GREENFIELD — The Adair County supervisors passed Wednesday morning an ordinance regulating the placement of hazardous liquid pipelines in unincorporated areas of the county.

The public hearing was attended by a group of about six concerned residents.

The board waived the second and third readings of the ordinance and passed it unanimously, stating that if it needs to evolve and be amended in the future, it can be.

As previously reported in the Adair County Free Press, the ordinance provides minimum separation distances for a hazardous liquid pipeline, and they are are:

• Two miles from an incorporated city’s limits

• A half-mile from a church, school, nursing home, long-term care facility, or hospital

• A quarter-mile from a public park or recreation area

• 1,000 feet from any occupied structure, confined animal feeding operation or facility, an electric power generating facility with a nameplate capacity of 5MW or more, an electric transmission line operating at 69kV or higher or a public wastewater treatment plant

• 250 feet from an operational private water well

It provides a process for which developers should obtain a permit for building a pipeline in the county and associated fees. The application fee is $5,000, each road would cost a company $500, and an annual assessment would cost $200 per mile for completed, operational and maintained pipelines.

There is an emergency response and hazard mitigation plan in the document as well as an abandonment, discontinuance and removal plan that are required.

The supervisors began developing the measure earlier this fall. The county also sent a letter to the Iowa Utilities Board stating their opposition to the use of eminent domain for such pipelines.

A press release from the developer Navigator earlier this year showed that Phase II of a carbon dioxide capture pipeline they want to develop would travel from the POET Bioprocessing Plant near Menlo, in Guthrie County, to one near Brooks, in Adams County, and would go through Adair County.

Rationale

Chairman Matt Wedemeyer answered one question from a resident who asked about the intent of the ordinance by saying that it will provide “ground rules” for those who want to develop a pipeline in the county.

Multiple supervisors mentioned other counties who have passed ordinances regulating the placement of pipelines and have become the subject of litigation from developers.

Supervisor Jodie Hoadley said the county has no way of knowing how long it will be before Navigator gets to its proposed Phase II of pipelines, but she said the supervisors feel it is best to get an ordinance passed now so they’re ready.

Wedemeyer said he feels the ordinance is “fine” for now, not too outlandish but not too soft either.

“No one really knows what’s coming down the line either,” Wedemeyer said. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like if they do come here.”

The supervisors said they’ve heard from no one who has been contacted for easements yet for the pipelines in the county.

“We’ve gotta take care of ourselves,” Hoadley commented.

Supervisor Steve Shelley mentioned he isn’t against carbon dioxide pipelines, but he is against the misuse of eminent domain. He said it should only be used for public purposes.

Feedback

A resident asked whether or not the setbacks are far enough compared to the wind turbine setbacks put in place by the county in 2019. Hoadley said they’re not sure yet because of inconclusive information about the pipelines, however Larson was heavily involved in the development of this ordinance which includes setback distances in line with what other counties have put in place.

The supervisors noted that the county is working on an emergency response plan relating to hazardous liquid pipelines that should put the county in better position to respond to potential problems, should pipelines come to the county.

“We’re trying to get something in place that’s proactive,” Wedemeyer stated.

Craig Schoenfeld, a private public affairs contractor representing Navigator, spoke highly of the safety measures taken with building pipelines, but guarded specific details because a pipeline in Adair County is a “prospective” matter at this point, he said.

“You guys are speculating and guessing, we would welcome the opportunity to be collaborative,” he said. “We haven’t had any public meetings, we haven’t had any public hearings because it’s all prospective at this stage in the game. We would welcome the opportunity to come in, walk through your ordinance and safety features that have evolved with our engineers, talk about our collaboration with emergency management and first responders that we’re required to do under state law for emergency planning. I understand there’s a POET plant here and a POET plant there, but until we do the routing it’s all prospective. I’m here today to at least open that door to conversation.”

Several in the room conveyed a sentiment of distrust toward Schoenfeld that some county residents have with developers like Navigator because of the rapid development of wind turbines here in the past.

Shelley commented that Navigator must already know they will travel through Adair County because of the map published online and wished Schoenfeld would have come to the supervisors before this week, but Schoenfeld still said maps circulating are prospective.

“We are just making sure our landowners and taxpayers have as much protection as possible and are as educated as possible,” Hoadley said. “What affects one [of our residents] affects us all.”

What they are

C02 pipelines are intended to capture the emissions from buildings like ethanol plants and power plants, pressurizing those carbon emissions and pumping them underground.

The process of carbon capture and storage has been called dangerous by pipeline opponents. In February 2020, a C02 pipeline ruptured less than half a mile from Satartia, Mississippi. There were 300 people evacuated and 49 hospitalized.

When a carbon pipeline ruptures, carbon dioxide is quickly released to the surface. Its weight is heavier than air, so it spreads horizontally rather than rising and dissipating. There is no oxygen within the carbon cloud, meaning a person cannot breathe and vehicles can’t operate.

Corn farmers who are for the pipelines have said that the ethanol industry’s financial stability is tied closely to corn prices, and that leads to profitability for the farmer. Doug Holliday, a farmer from Greenfield, said in January that the way he understood it, a lower carbon score for ethanol coming out of plants improves its market value in different places.

“If the ethanol industry is profitable it goes right through to the corn farmer because they’re going to bid up on corn and make more demand for corn,” Holliday said.