Summit Carbon Solutions map.
A group of Woodbury County residents appeared at the county supervisors’ meeting this week with concerns about the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions carbon dioxide pipeline.
Gale Palmquist of rural Lawton says the pipeline would cross her property. “I am objecting to this proposal. Northern Natural gas already has a pipeline on our property — it has not been a congenial relationship. We have spent thousands of dollars repairing the damage they created on some of our more productive farmland,” Palmquist says,” I do not want to go through this again with another pipeline.”
Palmquist’s family has farmed the land since the 1800s.
Woodbury County engineer Mark Nahra told the residents that eminent domain has not been approved for any pending pipeline. “People with objections should send letters to the Iowa Utilities Board while they’re within their comment period prior to having a hearing on the pipeline,” Nahra says.
Supervisors chair Rocky De Witt told the residents he is sympathetic to their concerns.
“Not to mention the right of way that is a concern to these folks that they can’t do anything — develop their ground or dig too deeply,” De Witt says. “Several of the landowners out there have done some tile work, some underground drainage. And once that gets violated it’s impossible to fix correctly, and then again because the right of way then belongs to the pipeline company and they will never get that back. So yes, there are some legitimate concerns going forward with what this pipeline can do.”
De Witt says the project is still in its preliminary stages as Summit is looking for the best route.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)