With a proposed pipeline project possible to stretch across dozens of Iowa counties, public meetings will be the first step as project backers move ahead on storing and capturing carbon.
Summit Carbon Solutions, LLC is currently working through the Iowa Utilities Board for the effort.
The Ames-based company formed last year and is looking at an investment of $4.5 billion with hundreds of permanent jobs resulting.
According to the company’s website, the goal is the reduction of greenhouse gas release through a pipeline connecting industry to an injection site in North Dakota where it will be stored underground. The theory runs that CO2 not released in the air will cut emissions.
Iowa is one of five states that will be affected by the proposed pipeline under the name Midwest Carbon Express with Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota also involved. Over 700 miles of pipeline in Iowa are envisioned with the plan. As noted in last week’s Wright County Board of Supervisors story, this included a proposed 48 miles of pipeline running through Wright County.
Partners for the effort include Lawler-based Homeland Energy Solutions as well as other Iowa firms including Corn LP, Golden Grain Energy, Green Plains – Superior, Lincolnway Energy, Little Sioux Corn Processors, Louis Dreyfus – Grand Junction, Pine Lake Corn Processors, Plymouth Energy, Quad County Corn Processors and Siouxland Energy Coop.
Lawler will form the extreme eastern terminus for the project, which will run through massive areas of the state with 30 counties involved. From Lawler, an east-west line will through much of the state, passing through Floyd and Cerro Gordo counties and then Hancock County before heading to Sioux County and angling northwest.
From Hancock County, a line will run down into Wright County and back east into Franklin County and down into Hardin County and thence to Story County. Just east of Sioux County, the longest north-south line will drop down into Ida County and run nearly to the Missouri border.
According to a filing Sept. 1 with the IUB, the project will involve from 132 to 198 jobs for capture and compression and over 14,000 jobs for the pipeline and 220 to 307 jobs for capture and compression when in operation and 128 to 156 jobs for the pipeline in operation.
A presentation by the company called it the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project.
Tentatively, surveying the route should begin soon and be completed next February with acquisition of land rights extending to March 2023 and a permit decision in 2023 with start up in 2024.
Before that happens, a formal process must be completed and along with that, upcoming public meetings will include a number of Iowa counties.
In the meantime, public input is being sought, and that has already drawn comments. “It appears that this project will impact a very large swath of agricultural farmland across Iowa,” said Paul Swanson, of Ayrshire. “I think it is without foresight to [set] these meetings during harvest, a time that requires nearly all of the impacted parties' attention.”
Swanson proposed moving the meetings to after harvest time to be more conducive to farmers attending. With farmers particularly affected, they should be able to have a voice, in Swanson’s view.
Right now, planned meetings will include:
Lyon: Sept. 15, noon, Rock Rapids Community Center, 404 First Ave., Rock Rapids
Sioux: Sept. 15, 6 p.m., Terrace View, 230 St. Andrews Way, Sioux Center
Plymouth: Sept. 16, noon, Le Mars Convention Center, 275 12th St. SE, Le Mars
Woodbury: Sept. 16, 6 p.m., Sioux City Convention Center, 801 4th St., Sioux City
Cerro Gordo: Sept. 20, 1:30 p.m., NIACC – Beem Center, 500 College Drive, Mason City
Floyd: Sept. 20, 6 p.m., Floyd Community Center, 706 Fairfield St., Floyd
O’Brien: Sept. 22, noon, Sheldon Community Center, 416 9th St., Sheldon
Cherokee: Sept. 22, 6 p.m., Cherokee Community Center, 530 W. Bluff St., Cherokee
Dickinson: Sept. 23, noon, Dickinson County Community Center, 1602 15th St., Spirit Lake
Emmet: Sept. 23, 5:30 p.m., Regional Wellness Center, 415 S 18th St., Estherville
Palo Alto: Sept. 27, 12:30 p.m., Iowa Lakes Community College, 3200 College Drive, Emmetsburg
Kossuth: Sept. 27, 6 p.m., Eagle Center Banquet, 401 Smith St., Lakota
Hancock: Sept. 28, 1 p.m., Viaduct Center, 255 US Highway 69, Garner
Chickasaw: Sept. 29, 1 p.m., Chickasaw Event Center, 301 N Water Ave., New Hampton
Boone: Oct. 4, noon, Boone County Historical Society, 602 Story St.
Greene: Oct. 4, 5 p.m., Jefferson High School, 1901 N Grimmell Road, Jefferson
Ida: Oct. 5, noon, Cobblestone Inn, 2011 Indorf Ave., Holstein
Crawford: Oct. 5, Memorial Hall, 550 Main St., Manilla
Shelby: Oct. 6, noon, Therkildsen Activity Center, 706 Victoria St., Harlan
Pottawattamie: Oct. 6, 6 p.m., Impact Hill, 501 Oakland Ave., Oakland
Clay: Oct. 8, noon, Clay County Fairgrounds, 800 W 18th St., Spencer
Mills: Oct. 11, noon, Lakin Community Center, 61321 315th St., Malvern
Fremont: Oct. 11, 6 p.m., The Waterfalls, 907 Hartford Ave., Farragut
Virtual: Oct. 12, 5:30 p.m., IUB.iowa.gov
Wright: Oct. 13, noon, Heartland Museum, 119 SW 9th St., Clarion
Franklin: Oct. 13, 5 p.m., Maynes Grove Lodge, Hampton
Page: Oct. 14, noon, Shenandoah Public Library, 201 S. Elm St., Shenandoah
Montgomery: Oct. 14, 6 p.m., Montgomery County Ag Society, 1809 North 4th St., red Oak
Hamilton: Oct. 15, 12:30 p.m., 1440 East Second St., Webster City
Webster: Oct. 15, 6 p.m., Best Western Starlite Village, 1518 3rd Ave., Fort Dodge
