An executive with Summit Carbon Solutions says the proposed pipeline route the company has presented to state regulators is final, unless the Iowa Utilities Board orders more noegitiations as a condition of granting a construction permit.
James Powell, Summit’s chief operating officer, is in charge of design, construction and operation of the pipeline. “It’s very difficult to move the pipeline within this application,” Powell said Tuesday, “and I don’t intend to amend this application.”
Powell said it’s too late to adjust the route through Charles City, for example. “It parallels two natural gas pipelines and I believe other than the Charles City Economic Development Group, every easement is signed along that route,” Powell said.
Summit has changed the pipeline route around Bismarck in its new permit application after North Dakota regulators rejected the company’s initial application. “It’s a much bigger area with a much broader economic development footprint,” Powell said of Bismarck.
Powell testified Tuesday during a hearing the Iowa Utilities Board convened in August to examine Summit’s pipeline permit application. Testimony in the past two weeks came from landowners who don’t want the pipeline on their property, some of whom suggested adjusting the route to provide access to farm fields or to keep their land enrolled in federal conservative programs.