IUB Schedules Information Meetings Regarding Summit Carbon Pipeline

September 08, 2021

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(Iowa Utilities Board) Meetings to inform landowners about the proposed project -- On August 12, 2021, the Iowa Utilities Board issued a letter approving the locations, dates, and times for a series of public informational meetings to inform landowners about a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in Iowa by Summit Carbon Solutions, LLC.

Summit Carbon filed its request for the meeting dates with the IUB on August 11, 2021 in Docket No. HLP-2021-0001. The pipeline is proposed to cross 30 Iowa counties.

Summit Carbon refers to the proposed carbon capture and storage project in Iowa and four other states as the Midwest Carbon Express. The project proposes to partner with a number of ethanol plants in the five states to capture carbon dioxide emissions and transport the liquefied carbon dioxide to North Dakota where they will be stored in “deep underground geologic storage locations.”

The proposed project is classified as a hazardous liquid pipeline, which is governed by Iowa Code chapter 479B and the IUB’s administrative rules at 199 Iowa Administrative Code chapter 13.

Under Iowa Code chapter 479B, the pipeline company is required to hold informational meetings in each county in which real property or property rights would be affected, and the meetings are to be conducted at least 30 days prior to the company filing a petition for a new pipeline permit. The pipeline company will provide notice of the informational meetings to each landowner affected by the proposed pipeline and each person in possession of or residing on the property.

The IUB has scheduled the following in-person public informational meetings, plus one virtual meeting:

Hardin County – September 13, noon, Timbers Edge, 19493 Co Hwy S56, Steamboat Rock
Story County – September 13, 6 p.m., Gateway Hotel & Conference Center, 2100 Green Hills Drive, Ames
Lyon County – September 15, noon, Rock Rapids Community Center, 404 First Ave, Rock Rapids
Sioux County – September 15, 6 p.m., Terrace View, 230 St. Andrews Way, Sioux Center
Plymouth County – September 16, noon, Le Mars Convention Center (lower level), 275 12th St SE, Le Mars
Woodbury County – September 16, 6 p.m., Sioux City Convention Center, Meeting Rooms A & B, 801 Fourth St, Sioux City
Cerro Gordo County – September 20, 1:30 p.m., NIACC – Beem Center, 500 College Drive, Mason City
Floyd County – September 20, 6 p.m., Floyd Community Center, 706 Fairfield St, Floyd
O’Brien County – September 22, noon, Sheldon Community Center, 416 Ninth St, Sheldon
Cherokee County – September 22, 6 p.m., Cherokee Community Center, 530 W. Bluff St, Cherokee
Dickinson County – September 23, noon, Dickinson County Community Center, 1602 15th St, Spirit Lake
Emmet County – September 23, 5:30 p.m., Regional Wellness Center, 415 S 18th St, Estherville
Palo Alto County – September 27, 12:30 p.m., Iowa Lakes Community College, 3200 College Drive, Emmetsburg
Kossuth County – September 27, 6 p.m., Eagle Center Banquet, 401 Smith St, Lakota
Hancock County – September 28, 1 p.m., Viaduct Center, 255 US Hwy 69 S, Garner
Chickasaw County – September 29, 1 p.m., Chickasaw Event Center, 301 N. Water Ave, New Hampton
Boone County – October 4, noon, Boone County Historical Society, 602 Story St, Boone
Greene County – October 4, 5 p.m., Jefferson High School, 1901 N Grimmell Road, Jefferson
Ida County – October 5, noon, Cobblestone Inn & Suites, 2011 Indorf Ave, Holstein
Crawford County – October 5, 6 p.m., Memorial Hall, 550 Main St, Manilla
Shelby County – October 6, noon, Therkildsen Activity Center, 706 Victoria St, Harlan
Pottawattamie County – October 6, 6 p.m., Impact Hill, 501 Oakland Ave, Oakland
Clay County – October 8, noon, Clay County Fairground, 800 W 18th St, Spencer
Mills County – October 11, noon, Lakin Community Center, 61321 315th St, Malvern
Fremont County – October 11, 6 p.m., The Waterfalls, 907 Hartford Ave, Farragut
VIRTUAL Meeting – October 12, 5:30 p.m., Iowa Utilities Board, 1375. E. Court Ave, Des Moines (Register to attend.)
Wright County – October 13, noon, Heartland Museum, 119 SW Ninth St, Clarion
Franklin County – October 13, 5 p.m., Maynes Grove Lodge, 946 US Hwy 65, Hampton
Page County – October 14, noon, Shenandoah Public Library, 201 S Elm St, Shenandoah
Montgomery County – October 14, 6 p.m., Montgomery County Ag Society Gold Building, 1809 N Fourth St, Red Oak
Hamilton County – October 15, 12:30 p.m., All Cultures Equal, 1440 E Second St, Webster City
Webster County – October 15, 6 p.m., Best Western Starlite Village, 1518 Third Ave NW, Fort Dodge

The October 12 virtual meeting will be conducted from the IUB’s Hearing Room. Registration, via the link above, is required for remote access.

Written comments or objections to the proposed pipeline can be filed electronically using the IUB’s Open Docket Comment Form, by email to customer@iub.iowa.gov, or by postal mail to the Iowa Utilities Board, Attn: Docket No. HLP-2021-0001, 1375 E. Court Ave., Des Moines, IA 50319.

To review documents filed in this docket, click on Docket No. HLP-2021-0001 to visit the IUB’s electronic filing system (EFS). For assistance with electronic filing of comments, visit How to Make a Filing with the Board or call the IUB IT Support team at (515) 725-7337.

For more information about hazardous liquid pipelines, visit the IUB’s Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Permits webpage.

'My family's been through this 4 times': Story County residents push back against carbon sequestration pipeline (Ames Tribune)

Guest column: Carbon sequestration pipeline's supposed benefits crumble on examination; our best future is nuclear (Ames Tribune)

Iowa agency schedules public meetings on proposed CCS pipeline (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Your Letters: Carbon Removal Could, in Fact, Bring Great Benefits (Iowa State University Bioeconomy Institute/Ames Tribune)

Proposed carbon dioxide pipeline draws opposition from Iowa farmers and environmentalists alike (Iowa Public Radio)

Opinion: On the dangers of hitching Iowa's economy to ethanol (Iowa City Press Citizen)

Excerpt from Ames Tribune: The $4.5 billion carbon capture pipeline is planned to cut through land the man's family has earned their living off of for six generations. He asked not to be named but was not the only attendee to raise issues with the project.

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Company officials told attendees of Monday's meeting — one of 31 the company plans to host across the state — that the path is not yet set in stone and can be adjusted. A similar meeting will be held in Boone on Monday, Oct. 4, at the Boone Historical Society.

More: Story, Boone counties 2 of 30 that $4.5 billion carbon sequestration pipeline would run through

"I don't disagree with anything you're saying. And, frankly, I grew up on a farm and pattern tile farms; we know what it's like," president of Summit Ag Investors Justin Kirchhoff said Monday. "If there are damages that are above and beyond what we have talked about, we're happy to have a discussion on that."

Attendees continued to push for more concrete plans on how land disputes and damages would be addressed, and Story County Supervisor Linda Murken said after the meeting some valid concerns still needed to be addressed.

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Attendees were briefed on landowners' rights, easements and eminent domain at Monday's meeting, which utility board members say is only the first step.

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Summit Carbon Solutions would be required to cover damages caused during construction, including the potential loss of crop yields — 100% the first year, 80% the second and 60% the third.

Farmers said the easement grant and three years of crop yield coverage would be a drop in the bucket compared to the long-term impacts of digging up their soil and potentially relocating drain trials.

Fred Dorr, who attended Monday's meeting to advocate on behalf of several family members who would be impacted by the project, said royalties would be more appropriate.

"Now, my family's been through this four times," Dorr said. "The one thing pipeline companies say, 'We're just gonna come in; we're gonna bring the pipeline, pay for any crop damage, your one-time easement payment, and then it won't harm you.'

"But the point is access to our land has value to you folks ... Why should you be allowed to use our land, for your profit, without sharing some of that with the landowners?"

A reoccurring topic brought up by attendees was the aftermath of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which also cut through Iowa. For farmers with land along the 1,100-mile route, some said the soil was left less valuable after construction had been completed.

Story County farmers worried their land would meet the same fate as a result of this latest project, dubbed the Midwest Carbon Express.

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A leak by a Mississippi pipeline that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and even caused some to foam at the mouth was brought up by multiple attendees, as well.

More:Company wants to build a carbon sequestration pipeline in 30 Iowa counties. Find out where.

"I'm sure you will argue, 'We're safer'," Fred Dorr said. "But the point is, the first responders did not handle it. It hurt a lot of people in the process. And it was a dramatic, drastic impact on a small community in Mississippi."

One key difference between the pipelines, Summit Carbon Solutions' Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Powell argued, is that the Mississippi pipeline contained hydrogen sulfide, while the Carbon Express would only contain the "purest form of C02 available."

Company representatives also said first responders would be briefed on their operations. The project would also fall under the jurisdiction of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

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The meeting was also well-attended by workers who would benefit from the influx of jobs the project promises to bring to the state. The company touts 14,000-17,000 temporary positions, predominantly in the building and construction trades, as well as several hundred permanent positions.

A third of the jobs would come to Iowa. Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council President William Gerhard attended the meeting to advocate for the project.

"I grew up in a western Iowa small farming community," Gerhard said. "I know how hard it is to find well-paying jobs ... I think this is a great opportunity to help rural Iowa with the creation of a lot of jobs." READ MORE

Excerpt from Iowa Public Radio: “This is just the latest case of someone insisting on putting a pipeline or an easement on our property. I’ve lost track of how many times our family has had to deal with this,” said Beth Richards, whose family farms in Hardin County. “Why should the landowners welcome encroachment on their land for a project that doesn’t pay direct dividends to them other than a vague promise that ethanol is good for corn prices? Why isn’t rent going to be paid for the land or profits shared with farmers?”

Under the company’s plan, landowners would receive a one-time payment for the purchase of an easement and would be compensated on a sliding scale for three years’ worth of crop losses.

Landowners raise concerns about property values, liability

Landowners and members of the public raised a slate of concerns on Tuesday, including questions about how the pipeline, buried 48 inches below ground, might affect their property values, the productivity of their land, and whether they would shoulder any liability if the pipe leaked or burst.

“[If] an explosion occurs, since this is a hazardous material,” asked Robert Ritter of Wright County, “who is liable for damage or death in an accident on my land?”

Some said the company seemed to be downplaying the potential risks associated with pressurized carbon dioxide, which has long been used to euthanize animals.

Summit representatives deflected questions about a leak at a carbon pipeline in Mississippi in 2020, which sickened dozens of people, saying the proposed Midwest project would only pipe “pure” carbon dioxide, unlike the Mississippi pipeline, which also included hydrogen sulfide.

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Summit denies the carbon dioxide would be used for oil extraction

Residents and landowners repeatedly questioned if the company would use any of the carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a process of injecting the substance in oil fields to boost oil production.

Representatives for the company denied this, despite statements from the company’s CEO Bruce Rastetter that the project wouldn’t be possible without it, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

“I hope that you will make every requirement possible that all the CO2 that comes out this project could not ever, ever be used for extracting gas and oil for any purpose, under any circumstance. That defeats the purpose of what is essentially a greenwashing project in the first place,” resident John Norris told the company. Norris previously ran as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2018.

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Meanwhile other advocates and researchers point out that coal-fired power plants and gas-guzzling vehicles will not be phased immediately and argue that pulling carbon directly out of the atmosphere is a powerful tool that can help the world transition to a zero-emission future.

Summit is in the process of holding public meetings in the 30 Iowa counties the pipeline is slated to pass through, with meetings in Page, Montgomery, Hamilton and Webster Counties scheduled for later this week. Thirty days after the meetings are held, the company can petition the Iowa Utilities Board for a pipeline permit. READ MORE