Letters: Counties are duty-bound to pass CO2 ordinances
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To the editor:
As 2023 ended, CO2 pipelines topped the list of newsworthy items in Iowa. This is not surprising as more than 30 counties are the footprint of Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed CO2 pipeline. Heading into 2024, county boards bear a heavy responsibility as they deal with ordinances while the state awaits the IUB’s decision on Summit’s permit application.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is not new and CO2 pipelines have been used by oil companies for over 30 years to do Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), a process that renews reserves in abandoned oil wells. Most of the 5,300 miles of CO2 pipelines existing in the US today are used for EOR. They are located in uninhabited or low-population areas such as the oil-rich Bakken region of North Dakota, where people are not likely to be harmed by a break in the pipeline.
Summit likes to tout the fact that there are currently 2.6 million miles of pipeline in the United States, making its plan sound like “just another pipeline.” The company overlooks the inconvenient detail that only 5,300 of those miles of pipeline carry CO2 in a hazardous supercritical state. Nothing on the scale of Summit’s massive 2,000-mile CO2 pipeline route through populated areas has ever been tried before.
CO2 under supercritical pressure is highly dangerous. If the pipeline breaks, the pressurized liquid CO2 converts from a fluid to gaseous state as it escapes. This creates an odorless, colorless plume that is heavier than air. It becomes an asphyxiant such that normal breathing cannot be sustained within 2,753’ from the rupture of an 8” pipeline. Summit plans to use 24” pipes in several areas, increasing the impact of a rupture.
I was aware of the dangers of pressurized CO2 before I attended Summit’s first informational meeting for landowners in Spencer in October 2021. Imagine my surprise when I heard a Summit executive acknowledge there would be breaks in 2,000 miles of pipeline, but this would be inconsequential because the CO2 is just a “harmless gas that dissipates.”
Summit then launched a PR campaign peddling the CO2 as harmless – as safe as the “bubbles in your pop.” As landowners became more informed of the danger and less willing to sign easements, the company’s tone shifted. Summit began to acknowledge the risk, but claimed their carbon-steel pipes would not break.
In the fall of 2023, Summit executives testified at the IUB’s evidentiary hearing in Fort Dodge. During the two years since that informational meeting in Spencer, the CO2 evolved from a harmless gas into a substance so dangerous that it was a national security risk. Citing the possibility of a terrorism threat, Summit refused to share its plume study dispersion model at the hearing. Only under pressure from landowners and Sierra Club attorneys did the company agree to share its data, and then only in closed session. The public has yet to see Summit’s plume model. However, data from Navigator’s plume model for its now-defunct pipeline is available for public examination.
Even though Summit knows its CO2 pipeline is extremely dangerous, it continues to demand narrow setbacks with some as close as 200 feet from homes. The company fiercely fights back against wider, safer setbacks in high-risk areas. Summit has sued four counties that have passed ordinances: Kossuth, Shelby, Story and Emmet. These cases have yet to be decided or are on appeal.
In September, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) sent a letter to CO2 pipeline CEOs informing them that the “… responsibility of siting new carbon dioxide pipelines rests largely with the individual states and counties….” Furthermore, “Local governments have traditionally exercised board powers to regulate land use, including setback distances and property development that includes development in the vicinity of pipelines.”
Local control is paramount in the face of Summit’s unbridled corporate power. Even with the looming threat of litigation, county boards must exercise due diligence. They are duty-bound to protect their communities and keep citizens safe. Summit Carbon Solutions plays fast and loose with the facts. County board members must do their own research on CO2 pipeline safety and pass updated CO2 pipeline ordinances as soon as possible. The IUB’s decision on Summit’s permit is imminent.
Bonnie Ewoldt
Milford resident and Crawford County landowner
