The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

To the editor:

Landowners along the route of Summit Carbon Solutions’ hazardous CO2 pipeline are holding the line against the company’s strong-armed attempts to pressure us for our signatures. After more than a year of working to get signed easements, Summit only has a little more than half of those needed. A KMZ map of the most recent Exhibit H file submitted to the Iowa Utility board shows more than 1,500 unsigned parcels remain. This private property will be targeted for eminent domain should Summit be granted a permit for a hazardous CO2 pipeline from the IUB.

The IUB considers the company’s Exhibit H map incomplete and will not schedule a hearing at this time: “Pursuant to 199 Iowa Administrative Code 13.3(1)(h), a hearing cannot be set until Exhibit H is in its final form. Summit Carbon filed its Exhibit H which, at its maximum, had more than 1,500 parcels subject to a request for eminent domain. The number of parcels subject to Exhibit H requires a significant amount of Board staff time to review, in addition to reviewing of other parts of the petition, petition exhibits, and testimony. As the Board stated in its June 17, 2022 order, the Board determines when Exhibit H is in final form and a hearing can be set. Summit Carbon’s Exhibit H filings have not reached that point.”

Parcels marked in red on the map indicate unsigned easements. This is an astounding visual statement that show Iowa landowners are not signing away their farmland for an underground pipeline that carries hazardous industrial waste. Signing with Summit would involve three types of easements.

The permanent easement gives Summit the right to access the property for construction of the pipeline and allows for continued access at any time, day or night. The easement for our farm in Crawford County states: “for the purpose of…realigning, modifying, replacing, improving, substituting, operating, inspecting, maintaining, repairing, patrolling, protecting, changing slopes of cuts and fills…, changing the size of…, relocating and changing the route or routes of, abandoning in place and removing at will…for transporting carbon dioxide…and any appurtenant facilities above or below ground, including aerial markers…and such other equipment as is used or useful for the foregoing purposes.”

Numerous nightmarish scenarios come to mind, but the most troubling is, “relocating and changing the route or routes of...” In other words, once an easement is signed, the company can move the pipeline anywhere on the landowners’ property, possibly closer to buildings, or even a home.

A permanent easement is forever and stays with the property when sold or bequeathed to an heir. Once signed, Summit Carbon Solutions owns the easement in perpetuity. Even if the company fails to get a permit from the IUB, it can sell the easement to another entity for a different purpose without the landowner’s knowledge or consent.

The second is a temporary easement for fifty-feet of workspace. Unlike the permanent easement, it lasts until the landowners receive notification from Summit that it is terminated. No definite time is given. Closure is left to the discretion of the pipeline company. Our easement states, “… terminating on the Company’s delivery to the Landowner of written notice of termination, which the Company shall deliver within a reasonable time after completion of construction…” Considering the numerous possibilities listed above, “completion of construction,” could be far in the future.

Several easement maps have areas marked ATWS (additional temporary work space). It is needed to bore huge holes under roads, rivers, and other pipelines. Landowners are paid nothing for this space. We have six areas marked ATWS on the map for one parcel that has a natural gas line.

The third is an access easement. “A free and unobstructed non-exclusive easement in, to, through, on, over, under, and across the Landowner’s Property and over the property of Landowner adjacent to the Easement and lying between public or private roads…” In other words, the company will have the right to access the easement from any driveway on the property and drive across crops, pasture, farmyards from any point of entry, at any time, day or night – again, without the landowners’ knowledge or permission.

Common sense tells us that when we sign an easement, we are literally “giving away the farm.” Considering the rebuke from the IUB and subsequent delay in setting a hearing date, Summit’s strong-arm methods will only grow tougher and their offers higher. Even so, we will not sign. Hundreds of Iowa landowners are not intimidated by the threat of eminent domain, and we will continue to hold the line.

Bonnie Ewoldt,

Milford resident

and Crawford County

landowner