants to build a series of new pump stations along the 1,172-mile route, including in western Illinois, and upgrade its facilities where Dakota Access links up with other Midwestern pipelines.

In Illinois, the oil companies filed a petition for the upgrades with the Illinois Commerce Commission, seeking authorization to build a new pump station in Hancock County, north of Quincy, and replace and add pumps at the oil tank complex in Patoka, about 80 miles east of St. Louis. The petition also requests authorization to build a new pump station on another pipeline at the southern edge of Illinois, near the town of Joppa on the Ohio