Dickinson County Supervisors Reiterate Pipeline Concerns
Dickinson County Supervisors Reiterate Pipeline Concerns
February 01, 2022Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors this (Tues.) morning heard an update from representatives of Summit Carbon Solutions, one of two companies proposing to build carbon capture pipelines through the county. Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Powell was asked about the company’s stance on constructing the proposed line along existing right-of-way in the county…
“In most cases the right-of-way doesn’t extend far enough for us to get off the centerline of the road, on the other side of the swale, and then still have this hundred foot right-of-way to construct without being on an individual private landowner’s property. There are spots where we could do it for 10 feet, 50 feet, 100 feet, but not for long stretches, and so that makes it very difficult to construct. So that’s why we try to stay on an existing corridor. So we’ve looked at it. It would be much easier for us if we had to work with a county group of officials or the state department of transportation versus in this case it’s 1,880 landowners in the state of Iowa. It’s just typically impractical especially for larger pipe.”
Neither Powell or Jake Ketzner, Government Relations and Public Affairs spokesman for Summit, went into detail on the company’s stance on eminent domain or specifics on how easement talks are proceeding with affected landowners.
Another topic of concern among county officials is the crossing of roads and infrastructure, especially drain tile. It’s something spelled out in a proposed ordinance that’s been drafted by the supervisors. Powell told the supervisors the matter is already addressed through rules established by the Iowa Utilities Board, to which supervisor Tim Fairchild had this response…
“With all due respect, playing off the Utilities Board is not extremely popular with the constituents we represent. They would much rather see that money in the bank here knowing you’re going to get all of that back that you don’t use. But the Utilities Board is not real popular with my constituents. It’s better if we would just have it, if they knew that we didn’t have to go through the Utilities Board to get every nickle back that we were actually owed, they would feel a lot better and the PR for your pipeline would go up several notches just because you’re playing ball with us. And really, what’s a million bucks, I mean in the scale of this project it’s nothing.”
Powell said Summit hasn’t yet taken a formal position on the county’s proposed ordinance…
“I haven’t had time. I’ve read the ordinance but I haven’t had time to digest it, or we haven’t, at least I haven’t spoken with our legal staff about it, but.”
The supervisors today (Tues.) set February 15th as the date for a public hearing on the proposed ordinance.
