Community members voice concerns at Summit Carbon public hearing

Representatives of the Iowa Utilities Council, Summit Carbon Solutions, and affected landowners met in a contentious public hearing at Stadium 34 on Aug. 27 regarding phase two of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline route through Montgomery County.
Summit is proposing an additional 24.1 miles of hazardous liquid pipeline through the county. Phase one of the project was green lighted by the Iowa Utilities Board, and eminent domain was also granted.
Jake Ketzner, vice president of government affairs for Ames-based Summit Carbon spoke first. Ketzner said the project was designed to open access to new markets for biofuels and farmers.
“There are new and growing markets for for low carbon products. Summit Carbon Solutions enables our ethanol plant partners to participate in those markets. We’ve partnered with 57 ethanol plants across five states to capture the carbon emissions from ethanol plants that is currently being emitted into the atmosphere,” Ketzner said. “We’ve partnered with the POET plant in nearby Corning, and the Green Plains plant in Shenandoah.”
After the carbon is captured, Summit’s plan is to move it through a 2,500 mile gathering system to North Dakota, where it will be permanently stored underground. Three pounds of corn generates one pound of carbon after going through the ethanol process. Three fourths of Iowa’s ethanol plants, according to Ketzner, are part of Summit’s project. Ketzner said the project is crucial to helping sustain the ethanol industry.
Summit Carbon’s senior project manager Kylie Lange also spoke, stating the pipeline would be constructed with high-grade carbon steel with an epoxy coating placed a minimum of four feet from the top of the pipe to the surface of the ground.
“A test will be conducted on each property to determine the depth of the topsoil. Once the route is determined and permitted, construction crews will clear the pipeline right of way, remove the topsoil and place it separately from construction to ensure no disturbance, then lay out strings of pipe, weld the pipe together, and conduct tests on the welds, placing a coating on each of the welds. A trench will then be dug, roughly a foot wider than the pipe itself, around 16 to 18 inches wide. The pipe will be lowered in and backfilled and the ground will be compacted and the topsoil will be replaced. A hydrotest will also be completed, filling the lines with water and pressurizing it to 125% of the maximum operating pressure of the system. The test will be held for eight hours as a final verification of successful construction,” Lange said.
Lange said this September, Summit will begin to acquire voluntary easements, with petitions for expansion permits filed, public hearings, and permit decisions in beginning October. Following permit approvals, construction start up is planned to begin in 2026.
Paula Klepinger addressed Summit representatives during a question and answer session. Since no odorant was in the pipeline, Klepinger asked how citizens would know if there is a rupture.  Summit certified safety professional Dave Daum stated the pipeline would follow PHMSA regulations for transmission lines.
“They do not require an odorant in them. Natural gas lines that go through this county do not have odorants in them. We have looked at it, but it can cause some issues with the pipeline. The carbon in the line is non-corrosive, and odorants can be corrosive that could cause issues and corrosion in the pipeline. The other issue is some of the odorants on the market today are flammable,” Daum said.
Klepinger said the carbon would be at a higher pressure than natural gas and would escape faster and do more damage. Daum said carbon, when released, would vaporize and produce a vapor cloud. He said they are also looking at options for reverse 911 systems, and systems that would be put in place to notify affected areas in an emergency.
Klepinger cited issues in a leak in Mississippi that resulted in vehicles being disabled and asked what the emergency response would be in a leak situation. Daum said they wanted to keep people away from a leak and that shelter in place would be an option based on other studies. Daum said they would also continue to work with emergency responders to determine the best way to respond to an incident if it should occur. Klepinger asked what the specific setback is for a carbon pipeline from a home. Daum said PHMSA’s general guidelines is a 50 foot setback, which drew surprised reactions from the audience. While that was the regulation, Ketzner said they tried to go farther than that if they could.
“The way we manage the risk of any pipeline our infrastructure is through our integrity management plans and making sure the pipeline is engineered, constructed, and operated safely,” commented Ketzner.
Klepinger wasn’t sure that was enough.
“If I have a pipeline rupture 50 feet from my house, am I supposed to shelter in place until I get an emergency responder out here with a breathing apparatus that can rescue me and my grandchildren?” Klepinger asked.
Daum responded that everything depended on the situation. Officials were asked how quickly a carbon plume cloud could spread. Lange said a general answer could not be given, as the speed of the spread would depend on wind and temperature. Training would be done with first responders during the construction project, and would be repeated every calendar year, not to exceed 15 months. Officials stated only three notable carbon releases had been reported, according to PHMSA’s website, although the most recent release was not on yet.
Maggie McQuown asked the representatives why the compensation for easements was a one-time payment, rather than multi-year payments made by wind turbine or solar companies. Ketzner said a wind turbine was taking land permanently out of production, whereas land could be reused by the landowner once construction of the pipeline was done. Ketzner added that everything was negotiable, however.
Michael Luna then addressed the group, and questioned the reasons for not releasing impact numbers to the public.
“45 were sickened by a leak in Satartia, Mississippi, 200 people were evacuated. I’m asking why you can’t release the potential impact statement to the public on who would be affected, you can only talk to landowners about that, or what the kill zone would be,” Luna stated.
Daum said the information is potentially security sensitive, and thus it isn’t being publicly shared.
“Those arguments have been heard by the IUC and the North Dakota Public Service Commission, and they have deemed it to be confidential and not to be shared,” Daum advised.
James Norris brought up the issue of eminent domain. Ketzner said Summit isn’t talking about eminent domain, and the goal is to seek 100% voluntary easements. Of the 27 landowners on the phase one route, 20 of the 27 landowners had been signed up and nearly $5 million had been paid to the landowners. Negotiations with the remaining seven landowners were ongoing.
Susie McDonald addressed the Summit officials, sharing her disappointment with the project going through her land.
“We are affected on your north-south route. We didn’t want your pipeline, we told your land agents that we didn’t want it, but we had to make several trips to the capital. We had to defend why we didn’t want you on our land. You didn’t have to do anything. You are coming for everybody’s land. If they don’t want you on it, eminent domain is on the tail end,” McDonald said. “You guys do not care about what our plans were. We don’t want your money, or any part of this, but you are forcing us to take it.”
Ketzner said he wasn’t familiar with her specific plot of land, but said the land was only under easement and the property was retained by the landowner. McDonald countered that once the pipeline went in, they lost the right to do what they wanted on their land when they wanted.
McDonald was the last to address the Summit officials. The noon meeting was closed by Summit officials at 2:45 p.m.
Other points raised during the meeting include:
• The consistency of the carbon should it be emitted in a rupture. Summit officials said as the gas comes out, it could go up and dissipate, or come back down, though said typically it did not come back to the ground.
• Training of emergency responders. Summit officials said trainings would take place during the construction phase. Training would take place with emergency responders from neighboring counties as well.
• Officials were asked how often inspections took place. Summit officials said there were a variety of inspections, such as the route being inspected by plane approximately every two weeks to check for digging around the pipe. The integrity management group will have in-line inspection tools for providing a full diagnostic of the pipeline to check for things such as corrosion. The reports are given to PHMSA, but officials were unclear if the reports are given to the public.
• Questions were asked about how many miles of pipeline Summit Carbon Solutions had installed. Summit officials said they were a new company and had not laid any pipeline to date, but that its members had years of experience in the pipeline industry.
•  Electrical usage for the pipeline system was brought up. Summit officials stated a full electrical study across the grid would be done and the company would work with the power companies to make sure there was enough power to handle the system and build out their systems as needed. Officials also stated they have had no constraints with electricity yet.
• Summit officials were asked if landowners would have problems with insurance. The response from Summit was that they indemnified the landowners in the easement agreements and insured the pipe.
• Summit was asked the difference in corn prices in areas that had a carbon pipeline versus places that did not. Summit officials claimed there had been an increase in the price of the corn and there would be more demand, but did not share an exact dollar amount.
• Questions were raised about the amount of water that would be required for the function of the pipeline. Mary Gholinghorst stated the Page County Aquifer could not keep up with demands this summer, and there were water shortages and the closure of the pool in Shenandoah as a result. Summit officials said water usage would be increased in the capturing process at most ethanol plants’ water by a maximum of 9%.
• Summit was asked if they would be using local contractors for the project. Local contractors would be used for dust control and fencing but couldn’t confirm how unions would pull contractors for the project.
• Summit representatives were asked if legal proceedings would take place if the county were to pass an ordinance establishing setbacks. Summit officials cited the court ruling that struck down the Shelby County ordinance establishing setbacks as being unlawful. Officials then stated that they would rely on the court system to understand where regulation lay. When asked if the county could set the setback at 1,000 feet, Summit officials said they would be happy to have conversations with the supervisors.