(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Summit Carbon Solutions announced today (Wednesday) it is altering the route of its proposed pipeline across Iowa to help “accelerate progress” on the project. In a new filing submitted to the Iowa Utilities Commission for approval, the company indicates it intends to move segments of the pipeline’s proposed route, which the company says will result in fewer miles of land, and fewer landowners, being affected by the project.
If approved, the changes would remove previously planned routes through Shelby, Pottawattamie, Montgomery, Adams, Page, Fremont, Mitchell and Worth counties, while also reducing the miles of pipeline running through Crawford, Floyd, Sioux and Dickinson counties. Overall, Summit said, the changes would reduce by more than 400 the number of different landowners affected by the pipeline, and would reduce the overall scope of the project by approximately 200 miles.
Sherri Webb, whose family owns 40 acres of Shelby County land that the pipeline would have cut across under the previously planned route, said Wednesday’s announcement is good news for her family but she remains concerned about the overall project. Webb said Wednesday’s announcement leaves some questions unanswered such as what will happen with some of the signed easements that property owners have with Summit to let the pipeline cross their land.
In June 2024, the Iowa Utilities Commission approved a permit for Summit Carbon Solutions to build more than 600 miles of a carbon sequestration pipeline in Iowa, with the condition that the company gain permits in the Dakotas before beginning construction. The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, along with several Iowa counties and individual landowners, sued, hoping to overturn the IUC’s permit approval.
Last fall, after South Dakota denied Summit a permit and passed a law barring the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines, Summit filed a petition with the IUC to amend its approved permit by removing the condition that required approval in the Dakotas and by adding add several modifications to the company’s plans.
Summit said Wednesday that its pipeline project will remain tied to what it called “a strong core group of ethanol facilities,” including 27 that are located in Iowa. As part of the proposed route restructuring, the company will no longer pursue routes to ethanol facilities tied to Absolute Energy, POET Corning, POET Hanlontown, or Green Plains Shenandoah.
