Linn supervisors’ consideration of pipeline ordinance delayed a week

The first consideration of an ordinance to regulate setbacks of pipelines carrying hazardous materials has been postponed for another week by the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

The first reading of the ordinance was pushed back to Monday, Dec. 12, because Supervisor Louie Zumbach was absent. The first vote will take place during the supervisors’ work session at 11 a.m.

“We put it on the calendar and published the notification before we realized we weren’t going to have full board participation today,” Linn County Planning and Zoning Division Manager Stephanie Lientz said.

The supervisors still held the public hearing portion of the agenda item, during which only Ely City Administrator Adam Thompson spoke.

“We’ve been talking internally about this as this pipeline comes close to Ely, and the city looks forward to working with Linn County as this goes forward. We’re supportive of this,” Thompson said of the county ordinance proposal.

The Linn County ordinance consideration is coming as Wolf Carbon Solutions of Colorado, one of three companies pursuing underground C02 pipelines in Iowa, is proposing a liquid carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline between Cedar Rapids and Decatur, Ill.

The company’s proposal calls for collection of compressed CO2 at ADM plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton and shipping it in a 16-inch underground pipeline to ADM’s sequestration site. Wolf also wants to find other industrial clients to tie into the project, which would be eligible for federal tax credits.

Ordinance addresses safety setbacks

The Linn County ordinance addresses safety setbacks. Pipelines carrying natural gas are regulated by the Iowa Utilities Board, but hazardous materials pipelines are regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The proposed county ordinance passed the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission on a 5-1 vote last month. Committee member Griffin Kuntz voted “no,” and George Maxwell was not at the meeting.

The ordinance proposes two setback standards.

One would apply to public areas such as schools, hospitals and parks. That mandates a setback of 155.8 feet times the pipeline’s diameter, which would equal about 2,500 feet — a little less than half a mile — for the 16-inch pipeline.

The second sets a setback of 107.65 feet times the diameter of the pipeline, plus another 328 feet, equal to about 2,050 feet for the pipeline.

Linn County Planning and Development Director Charlie Nichols said a separate setback standard is being proposed for future growth areas in the county.

Based on the currently proposed route, the Wolf pipeline would run through southeast Linn County. Earlier this fall, Johnson County was removed from the route.

Pipeline company holds meetings

The company is holding a second round of meetings — one Monday night and another Tuesday — about the proposed 280-mile pipeline. Its first round of meetings did not include proper notification of all landowners affected by the route.

The company can’t begin negotiations with landowners until after the informational meetings and can’t file a permit request with the state until 30 days after the completion of the meetings. Wolf officials have said they do not want to use eminent domain to force landowners to grant easements, and the company hasn’t used condemnation on past projects.

Another pipeline company, Summit Carbon Solutions, filed lawsuits against Story and Shelby counties last month after the counties adopted setback ordinances. The company argued that county supervisors there adopted ordinances attempting to preempt oversight from the Iowa Utilities Board and the federal government. The cases are in U.S. District Court.

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