The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors has unanimously adopted an ordinance that would require a proposed carbon pipeline to be at least 16-hundred feet outside of cities in the northwest Iowa county. Buffer zones also would be required around homes, schools, medical facilities and public parks. Bonnie Ewalt of Milford says the ordinance is needed to protect the health and safety of Dickinson County residents.
Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed a pipeline through Iowa and four other states, to ship liquified carbon to underground storage in North Dakota. Scott O’Konek, a Minnesota-based project manager for Summit, says ordinances like this could stymie development of the pipeline and harm the ethanol plants that plan to connect to it.
Green Plains Superior is an ethanol plant located in Dickinson County. Summit has sued five other counties, including Kossuth, that have approved ordinances similar to the one in Dickinson County.
