To The Editor,
I am an Iowa landowner in Hardin County impacted by the Summit pipeline and relative of landowners in Wright County impacted by the Summit hazardous pipeline. I would like you to know there is a lot of confusion surrounding exhibit H. As you are probably aware, this is the exhibit Summit must file to the Iowa Utility Board before a hearing can be set.
When completed, it will be the names of landowners for which Summit will request eminent domain, should the Iowa Utility Board allow eminent domain to be used. Summit is only filing a partial list of names per county at a time, and not completing the list before moving on to another county. At some point they will go back and add a few more to a county’s partial list.
It is being misinterpreted as the full list of names for which eminent domain may be requested. It has been confusing news reporters who are reporting inflated percentages of easements signed. For example KCCI reported Summit has 70 percent of easements, in reality it is closer to 40 percent. To get an accurate count of the percentage of landowners who have signed, I recommend going to Iowa Land Records and compare to the Iowa Utility Board exhibit H for that county. For example Wright County reports 23 easements, some are multiple parcels for the same landowner, so less than 23 landowners have signed easements to date.
Deb Lavelle
Hardin County
