CO2 pipelines must get signoffs beyond Iowa regulators

If Summit Carbon Solutions wants to build an underground carbon dioxide pipeline through north-central Iowa’s Wright County as it proposes, the company is going to have to pay more than $400,000 in fees to cross agricultural drainage tiles and ditches.

Under a resolution passed last month in Wright County, pipeline companies must bore 2 feet below tiles and 5 feet below open ditches — a more expensive process than cutting a trench at crossings, said Dean Kluss, a farmer who chairs the Wright County Board of Supervisors.

“There’s millions of dollars of infrastructure out there put in a long time ago,” Kluss said about county-controlled drainage tiles that remove water from the flat, rich fields of north-central and northwest Iowa. “To replace it now is extremely costly. That cost should be borne by the industry that wants to put this (pipeline) in.”

While the Iowa Utilities Board will decide whether three CO2 pipelines proposed in the state get permits, other government bodies must sign off on parts of these multibillion-dollar projects. And some local regulations may throw a wrench in the works.

Summit Carbon Solutions wants to build a 2,000-mile pipeline, with nearly 700 miles of it in Iowa, to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to underground sequestration sites in North Dakota. The Iowa-based company has asked the utilities board to grant it eminent domain power so Summit can force easements on 973 properties where landowners have not voluntarily agreed to sell access.

Starting Tuesday in Fort Dodge, the three-person board is scheduled to start an evidentiary hearing expected to last multiple weeks over Summit’s permit application. The board will hear from the company, landowners and witnesses called by the company and opponents.

River crossings follow federal process

Major utility projects like hazardous gas pipelines must get approval from other local, state and federal agencies in addition to the board. Summit’s proposed pipeline, for example, has 3,557 crossings of wetlands, streams and rivers regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We do have to issue permits for crossing Waters of the United States,” said Ward Lenz, chief of the regulatory division for the Rock Island District Corps of Engineers. “It’s a lot of crossings, but when you add it up for acres, it doesn’t take up very much space.”

For most mid-size to large rivers — including the Mississippi River and Missouri River — the pipeline companies proposed directional boring to go under the water body, Lenz said. In some small creeks, the companies may dig a trench to lay the pipe and then restore the soil and water around it.

The three CO2 pipeline projects — besides Summit, others are by Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions — are expected to use general permits under the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of projects.

This means, if the pipeline companies satisfy all the requirements, the Corps must approve the permits and there would be no public comment period.

The pipeline companies must complete cultural resources surveys, where they look for historic buildings, cemeteries or other sites that might be in the path. The State Historic Preservation Office will review that survey.

The pipeline company also must quantify endangered species along the route.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reviews the surveys and “will provide a number of reasonable and prudent measures to be taken to mediate endangered species. Those will go into conditions of the permit,” Lenz said.

The pipeline companies also must communicate with tribes along the route. A Summit consultant said in May that representatives from 13 tribes, including Cheyenne, Rosebud Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Mille Lacs, Little Shell Chippewa, Yankton Sioux and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, had participated in land surveys in Iowa in 2021 and 2022.

Jon Schmidt Testimony - Summit by Gazetteonline on Scribd

“What I don’t know is how long it will take for formal consultation with the tribes and to get the biological opinion from Fish & Wildlife Service,” Lenz said about timeline of the Corps review. “If things go smoothly, there are no issues and it’s not elevated to an individual permit, I’d say we’re talking approximately 45 days” from completion of the surveys to final approval.

Road crossings under state, federal jurisdiction

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration must sign off anytime a company wants to put a pipeline under an interstate highway.

Wolf Carbon Solutions, which proposes a nearly 300-mile pipeline from ADM plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to a sequestration site in central Illinois, wants to go under Interstate 380 just south of Wright Brothers Boulevard in Cedar Rapids, according to company maps. That project also would go under Highway 1 east of Ely.

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The Summit and Navigator projects have multiple highway and interstate crossings.

Gas pipelines that go under state roads must be at least 4 feet under the road itself and 3 feet in the right of way, according to Iowa law. Pipelines must be welded steel with protective coatings or must be encased in concrete.

“I understand that the pipeline companies are using heavier wall pipe under roadways for the loading issues of traffic over the pipelines,” Deanne Popp, utility program administrator for the Iowa Department of Transportation said in an email. “The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) establishes national policy, sets and enforces standards for pipeline that may address thickness requirements.”

Usually, utility projects are reviewed by the Iowa DOT district nearest the construction site. But Popp decided all the CO2 pipeline projects in Iowa would go to through the Sioux City office.

“As the leader for the Utility Program for the state of Iowa I requested that the permit effort be coordinated on a statewide level,” she said. “The District 3 staff volunteered to lead this effort.”

Wally Taylor, general counsel for the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter, said he doesn’t think that’s a good idea.

“One problem I would see, putting politics aside, is the office in Sioux City going to know about particular facts or concerns in Story County, for instance, or Bremer County? How is the Sioux City office going to know what’s relevant in southeast Iowa?” he said.

While routing all road crossing reviews through one office may be faster, Taylor said that shouldn’t be a priority.

“Why are they streamlining anything?” he asked. “These are important issues and there are a lot of concerns that need to be taken into consideration.”

Public land may require different agreements

The pipeline companies have been negotiating voluntary easements with landowners for years now with uneven success.

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Hundreds of landowners along the pipeline routes have spoken against the projects at public hearings and filed formal opposition to the plans, while others have quietly signed contracts. Summit told the Iowa Capitol Dispatch in November it already had paid out $200 million to landowners along the route.

In addition to road, river and railroad crossings, pipelines also are routed to go through public land, including county parks, school districts and state recreation areas.

The Wolf pipeline, for example, would cross about a mile of land owned by The Eastern Iowa Airport. As part of the city of Cedar Rapids, the airport can’t sell an easement to Wolf, so Director Marty Lenss has talked with Wolf about a long-term lease. But not before being certain about safety risks of a pressurized gas pipeline running near the airport.

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“We would need to fully understand safety protocols and, if there would be a pipeline rupture, what is the response and potential impact to airport operations?” Lenss said. “How are these issues addressed?”

A 2020 CO2 gas pipeline break in Mississippi sent 45 people to the hospital as CO2 caused people to pass out and made it so gas-powered rescue vehicles did not function. A federal review showed heavy rain before the incident had caused the pipeline to shift in the hilly terrain and break, NPR reported.

The proposed Wolf route would run east of 18th Street SW in Cedar Rapids — not on airport grounds but on nearby farmland owned by the airport. The pipeline also would cross under Wright Brothers Boulevard near 18th Street SW. The company is taking soil samples in the area, Lenss said, but he has not heard a timeline for negotiating a lease or easement.

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Legal dispute with county could hold up project

Summit’s pipeline is slated to pass 131 feet from the boundaries of Earling, a city of just under 400 people in Shelby County, in southwest Iowa, according to Steve Kenkel, a Shelby County supervisor.

“We were told originally we don’t have much authority here,” Kenkel said. “As we started digging it into it more, the two biggest ways counties have authority is home rule and ordinances. How do we protect our people, our property, our future?”

The county passed an ordinance last November setting pipeline setbacks from hospitals, nursing homes, recreation facilities, homes and animal confinements and other locations. The ordinance was built on a 1998 provision requiring communities that want to develop within 2 miles of city limits to work with the county, Kenkel said.

Summit sued Shelby County over the ordinance. In July, a federal judge granted Summit an injunction that will halt enforcement until a civil trial in late January. Chief Judge Stephanie Rose said the ordinance would effectively eliminate most or all the land the pipeline could pass through in Shelby County.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission recently denied Summit’s permit request for that state. One of the concerns raised by opponents was the pipeline route was too close to Bismarck’s city limits, which they said would hurt growth, the Associated Press reported. Summit plans to reapply.

Hearing over Summit’s permit

The Iowa Utilities Board's public evidentiary hearing for Summit Carbon Solutions' petition for a hazardous liquid pipeline permit is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Cardiff Event Center in Fort Dodge. The hearing will be available via livestream.

The hearing is expected to last multiple weeks. The board staff will provide a daily digest online and a weekly digest Thursdays when the hearing is scheduled to continue the following week.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com