Bremer County latest to consider C02 pipeline rules

WAVERLY — A Bremer County ordinance regulating land use for carbon sequestration pipelines is now in the pipeline.

It has received a favorable recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission and could come before the county’s Board of Supervisors for the first of three considerations as soon as the end of January, according to Building & Zoning Administrator Lindsey Lambert.

Bremer County is one of a handful of local governments working to restrict what hazardous material pipelines can be built and where, but it will not prohibit pipeline construction all together.

Navigator Heartland Greenway is proposing to build a carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline in Iowa, one leg of which would go through Butler, Floyd, Bremer, Buchanan, Hardin, Franklin, Fayette and Delaware counties.

Last month, the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted to delay a proposed ordinance that could affect the route of the CO2 pipeline proposed by Wolf Carbon Solutions — a 280-mile carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline through Iowa, including Linn County, to connect ADM ethanol plants and others.

The proposed Linn County ordinance, which would have established how close the underground pipeline could come to facilities including schools, hospitals and homes, is being reworked and could come back to the board in the new year.

Under the proposed Bremer County ordinance, its zoning office and board of adjustment would have jurisdiction on whether a conditional use permit is granted to a pipeline company.

“This will allow the county to protect future land use and economic development,” said Lambert. “The county’s priorities are laser focused on that. The ordinance will allow the county to preserve agricultural land but also ensure the ability of our small towns to continue to grow. It will preserve our tax base and future revenues. It will ensure that this new land use doesn’t interfere with existing land uses in our county.”

Three companies — including Summit Carbon Solutions, besides Navigator and Wolf — currently are working toward obtaining hazardous liquid pipeline permits from the Iowa Utilities Board.

Any outright ban would have to come from the state.

In particular, Lambert said, her office and outside legal counsel modeled this Bremer County ordinance on one produced in Shelby County. The class of use known as “hazardous liquid pipelines” will be established and restrictions will focus on setback requirements.

The requirements are “designed to further the goals and objectives of the comprehensive zoning plan, including to protect public health and welfare, to preserve existing infrastructure and future development, and to maintain property values,” the ordinance says.

They include minimum separation distances from schools, hospitals, churches, parks, animal feeding facility, electric power generating facilities, public wastewater treatment plants, private water supply wells and any occupied structures, to name a few.

The permit also comes with a slew of emergency response and hazard mitigation planning requirements, including information that would aid in implementation. For instance, one requirement asks the company to provide “an estimate of the worst-case discharge of carbon dioxide released in metric tons and standard cubic feet from a rupture.”

The company would be required to pay an annual fee of $116.92 per mile of pipeline, or $3,390 for 29 miles, to go toward local emergency response, planning and training.

Impacted landowners, too, need to obtain the conditional use permit. However, landowners who engage in easement negotiations with the company or reach agreement prior to the day of adoption would not need to obtain the permit.

Lambert said it’s possible the county could pass the ordinance but be challenged in court. Summit filed lawsuits in November in Shelby and Story counties to block the similar ordinances there.