by Garrick Moritz, editor
Eighty-three local citizens and landowners of Valley Springs, Garretson, and Brandon met at the Valley Springs American Legion on Saturday, March 5 to talk about something that’s very much been on their minds, the proposed CO2 pipelines.
Local landowner Rick Bonander opened the meeting and talked about the two proposed pipeline systems. First is the Summit Pipeline, which is in its approval process, and then the Navigator Pipeline, which is set to come through the Valley Springs, Brandon and Garretson area. It hasn’t yet filed any paperwork with the Public Utilities Commission.
“It’s clear we need to get organized to oppose this,” he said. “There is a lot of big money coming at these projects from out of state. I don’t like our prospects for stopping these pipelines from being built, but if they are ultimately built, they will need to have some major modifications to make them safe. We need to do everything we can to oppose them, and if they do ultimately get put into the ground, people need real protections from the hazards they pose.”
District 25 state representative Tom Pischke came to the meeting, and he brought copies of the information that were on file with the Public Utilities Commission, including maps for the Summit Pipeline. He had no information on the proposed Navigator Pipeline however, as none of that has been filed yet with the SD PUC.
Bonander then introduced Chase Jensen of Dakota Rural Action. Savvy members of local politics will remember DRA as the entity that opposed the Keystone Pipeline.
“People say a lot of things about us, but we are experienced in protecting the rights of South Dakota landowners,” he said. “We are against these pipelines for a number of reasons, and protecting landowners is at the heart of those reasons. We can all have a lot of differing political views on things, but what unites us is stronger than anything else. People have said we use fearmongering tactics and lies. We don’t. We just show people facts and let the truth of those facts speak for themselves.”
Jensen then showcased a video for the assembly.
“This is an industry safety video,” he said. “It was recorded safely at a test site in England with an 8-inch diameter CO2 pipe to test what a line rupture would look like. This video is to show companies who install these pipes exactly what will happen if there is a rupture.”
As he played the video, it truly did look as if a bomb had detonated at the test site. The diameter of the proposed Summit Pipeline is 16 inches rather than 8, twice as large and under more pressure. The cloud of gas kept low to the ground, swirling, and lingered in the area for some time after the detonation.
“For those of you who don’t know, CO2 is an asphyxiant and intoxicant for the human body. If you are at ground zero when a pipeline like this ruptures, you’ll die or you’ll have the potential for permanent damage. At the leak in Mississippi, first responders on the scene said that the people who survived were like zombies, wandering around senselessly.”
Controlling leaks would be an important job of shutoff stations with emergency valves, and according to Jensen, with the detail confirmed by Pischke according to the data he brought from the SD PUC, there are only four such shutoff stations along the 460-plus miles of planned pipeline route for the Summit CO2 line.
“The setbacks proposed of only a few hundred feet and the line depth of only 3-4 feet is not nearly enough for safety,” said Bonander. “A quarter mile away from homes and occupied buildings and a depth of six feet is the minimum acceptable, if we have to have the thing built at all.”
Jensen fielded questions constantly and did his best to explain why the pipeline was being built at all. Two others who attended the meeting were former South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Walt Bones and Beth Warden of Dakota News Now. Both confirmed to the people at the meeting that the large reason the South Dakota Ethanol industry seemed to support these pipelines is largely a matter of cash and monetary incentives to keep the ethanol industry competitive with the new wave of electric cars that has begun.
For ethanol plants, liquid CO2 is a byproduct of the process. Jensen explained that in order to take advantage of the carbon credits, the oil and gas industry is proposing these pipelines in order to service our ethanol plants. SD ethanol plants get paid for dumping their CO2 waste and these companies stand to make about 9 billion dollars transporting it to be pumped deep into the ground.
“None of these technologies are new or innovative,” Jensen said. “They’ve been around for decades. But this way they can take advantage of the new laws to make even more money. Money they’ll make by building a pipeline through your land, with or without your permission through use of eminent domain.”
Jensen said they do this by using transport of these materials as a “public service,” just as if they were building a highway through your land. Except that only this private company is using and making money off the transporting of these materials. Jensen said that the landowners get nothing out of this but a one-time payment for them to sign the easement, while the company washes its hands of all responsibility for any death and disaster that may result. Jensen said that effectively, the petroleum industry wants to use eminent domain for their own private gain.
Jensen said that it more or less is a form of green-washing, to take away a waste product from the ethanol process, deliver it to their fracking fields up north, and use it in the oil extraction process, burying it deep underground. He continued by pointing out that it doesn’t really solve any climate change issues, but just makes the industry more money at the expense of landowners and taxpayers. Jensen said it’s also not proven that it actually reduces carbon emissions in any way, that in theory it could pollute more than the processes already in place and that the company in question has no experience installing or managing these lines. He said that they also don’t have a plan to decommission these lines should the technology change or become obsolete, so that the landowner is again left holding the bag. And he said that if a landowner signs the easement, there is no telling who ultimately would end up with the power over that line as companies change and shift in the free market.
Jensen said that the politics of it are fairly dire as well.
“Dan Linderman, the chair of the Republican Party in South Dakota, is a company man on the company payroll,” said Jensen. “He contributed a lot of money to the campaign of our Governor after she ran out of money in a very tight race against Mr. Sutton just a few short years ago. They’ve got big pockets and are well connected in the halls of power in our State Government.”
Jensen said that it’s one of the reasons that eminent domain reforms in South Dakota haven’t gotten much traction. But, Jensen said, that one bill relating to CO2 pipelines did pass this legislative year, and that’s to give the State a cut of the profits should they be built.
Jensen also put those in attendance into a conference call with Attorney Brian Jorde of Domin Law Group out of Omaha, Nebraska. Jorde and his firm are engaged in similar actions in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Jorde outlined legal stratagems for these landowners and offered his services for collective legal action.
Jensen and Jorde both told the landowners present not to sign easements and to not allow company surveyors onto their property. They also said that in the coming months, one tactic they should expect to see is for the big money interests to pit them against the ethanol industry. This should not be tolerated, as the ethanol industry needs the products that the local farmers are selling to even make their product, so the two groups should have no reason to quarrel. Jensen said that this should be about keeping South Dakota resources and industry products in the hands of South Dakotans, not profiteers from out of state.
Jensen and Bonander said another strategy was to appear en masse at the next Minnehaha County Commissioners meeting.
“McPherson County is riled up and have put a moratorium on the construction of CO2 pipelines,” said Jensen. “The Public Utilities Commission can override that ban, but if every county in the planned zone of construction of the pipeline puts up a similar ban, and they have to override it every time they want to build, that just puts one more hurdle in their way and encourages them to abandon the project.”
Bonander confirmed that they are on the agenda for the Minnehaha County Commission for March 15 at 9 a.m. and he encouraged every landowner and citizen there to flood that meeting and make their voices heard.
Bonander and Jensen also made note that the Summit Pipeline PUC meeting will be hosted in the Washington room of the Ramkota in Sioux Falls at 5:30 p.m. on March 23. They encouraged everyone to write commentary and attend the meeting to lodge protest about the pipeline. The Public Utilities Commissioners themselves will not be there, as they cannot legally attend these meetings, but they will have staff members in attendance. Bonander and Jensen said that anything they can do to get the SD PUC to deny the Summit approval will help their cause. And if Summit does not get approved, then Navigator will be in jeopardy as well.
“I’m not going to lie, there are some big and powerful players who want this to go forward, but together you’re stronger than any of them, and I’m confident that we can stop this,” said Jensen. “If we can’t, then we can put important safety measures in place to protect your homes, your families and your livelihoods.”
Everyone in the crowd seemed both angry and determined, and the conversations that broke out after the presentations were plans to do everything in their power to oppose the CO2 pipelines and stand with their neighbors against being taken advantage of by out of state interests and their rights to manage their own property as they see fit.
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