Dickinson Co. Supervisors Sign Off On Pipeline Objection Letter To IUB
Dickinson Co. Supervisors Sign Off On Pipeline Objection Letter To IUB
December 28, 2021Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) voted unanimously to send a letter to the Iowa Utilities Board objecting to any use of emminent domain by private companies for the proposed construction of two carbon dioxide pipelines through portions of the county. Supervisor Steve Clark…
“They’re proposing both of these pipelines as advantageous to the ethanol plant industry and supposedly will keep the ethanol industry more viable in the future, in the long run. We’ve got a lot of farmers that depend on that ethanol industry. So it’s hard to be against that idea, but the eminent domain, you know, where they actually can force it on people, is I think, at least is what I’m against.”
The supervisors also again today (Tues.) talked about wording to be included in a proposed ordinance regulating any construction of the pipelines through the county. Supervisor Tim Fairchild said he’s suggested to company officials the lines be constructed in county rights-of-way in exchange to them paying a fee to the county…
“You know to be clear the proposal that I was talking about involved them giving us a check for millions and millions of dollars. In return we gave them an easement in the right of way that we wouldn’t disturb, so we’d have to think real long and hard about where that went.”
Fairchild said he also wants to include a provision requiring the companies to each pay a one million dollar bond to the county…
“Any entity that can spend $4.5 billion on a pipeline can certainly put up a million dollar payment or bond to repair damages done by the pipeline and I’d give them, we’d hold that for five years to help with some problems that may or may not arise from this. There again my thinking is that if you’re entity is not financially sound enough to put a million dollar bond down in every county you cross, you probably don’t have the financial footing to build a 4.5 billion dollar pipeline and keep it operating.”
The proposed revisions will come back to the supervisors at their next meeting for further consideration.
In other business, the supervisors took no action on a proposed maintenance agreement for the construction of any additional culverts or a bridge at the Lower Gar Outlet in order to fine tune some minor revisions.
