"It's not flammable. It's not combustible. It's just under pressure." - Lee Blank, Summit Carbon Solutions CEO

​As Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures get closer to obtaining the permits and easements required for their carbon-capture pipelines, those still in the fight to stop them are pushing forward.

"I am probably too cynical here. But I look at something like that and I think, wait a minute, that's a private for-profit company who's making promises that apparently are non-binding, and there are no regulations to force them to either do it at first or what about three years from now, five years from now when it's out of the public mind," said Dave Hoferer, a Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Briar Cliff University who opposes the pipelines. "If the pipelines are built, are they going to continue to supply the necessary equipment or are they going to continue to give this? I don't think they will."

"And who's going to hold them accountable to do that?" I asked the panel of 10 landowners and private citizens opposing the pipelines.

"Exactly," Hoferer said. "There's nothing in place to hold them accountable."

For this group, it's more than just the fight for their own property. It's making sure their friends and neighbors see the bigger picture.

"Well, the other thing is the economic growth there behind them. But if you come around the largest city is Sioux City in our county, and this is going to be on the farm located on the corner of Buchanan Avenue and Highway 20," said Doyle Turner. "Well, that doesn't leave much room for Sioux City to grow East. And Sioux City can't grow north and it can't grow west and south is really difficult. So East is really the only viable option. Where we're going to get economic growth of our largest city and our county is stunted?

"And I wonder how many people out at Whispering Creek know that that pipeline is going to be right out their back door," said John Colyer.

"Do you think the general public understands, if they're not directly impacted by these pipelines, by these companies, do you think they understand what's happening?" I asked the panel. They answered with a collective 'no'.

"I'm always astounded by the people or the number of people that do not know anything," said Deb Main, a Woodbury County landowner.

"They are unaware and thank you for putting this in the media," said Vicki Hulse. She is fighting Navigator in Woodbury County District Court to keep their surveyors off of her property.

"They don't know if you say well, how about that pipeline?," said Ron Hartnett, a landowner from northeast Nebraska. "Because I've asked several people that live in the City of South Sioux, Dakota City. No, we don't know anything about it. Well, it's going to come through, this huge pipeline from Navigator and Summit and they go, you know. So it's kind of a hidden agenda."

"Well, they're only required to notify a certain quarter of landowners," said Main. "They don't have to notify the entire community. They don't have to hold meetings for the entire city. They're only required to notify 'X' number of people."

"And they don't even have to notify the neighbors of the landowners which I think is wrong because it also affects your neighbors," said Hulse. "I mean, it can go within, you know, a few 100 feet of your neighbors."

"It could be out in my field next to someone else's house," said Main.

That property is not just owned by private citizens. The pipelines are also slated to go through public land.

"Because it's it goes through not only private landowners but there's going to be waterways and other structures that are also of interest in public that these pipelines and other structures go through as well," said Aaron Daigh, a land and soil expert who has studied pipeline construction and impact.
As many landowners and experts say, there are other ways to capture carbon dioxide, like utilizing natural crops, trees and flowers.

"And I bet you everybody on this panel if it was presented to us that we would get paid to do some of those projects, and it would come to the landowners, that we'd all be in favor of that," said Roger Schmid. "I certainly would be."

Vicki Hulse has CRP on her property, which is where the pipeline is mapped to pass through, That CRP, part of the Conservation Reserve Program, will be hard to get back should it be removed during construction.

"And some farmers are now doing cover crops," said Stee Maxwell, another landowner fighting against the pipelines. "So that's sequestration of carbon so that’s an incentive for them to do that. And more, more and more farmers are continuing to do that. You know, to try and go through fields that the corn and beans are actually sequestering carbon as it is and kind of ruin that. That seems backward."

But for Summit and Navigator, and the dozens of ethanol plants they've each partnered with on this journey, they say carbon sequestration is the next step in ethanol innovation. And the time for that step forward is now.

"There's always going to be a fear of the unknown," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson with Navigator, "and we don't develop broad enough interstate pipeline infrastructure every day. This is something that happens maybe every decade or there often."

"So what I think the message that I try and deliver or that I would like the general public to understand is, we're an agricultural company putting an infrastructure project in. We are Ag-based, and it's also where my heart lies," said Lee. "The future of agriculture is what drives me. I don't want people to miss what this means for the future of the agricultural farm gate."

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The two carbon-capture pipelines in the works from Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures will carry pressurized carbon dioxide hundreds of miles across 6 states. While the technology for these pipeline infrastructures has advanced and improved, a rupture is always a possibility.

"The consequences to the land agricultural production lies and examination afterward, there's not much research done on that specific type of spill. Finding it in the literature is incredibly hard if it even exists, but there are a few things that we can expect for when that happens." Aaron Daigh is a land and soil expert who has studied pipeline ruptures and the impact they can have on the land.

"You would expect whatever zone that supercritical carbon spread out on in the ground, is likely stripping out some of the nutrients and fertility of that ground and so in addition to that microbial part, you would see a reduction and productivity or that's what you would expect to occur." Supercritical carbon refers to pressurized carbon dioxide that is different from the pure liquid state. This CO2 is not really a liquid, not really a gas, it's kind of in-between, sharing properties with both states.

"One of the things too is that when a rupture occurs in these supercritical states because the pressures suddenly change, the temperature drops dramatically," said Daigh. "So it will essentially flash freeze the ground around it, which is a hazard in itself if you're close by it, but it also jeopardizes more of that it makes the rupture larger."

Let's back up a bit. Carbon dioxide itself isn't considered a contaminant. It's in the soil. It's in the air we breathe. But it's when you get it in high concentrations, that it can turn toxic, even deadly.

"The pressure when it gets released, it can cause the supercritical carbon dioxide to enter into the ground and spread a particular distance. The longer the pressure hasn't been turned off of the pipeline, the larger and the wider that that's going to get." And the danger that poses is not just for humans. "One of the things is that because of that extreme temperature shift, biology is going to respond to that," said Daigh. "And in a lot of these areas, the ground freezes during the winter but the degree of freezing is very different than the temperature change that you would see from a pipeline break."

So what happens when a carbon dioxide pipeline ruptures or leaks? How big of an area could be impacted? Daigh says it depends on how long it takes to notice it. He points to an oil pipeline rupture in North Dakota as an example.

"Maybe a quarter-inch diameter hole either from corrosion or something else in our pipeline occurred," said Daigh. "And it wasn't noticed until some of the product that was going through it was actually ponding on the surface. So not only did it move down in the ground but built up and then ponded above it so it took a while to even notice."

The aftermath of that rupture lasted years. "Just the remediation process to dig out the contaminated sediment that went down about 60 feet over about 70 acres. The remediation process just to clean it up and put the ground back took about six years to occur and cost approaching $100 million."

While that's the worst-case scenario, Daigh says even with smaller leaks there are things landowners can do.

"Something that I would recommend to landowners if there was ever a break on the property is that in the site investigation afterward to see what the disturbed area or contaminated area is, to not look just where the extent of the carbon entered into the ground, but also a little bit beyond it. You know, give it another 20-30-40 feet worth of sampling to see, because whatever was in the zone that that carbon moves through, the supercritical carbon dioxide, whatever it stripped out, it's going to deposit wherever it's stopped moving at," Daigh said. 

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The Midwest is known for its land. The rolling hills have been tended by generations of farmers to grow our nation's crops. But what could the installation of two liquid carbon capture pipelines do to this same land?
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Experts say, a lot.

"So one, it is a disturbance to that land so it disturbs what you're currently doing, whether it's a crop or pasture land, a CRP Conservation Reserve Program piece of land, or range land, whatever forest, whatever it may be," said Aaron Daigh, "it is a disturbance to that land. And so it's going to affect what was growing there and how it grows afterward."

That disturbance is a focal point for a group of landowners who have yet to sign easements with Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures.

"It will never be the same as because I know we built the land that we own now by many, many, many loads of manure from the stockyards. Over 10 years to get it to what it is," said Jim Colyer, a landowner in Northwest Iowa. "And when they stir that up, you cannot tell me that that ground is going to come back in what do they estimate, three years? It will never be the way it was."

Aaron Daigh is a soil and water science expert with the University of Nebraska Lincoln. He's studied the impact a disturbance, like a pipeline installation, can have on the land. "So there's a period of time that that piece of land is going to be out of production, that's not going to be growing a crop in it or a forage crop."

Moving the earth to install something like a pipeline changes the biological nature of the land, Daigh says. "But once that ground goes back down, it has been disturbed and it's been put back. So the physical and biological qualities of that land that made it productive, that's been shifted to another state. So lower quality at that point just due to the disturbance."

For farmland, the biological makeup of the soil is an important piece of the growing puzzle.

"You can probably expect almost anything you're growing, whether it's corn, soybean, wheat, or pasture land, you're going to see probably around a 20% reduction of yield in that worked area and that disturbed area." And as Daigh says, it could take a decade to see a full recovery, "that's what you can expect not just the next year but probably at least two, three years after that," he said. "It should start improving as you get more crops growing on it, its rooting system and its biology itself will start trying to help in the healing of that disturbed area. But it could take anywhere from six to over 10 years to see a full recovery to where you won't be able to notice that strip of land behaving differently than the areas right next to it."

"And a lot of destruction comes in the process of laying the pipe, not only with disturbing the soil, the subsoil, and the parent soil," said Woodbury County landowner, Deb Main. "But pipeline companies are paid to lay down the pipe as fast as they can, get the project done as fast as they can which one, allows for human error and two, working in wet conditions makes a huge mess. The soil clumps up and makes big, big, clumpy balls and things as big as rocks."

"Compaction," Colyer agreed.

"The compaction that happens in these pipelines is somewhat similar, quite similar to the compaction that happens on headlands for the crop fields where a lot of the loading offloading equipment and grain occurs at," explained Daigh.

"So whatever yield losses that you can see in those areas is probably going to be a bit worse just because of the level and depth of the disturbance, but that'll give some kind of expectation of how much yield loss you may have for a particular field is looking at the other parts of the field that have had mechanical compaction on them. And so if you're headlands are consistently losing or not yielding within 30-35% of the rest of the field, then that's probably going to be in the range of what you can expect on the pipeline after the pipeline's installed as compared to like 8% or 20% yield loss."
and the recovery of that land after construction is complete.

"If you are better off on your losses than half your neighbors and worse off than the other half, you can expect around a 20% drop in productivity for at least two-three years that will slowly recover," Daigh explained of estimating your crop losses. "Over the next six years to a decade afterward.

"If you tend to be on the best-case scenario, you're better off than the vast majority of your neighbors you might only see an 8-10% drop in productivity. You will see some level of drop just simply due to the disturbance. If you're worse off, the context of the field made it of higher risk for yield loss. You could see up to 50-60 % crop yield loss." Some landowners, like Vicki Hulse and Stee Maxwell, are part of the Conservation Reserve Program, a federally funded program that encourages landowners to leave pieces of their property untouched for native plants and wildlife. These pipelines are mapped to go right through it.

"So I have CRP and they're going to go through three parcels of that and the CRP, it's been in CRP for seven years," said Hulse. "And I just, I can't believe that they can put that CRP back like it was because it's not going to happen. After seven years, it's not going to happen that they can put it back like it was and then you have the wildlife, the deer, the birds, the pheasants, the bees, the pollinator program, and you're going to help the noise and everything that goes with putting that pipeline. And you're going to disrupt all of that."

"That makes me sick to my stomach to think that's going to go on."

That CRP, Daigh says, will be even harder to get back. "But in a CRP setting, to where you have limited options for invasive plants, and particularly if an invasive or weed gets established and then spread seeds, it's a source not only for that disturbed area but now it's a potential for seed contamination to the adjacent area as well."

Navigator says they plan to get the land they acquire through easements back in working order quickly, installing their pipeline several sections at a time.

"What that allows us to do is take the project and put it into a little bit more bite-sized pieces but also simultaneously construct in a much shorter window of time," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, VP of Government Affairs for Navigator. "That minimizes the amount of time that we have to disrupt the ground itself so you're really only impacting one growing season for those farmers as opposed to multiple."

Summit's CEO, Lee Blank, says the unknown is the biggest issue. "I think the main hurdle really is just the unknown, like, Does my property come back to full production? We will make sure it comes back to full production. That's why they hired an agricultural executive to make that happen. I understand what full-production agriculture looks like."

While the hope is that the pipelines are a benefit to all, the reality is that no one really knows the impact they will have on the land this region is known for.

​SEE THE VIDEO

"There is no other technology that can lower the carbon intensity score of an industry more than carbon capture and sequestration."
​
​That's the claim from Summit Carbon Solutions, a corporation that wants to construct carbon-capture pipelines through the central U.S.

Summit and Navigator CO2 Ventures want to take carbon dioxide, a current bi-product of ethanol producers, and compress it into a pipeline for underground sequestration.

"Carbon is a characteristic that is beginning to determine the value of the goods and services and materials that we're bringing to market," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, the Vice President of Government Affairs for Navigator CO2.  "We are beginning to see carbon-based valuations put on those goods and services. And so businesses are beginning to look at, how do we invest in the critical resources, the process improvements, the infrastructure that is necessary to be competitive in this carbon economy that we have evolved into."

GOVERNMENT TAX CREDITS AND THE CARBON ECONOMY

That carbon economy is getting a big boost from the federal government in the form of tax credits. According to the United States Internal Revenue Code, Section 45Q provides tax credits for CO2 storage. The Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Tax Credit Amendments Act of 2021 (CCUS), and the Negate Emissions to Zero Act of 2021 (NET Zero Act) extend 45Q tax credits for Direct Air Capture projects.

Direct Air Capture (DAC) projects are for carbon technologies that can remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it, or sequester it, geologically.

While government tax credits for carbon sequestration began in 2008, the Net Zero Act and CCUS significantly boost those tax credits for these companies, offering a larger incentive to get these projects in the ground.

The NET Zero Act would extend the 45Q tax credit permanently for DAC projects with geologic sequestration and increase credits to $18/ton. 

The CCUS would extend the credit for 5 years and at $120/ton. Enhancing tax credits ensures incentives for companies and developers to make carbon capture technologies at a faster pace.

"To me, carbon is the next great commodity and it's a commodity that we're going to trade and there's going to be all kinds of various markets globally that are going to emerge from this," said Summit CEO, Lee Blank. "There's what I call the new carbon economy."

I believe the carbon economy is real. I believe we're on the doorstep of it.The goal is to take carbon dioxide that is currently scrubbed and released into the atmosphere and instead, compress it into a liquid-like state and sequester it, or store it deep underground in geologic formations in Illinois and North Dakota.

THE SCIENTIFIC SIDE OF SEQUESTRATION

"The emission of CO2 is the gas and so the first step is to capture that gas and then you have to compress it to the point where it turns into a liquid." Ryan Clark is a geologist with the Iowa Geological Survey. He's studied these projects and others like them.

"One term you'll hear thrown around is supercritical fluid or supercritical liquid. That's just a liquid under high pressure," Clark explained. "You have to, in order to maintain that CO2 as a liquid, you have to maintain that pressure. That's where the depth comes in."

"So injecting it underground to a depth of at least about 2700 feet below the surface is sufficient to hold that CO2 in its liquid form." And that depth is important in making sequestration work.

"And so 2700 feet is kind of the number that I've always operated under is that's your minimum depth of injection," Clark explained about carbon sequestration. "And so what then has to happen is you have to find a place where there are rocks that are porous, meaning they have open spaces within the grains, or they are the bits and pieces within the bedrock formation and that they're also permeable. So those pore spaces have to be connected to each other in order for them to accept large volumes of this liquified CO2."

These storage sites are also chosen for their relation to the water table we rely on every day. 

"One of the main parameters that decide whether a bedrock formation or an aquifer is suitable for CO2 injections is if that groundwater is considered nonpotable, meaning it's too mineralized and the water quality is so poor that nobody would ever drink it," Clark explained. 

"There's a lot of separation between where they're storing this and where the drinking water sources are." But I wanted to know, with this CO2 under so much pressure, is storing it underground really that safe?

"One of the major concerns is the pressure that you inject and that you're imposing on that rock formation," Clark said.  "You've heard plenty about induced seismicity with fracking. That is a concern. So that's why the pressure within that injection reservoir is one of the things that they monitor."

One question that hasn't fully been answered is, what happens to the liquified carbon dioxide after it's sequestered underground?

As Clark explained, "It's meant to just get injected down there and stay there forever."

While pipeline construction or even sequestration isn't new, 'We've been injecting stuff underground for a very, very long time. It might be a new substance that we're trying, but it's certainly not a new practice."

FOLLOW FOR MORE

"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

Follow Katie Copple on Facebook for the latest on the pipeline projects.

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Driving across the upper Midwest, it is farm fields as far as the eye can see. Maybe that's why they call this the corn belt. Now, two companies want to build carbon capture pipelines across these same farm fields. Pipelines that they say are necessary to keep the ethanol industry alive.
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"We need to keep this industry going and as much as I've been involved, I recognize the way to have long-term viability and certainty in the ethanol industry or biofuels industry is to lower our carbon intensity scores." 

Kelly Nieuwenhuis is a farmer in northwest Iowa. It's his 40th year in the fields. He's signed on to have the two pipelines installed through his farmland.

"It's critical that we get the projects done and ensures the long-term viability and put that certainty behind the biofuels industry," Nieuwenhuis, who is also heavily involved in the ethanol industry, told me on a visit to his farm this winter.

THE NEXT STEP IN INNOVATION

"This is important for agriculture because it's the next step in change for agriculture."

Summit Carbon Solution and Heartland Greenway's Navigator CO2 pipelines will capture the carbon dioxide ethanol plants produce, liquefy it into a pipeline and sequester it deep underground."And what this does for the ethanol industry is it really stabilizes their balance sheet as well," explained Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions. "It gives them another source of revenue that they can use in their plant and into their plant complex."

Ethanol producers say this is a benefit to the American farmer. "I wish I could predict the future for Lincolnway Energy," said Chris Cleveland, plant manager at Lincolnway Energy, a Summit-partnered ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa, "but it would be a big plus to be able to continue with the growth and be able to sequester your co2 into the pipeline."

Lincolnway Energy already captures some of its carbon dioxide and scrubs the rest as atmospheric emissions. They say this partnership is also helping the climate, as well as economic growth, job security and the future of farmers and ethanol producers.

" A facility that adopts carbon capture technology, like what we are proposing, has the ability to reduce the carbon score of that end gallon of ethanol by nearly 50%. And that's really significant," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at Navigator CO2.

"This industry doesn't look the same as what it did 20 years ago, it doesn't look the same as it did 10 years ago."

"It's continued to innovate, optimize, improve, and get better. This is just another one of those stepping stones of what I believe will continue to be a very long trajectory."

THE FUTURE IS CARBON

A trajectory that takes carbon from throwaway emissions to a commodity for the future.

"It's a major bite of the carbon apple," said Blank. "And so when I look at this project and I think about what it can mean for premium markets for ethanol, and someday maybe premium markets for the dried distillers, which is a byproduct off of this product, off of this plant as well, as I think about what that means for the future of agriculture."

"CO2 has the potential to be much the same way," said Burns-Thompson. "It is right now a byproduct that has the opportunity to provide additional value to those facilities. They necessarily need the infrastructure to be able to do that. And that's how these infrastructure projects are being developed to be able to provide that."

As Nieuwenhuis says, the carbon commodity is here to stay. "If you've noticed over the last five to 10 years, carbon became a commodity. And we're not talking only about carbon intensities, but carbon credits, and it's not going away."

"We see the infrastructure continuing to grow not only throughout the ethanol space," said Burns-Thompson, "but again in a variety of sectors throughout the Corn Belt."

"I don't want to see that corn demand go away, said Blank. "So the opportunity for us to drive a stronger balance sheet into the ethanol industry, which what this will do will deliver longevity for this industry which is longevity for the US farm game. It's certainly part of the future without a doubt."

"Carbon capture, carbon transportation and carbon management is absolutely the future," said Burns-Thompson.

FOLLOW FOR MORE
"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

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NEVADA, Iowa — Built among the farm fields of central Iowa between Ames and Nevada, sits Lincolnway Energy. This ethanol plant has a big plan for the future.
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Lincolnway Energy, which began operations in 2006 and produces upwards of 90 million gallons of ethanol a year, is one of more than two dozen producers who have partnered with Summit Carbon Solutions to capture and sequester their CO2 emissions, providing another financial touch-point for farmers.

"We're excited to partner up with Summit," said Chris Cleveland, plant manager at Lincolnway Energy. "I think it's growth. I think it's job security because this is going to let us sequester CO2 into the pipeline. (It's) a future for ethanol producers, a future for our farmers and our markets."

Lincolnway Energy, which began operations in 2006 and produces upwards of 90 million gallons of ethanol a year, is one of more than two dozen producers who have partnered with Summit Carbon Solutions to capture and sequester its CO2 emissions, providing another financial touch-point for farmers.

"What we're hoping for, what I'm hoping for, and what drives me every day is, this is another piece of revenue, another piece of strength for the balance sheet for US agriculture," said Summit CEO, Lee Blank. "That will continue to strengthen that US farm and that US farm gate balance sheet.

"This for an ethanol plant is going to allow us to go out and capture the premiums of the markets and the different markets coming online," Cleveland said of the partnership with the pipeline.

THE CARBON SPACE

CO2 is just part of the picture for ethanol producers. "I always think this is fascinating, Cleveland said, "you walk into a plant, you're grinding, it's an agriculture background, a dusty environment and all that. And then you come up with this pure to 100-proof alcohol," he said in the lab at Lincolnway, "I mean this stuff smells like rubbing alcohol."

Inside the lab at Lincolnway Energy, Cleveland shows me everything they can pull from corn. "Here's our corn coming in from the local farmers," he said holding up a container of corn kernels. "From this corn here, we're fermenting and producing your final 200-proof alcohol here," he says holding up a jar of crystal-clear liquid. "From there we extract this from the corn mash, this is where we dry and become dried distillers grains also," he said about the yellow-orange powder they create and ship. "Another good product we pull out is the corn oil."

And that yellow powder is DDG, or dried distillers grain. It's what is left of the corn after everything else is extracted. DDG is a product utilized worldwide.

"Dried distillers grains, you see how nice and yellow that is. That's big-time restrictions," Cleveland showed me. "You have to watch this stuff too but we've barged this all the way to China. So I mean it's worldwide. Ethanol is worldwide."

Now, with their partnership with Summit Carbon Solutions, they can capture and utilize their biggest throw-away product, carbon dioxide. Lincolnway already has some of the infrastructure in place to capture that CO2 and they plan to construct the rest in an empty lot on the property.

The end goal for all is a partnership that benefits these two businesses, and the Iowa farmer.

"Really what I liken it to maybe the transcontinental railroad, you know, in 1862 I believe, we decided as a country to open markets up and the railroad helped us do that. That's really what this does," said Blank. "If you think about the infrastructure project almost as logistics, it opens markets for plants like this one here in Nevada to give it other places that they can ship their products at a premium. Those premiums come back to the plant, strengthen the plant's balance sheet, help the plant grow its capacities. More demand for US corn, and more demand for US farmers."

Not just the US farmer, but Iowa.

"I believe it's a big part of the future of the family farms and the next generation," said Cleveland.

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"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

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Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring byproduct of the environment. As humans, we expel it with every breath we take. Plants use carbon dioxide to create the oxygen we breathe in. Carbon dioxide is a critical component of life.
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But in high quantities, carbon dioxide is toxic and even fatal. That is a major concern for those opposing liquid carbon capture pipelines proposed for the central United States.

"There is a twofold safety issue with that too because when it immediately explodes, that is a cryo-frozen product and it will freeze anything in the blast zone," Dave Hoferer told me during an interview with other local residents opposing the pipelines. "And then it warms up and spreads out in a blanket, whichever way the wind is blowing, whichever the temperature is."

• READ: Along the Route: Pipeline safety at forefront of concerns for landowners

A group of Siouxland landowners and concerned citizens have been fighting to keep Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures out of the region. While they have several reasons they oppose the pipelines, their biggest concern is safety and the dangers pressurized liquid carbon dioxide poses should a rupture occur.

CARBON DIOXIDE

The environment holds about .04 percent CO2. If concentrations get to 2%, that is when you can begin to feel the effects of carbon dioxide poisoning like headaches, nausea, dizziness, increased breathing, and confusion, according to health experts at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center.

"If it goes above 8%, then people have more profound nausea and vomiting," said Amanda Monroe-Rubendall, an RN with MercyOne Siouxland. "And then when it gets above 10%, that's when there's enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to actually displace the oxygen and people can suffocate."

Carbon dioxide is denser than air. Unlike natural gas or methane, it's colorless, tasteless and odorless. The carbon dioxide in these proposed pipelines will be pressurized into a liquid-like state. Should a pipeline rupture or leak and come to the surface, the pressurized CO2 would settle low to the ground, essentially replacing the oxygen we breathe.

This isn't just a danger for those living near the pipelines but it could also pose a problem for first responders. "It can also make rescue efforts difficult because the internal combustion engines like in your car have no oxygen in order to be able to run, so then rescue vehicles have a hard time operating. You need to get out of that area," said Monroe-Rubendall.

RESCUE AND SAFETY EFFORTS

"We have a statement from one of (the pipeline) agents that they are going to train our local fire department and furnish them the equipment," said Jim Colyer, a Woodbury County resident fighting against the pipelines, "but who's going to give them electric fire trucks and electric rescue equipment? Because we all know that our combustion engines need oxygen to run and this plume displaces all of the oxygen."

"They're already bringing in pipes and equipment and dumping it on people's land that has signed easements and they haven't even trained the area firefighters and EMTs yet," said Vicki Hulse.

PHMSA, the governmental agency monitoring pipelines, released new safety regulations after the Satartia, Mississippi carbon capture pipeline rupture in 2020. Summit and Navigator each say they are making safety a priority.

• READ: PHMSA Report on Mississippi CO2 Pipeline Rupture

"We've done the overviews, we've done the trainings, we've developed the plans," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson with Navigator CO2. "We've equipped these teams with the infrastructure and component pieces and equipment that they need. We've tested those plans before anything goes into the pipe."

"Ultimately, we're building the safest pipeline in the history of the country and the reason for that is because the technology is so much more recent," said Summit CEO Lee Blank.

FOLLOW FOR MORE

"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

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On February 22nd, 2020 outside a small Mississippi village, a 24-inch pressurized liquid carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide pipeline ruptured. More than 300 people were evacuated from Satartia and surrounding communities. 46 were hospitalized with carbon dioxide poisoning. There were no fatalities. This rupture has been a focal point for those opposing two liquid carbon-capture pipelines setting their sights on the midwest.
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One of their biggest concerns is safety.

"We've had a meeting with a first responder from the Satartia explosion with one of the victims that he found unconscious in the car after his rural 4-wheeler died because it was gas," said Jodie Wilson, who is representing her mother in the fight against two carbon-capture pipelines. "You know, that's where we don't believe that they're going to be doing anything for the safety."

"Or the other thing is about emergency response," echoed David Hoferer. "That's after a disaster has happened. So how many people are now unconscious? How many need to be rushed to the hospital? And you know, God forbid anyone dies."

"And a hazmat team has to come in and the nearest hazmat team is over two hours away," said Vicki Hulse. She's taking Navigator CO2 to court over her property rights. "What's going to survive in two hours?"

SATARTIA, MISSISSIPPI

The response to the Satartia rupture was highly flawed. A report by PHMSA, the governmental pipeline oversight agency says first responders around Satartia were not informed of the rupture by the pipeline company, Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines LLC, or the safety risk with a CO2 pipeline. That left them essentially guessing on how to properly respond to the rupture.

The rupture was reported at 7:06 p.m. on February 22, 2020. The first emergency call came in at 7:15 p.m. for reports of a "foul smell and green fog" leaving emergency responders thinking it was a chlorine leak in the water supply. Fortunately, responders decided to quickly isolate the affected area by shutting down local highways and evacuating people in proximity to the release. It wasn't until 7:43 p.m. that night, a full 30 minutes after the rupture, that emergency personnel discovered they were dealing with CO2.

From the PHMSA report:
Liquid CO2 vaporizes when released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide vapor is 1.53 times heavier than air, and displaces oxygen, so it can act as an asphyxiant to humans and animals. This delay in information would be one of the biggest changes in safety for CO2 pipeline construction moving forward. The weather conditions and unique topography of the accident site prevented the CO2 vapor from rapidly dispersing and allowing a plume to form that migrated toward Satartia.
The total cost of the rupture was nearly $4 million dollars.

READ THE SATARTIA, MS PIPELINE FAILURE REPORT HERE
Failure Investigation Report - Satartia, MS Pipeline Explosion by Katie Copple on Scribd

PIPELINE SAFETY

"Safety is intrinsic in how we design the project itself, everything from the component pieces of the metal that goes into the piping, to how we route, ultimately where that infrastructure is intended to lie. How we go through a response plan," said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson with Heartland Greenway's Navigator CO2 Ventures, one of the two pipelines in production.

Nearly two years after the Satartia rupture, PHMSA announced new safety measures and oversight for carbon dioxide pipelines. One of the biggest changes was updating the standards for emergency preparedness and response. Navigator and Summit Carbon Solutions, the other pipeline, say are making safety an important component of their plan.

"What we have learned from some of the other projects in the carbon capture space and how we've thus then improved those safety factors as part of our design and routing implementation," said Burns-Thompson.

Lee Blank, the CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions said they too are making safety a priority. "We have safety and environmental people on staff today that are working with the local communities as we speak."

Kelly Nieuwenhuis is a farmer in rural O'Brien County, Iowa. He has signed easement agreements with both Navigator and Summit to place pipelines on his property. Even though he is miles from the nearest fire station, he isn't worried.

"I'm not concerned about it because the pipelines today are so much better than they were 20-30 years ago just because of technology," said Nieuwenhuis. "You know, they got sensors on them. They got shut off valves and somebody's going to be watching those 24 hours a day."

Summit tells me they will have the ability to monitor their pipeline 24/7 once it is in operation. Navigator says they've already begun training with area first responders along the route. "We do regular drills and tests of those response plans on an ongoing basis," said Burns-Thompson. "But we are also required and we'll go and reevaluate the risk models on the infrastructure itself so as the landscape continues to evolve as a community grows."

"But we will properly train and supply various pieces of equipment that they may need to assist with an issue that may come up from our infrastructure project," Blank said about training emergency personnel, "even though the percentage or the odds of that are fairly small."

And the companies say they will continue that conversation even after their pipelines are in operation.

Just like there's not stagnation in business," said Burns-Thompson, "there's also not stagnation in safety or how we evaluate the asset.But for many in the path of these carbon dioxide pipelines that's not enough. There is a genuine fear they say, considering most of rural America is kept safe by volunteers.

"You look at it, they are placing a large burden on first responders that I don't think that they're going to meet," said Stee Maxwell, another concerned landowner in the pipeline path. "So you can promise a lot of stuff. Are they actually going to come through? That's the question. That's very, very doubtful."
FOLLOW FOR MORE

"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

SEE THE VIDEO

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Tucked in a valley off Correctionville Road sits a camp unique as the people it serves.
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"Our whole idea is that our campers feel just like everybody else." Camp High Hopes is a place for kids and adults with disabilities, special needs and chronic illnesses to come and experience things they may not get to otherwise.

"Out in the real world, they're told no all the time. No, they can't participate in something because of their disability. No, they can't do this. No, they can't do that," said Executive Director Sarah Morgan. "But when they come to camp, we tell them yes, because we have the facilities, we have the equipment, we have the activities that are completely adapted to their ability."

"They can do the high ropes course elements and reach the top and everybody below is cheering them on," she explained about Camp. "And so they get that feeling of independence and pride and self-esteem. And again, they're feeling just like everybody else. They're feeling just like their peers who get to do this as well."

Dewey is a camper, and his mom Jamie Shufflebarger sees just how impactful camp has been for her son. "I feel really assured that he's getting the best care and that he's getting new experiences. And he's growing and learning every time he comes."

Dewey requires 24-hour care, Jamie says, something the staff at Camp High Hopes can help provide.
"So being able to bring him here in the summer for a week-long break. And then during the fall and spring for a weekend break is you know, it's relieving," Sufflebarger said. "It helps it makes me have a mental break."

With 90 acres of space for adaptive activities, there is something at Camp High Hopes for everyone.
"He really has done things here that he cannot do in any other program," Shufflebarger said, "they offer things like canoeing and the monkey tree and although he's not doing the monkey tree, we're working on things like just getting him to put the harness on things like just putting the harness on is very difficult for him."

Camp High Hopes is made possible by donations and fundraisers with every dollar used to make camp accessible for anyone.

"Knowing that you are truly making a difference in not only the campers' life but their family's life too. It is extremely rewarding to see the difference we can make in so many people's lives," said Morgan.

If you would like to be a summer camp counselor at Camp High Hopes, find out more about their programs and events, or just help them make camp possible, visit their website here.

SEE THE VIDEO

Eminent domain as described by Cornell Law School refers to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use. The Fifth Amendment states that the government may only exercise this power if they provide just compensation to the property owners.
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"Eminent domain was put into effect for the good of the public," said Roger Schmid, a landowner in Woodbury Co. Iowa. "And I don't see this, it's not a commodity that's going to be used by anybody. It's strictly a private corporation in it for the money to take the carbon credits from the government."
Roger Schmid is one of more than a dozen landowners and private citizens in Northwest Iowa who are fighting to keep their land out of the hands of two liquid CO2 pipeline companies.

"I'm probably the only one here who does not have land affected by this," said Doyle Turner. "To me, the real issue is the eminent domain. And what I'm seeing is that our state and federal government, or especially our state, has decided to use the Iowa Utilities Board, rather than controlling a monopolistic company, which all these companies are by nature, rather than doing that they're actually creating a monopoly and there is no reason why the CO2 should not be accessible by these landowners."

Summit Carbon Solutions and Heartland Greenway's Navigator CO2 Ventures are two liquid carbon capture pipelines routed for the central United States. These two companies are working with landowners to agree on voluntary easements for the installation of the projects.

"We are doing everything in our power to reach out," said Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions on getting the proper easements from landowners, "and again, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars to economically solve these easements without ever having to talk about eminent domain."

"So at its core, we are truly disincentivized from utilizing eminent domain, such that it makes as much business sense to do as much as voluntary as possible," said Navigator's Elizabeth Burns-Thompson with Navigator CO2.

LANDOWNERS WEIGH IN

Both companies are offering lucrative deals for access to private property with a promise to have that land back in working order in just a few years. For those I spoke to at our Siouxland News studios, one of their biggest issues was the use of eminent domain for a project like this. I shared the following statement from Burns-Thompson with the panel.

"To think that you can develop an interstate transportation system like this, without some application of eminent domain is unlikely. However, what I think is important also is to evaluate the tenant or the foundation of what is eminent domain and unfortunately, it has been so significantly mischaracterized to the public. At its core, eminent domain does not save us time. It does not save us money, and it doesn't make us any friends."

Deb Main: Well that's true. That's the first true thing I have heard her say.
Roger Schmid: That's pretty obvious.
Vicki Hulse: I'm not going to be your friend.
Katie Copple: So are you going to fight until you get to the possibility of eminent domain? And fight that?
(Collectively) Absolutely.
Doyle Turner: I think the eminent domain, for me, is the largest factor. This sets a horrible precedent for all landowners in the state.
Schmid: Once you take that out of the bag, what do you do, where does it stop? You have a private corporation taking private land for their good. Not for the public good overall. That just opens up a large can of worms.
Copple: So would you agree with what she said that the public may not understand what eminent domain is if they are not directly impacted by it?
Main: I'm offended that she's calling me stupid. I really am.
Copple: And maybe not just landowners, but I had no idea what it was until I started digging into this a bit more and I had to learn about it. Do you think the public, the general public that isn't affected by this, maybe don't understand what eminent domain really means?
(Collective) Yes.
Turner: But also, there is a legitimate use for eminent domain. We need eminent domain to put up roads. We need eminent domain to do actual utilities that serve the public. And this is an abuse of a legitimate process that we legitimately use to make our lives better and this is not going to make our lives better, this is going to make one or two corporations a lot of money and it puts our lives in danger.
Hulse: But it’s also setting a precedent for other companies to come in and abuse eminent domain for private gain. If it’s not stopped... I mean it could go on to hurt other landowners, not just the ones affected by this hazardous pipeline.

THE FUTURE OF EMINENT DOMAIN

Summit and Navigator say using eminent domain is a last resort, but necessary to get their pipelines in the ground.

"Ultimately there would be a process where we may have to use eminent domain to work through these various last few that we would have," said Blank. "We would anticipate the percentages of that being extremely small. Because we continue to push the economic solution.

The use of eminent domain dates back to 1876 when federal officials wanted to condemn private land in Ohio to build a custom house and post office building. Since then, eminent domain has been used to build roads and railways, construct public buildings, and even acquire land for public parks.

Today, the discussion over eminent domain made it to the Iowa State House. State lawmakers advanced a bill in the Iowa House that would restrict the use of eminent domain for pipeline companies until they secure 90% of their proposed route with voluntary easements.

"I don't believe that eminent domain should be used for what is a private economic development project," said State Rep Steve Holt of Denison who spearheaded the bill. "I don't have an issue with the CO2 pipelines. I have an issue with other people's property being taken for what is an economic development project and I think where that's where we confuse public use for public benefit."

The bill was effectively killed in the State Senate, and ultimately stopped its progress until another legislative session.

These two multi-million dollar companies continue to say they don't want to rely on eminent domain to get the job done.

"We would fully anticipate the percentages across the entire system, if we have to do anything that might be more along the eminent domain, a discussion will be very small," said Blank.
"So eminent domain for you is a last resort?" I asked Burns-Thompson.

"Eminent Domain is an absolute last resort," she responded.

This group says they aren't against eminent domain at its core. For them, it's the use of eminent domain for a project they feel isn't for the public good but for private gain.

Hulse: What is the public good?
Schmid: And that is what it’s supposed to be used for, for the public good. And usually, it’s a commodity such as a pipeline, an oil pipeline, or a gas pipeline, where it’s a project or it’s a road or rural water, it's a commodity.
Hulse: What's the public good in this, I don't know.
Schmid: It’s being used for the wrong purpose.

FOLLOW FOR MORE

"Along the Route: A Pipeline Discussion" is a multi-part series of reports looking at everything from the companies that want to build them to those "for" and those "against" and a deeper dive into to carbon and ethanol industries at the center of the project.

SEE THE VIDEO