Pass county pipeline safety rules

Linn County’s Board of Supervisors is considering an ordinance next week that would regulate pipelines carrying hazardous materials, included sequestered carbon, across the county.

We think the ordinance would be in the best interest of county residents and support its passage.

Colorado-based Wolf Carbon Systems is planning a pipeline carrying compressed CO2 from ADM plants in Cedar Rapids and Clinton to an underground sequestration site in Illinois. The Wolf pipeline would cross Linn County.

The ordinance would seek to set safe setbacks between the pipeline and public facilities such as schools, hospitals and parks, as well as residences.

The local ordinance would fill a regulatory gap created by still unfinished federal rules. In May, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced it would update its carbon pipeline regulations in the wake a pipeline rupture in Satartia, Miss., that hospitalized 45 people. CO2 is an asphyxiant that, in high concentrations, can cause illness and death.

This week 30 groups sent a letter to PHMSA asking that it recommend states hold off on permitting new carbon pipelines until the federal rule-making process is completed. “It would be ludicrous to allow pipeline corporations eager to cash in on a gold rush of federal subsidies to run roughshod over communities while the federal government still is evaluating the explicit dangers of those proposals,” said Jim Walsh, policy director for Food and Water Watch, one of the groups supporting the letter.

We agree. In the meantime, we welcome Linn County’s effort to put some safety measures in place. Similar efforts in Shelby and Story counties have prompted federal lawsuits by another pipeline company, Summit Carbon Solutions. The same may occur with regard to Linn County’s ordinance, but we think it’s the supervisors’ role to act in the public interest, not worry about a potential clash with pipeline interests.

And with billions of new federal subsidies now available thanks to actions by the Congress and the Biden Administration, Wolf may not be the only pipeline project in Linn County’s future. It’s best to be prepared by protecting Linn County residents now.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com