Dear Editor:
SAFETY FIRST: VOTE NO on RL 21
Have you made plans to purchase your electric car yet? If Referred Law 21 (RL21) passes, you’re going to want one. Local Emergency Service – Police, Fire, Ambulance —will need electric vehicles as well.
Why? Because if you live in an area that is close to a proposed CO2 pipeline, and that pipeline develops a leak, your current gas or diesel vehicle will not run in a low oxygen atmosphere. You will only be able to escape the danger of a pipeline leak by using an electric vehicle.
CO2 are high pressure pipelines, operating at 2100 psi and higher. CO2combines with small amounts of water to form carbonic acid, a highly corrosive substance. Don’t be fooled by claims that their CO2 will be 98% pure or better, therefore making it safe. Leaks and ruptures are inevitable, putting lives in danger!
In 2017, Archer Daniels Midland put in CO2 sequestration wells in Illinois. In March 2024, there was a leak in one of the wells, a violation which went unreported by the company. The EPA discovered it during a recent inspection and has since uncovered a second leak in a different well. The EPA has concluded that dozens of planned projects contain dangerous design flaws. The threat of this unproven technology is a new discovery that all South Dakotans need to be aware before voting.
My original concerns for our community began with the proposed Navigator pipeline. Their route was to go through the Brandon Valley School District near the future BV Elementary School East, Bethany Meadows/Bethany Home, and two new housing developments. All fall easily within the drift pattern zone of CO2 in the event of a pipeline rupture.
The Navigator pipeline route would have destroyed future growth development around the I-90, 410 exchange ramp and Aspen Boulevard to Valley Springs—developments that are essential to our area. How many other communities will be affected in similar ways? Fortunately, the Navigator pipeline was not granted a permit by the South Dakota PUC.
Currently the United States has 5,000 miles of CO2 sequestration pipelines. Summit’s project would increase that to 7,000 miles. The US Department of Energy estimates that 30,000 to 96,000 miles of pipelines will be built. A lot of those miles will go through the Midwest to North Dakota oil fields.
The wording in RL21 has confused many people, which was the intention of the Pipeline investors, who are spending millions of dollars in advertising campaigns to defeat local landowners who have been fighting against RL21 with our own money.
To be clear: Section 6: “supersedes,” “preempts,” and “not subject to” exempts permitted companies from all local county, city, or township regulations and concentrates all governing authority to the PUC commissioners in Pierre who determine permitting conditions.
This means the PUC can overrule ANY of our local county ordinances.
Voting for RL 21 will open a Pandora’s box of safety concerns for South Dakota citizens and take away local county controls. Please Vote NO on RL21 on November 5.
-Denis & Janet Andersen
Valley Springs landowners
