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Julie Waggett speaks during the Bremer County informational meeting Tuesday night.
Marva Schuldt speaks during a Bremer County informational meeting Tuesday.
Navigator representatives were on hand to answer questions during the informational meetings in Waverly and Independence.
A company financially backed by BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset managers, felt the wrath of Bremer and Buchanan counties Monday and Tuesday evenings.
During the 3-1/2 hours of informational meetings held in both the counties this week, a few dozen residents asked questions, but several took issue with and formulated arguments against the purported proposal and rationale of infrastructure developer Navigator for building a carbon pipeline through their farmland and that of their neighbors.
Drivers will be better off heading directly to Hawkeye Road (Iowa Highway 21) to get to their destination.
Company representatives were on hand to answer queries during the kick-off meeting, and to confirm or refute claims presented by attendees at the meetings, which at points, especially in Bremer County, got somewhat heated.
The meetings attracted a couple hundred people in total. One was held Monday in Independence and the other was Tuesday in Waverly.
“You people are not improving anybody’s lifestyle in Iowa,” said Jim Miller, a retired farmer and one of the impacted landowners. “Right now, we’re sitting in the bread basket of the world right here in Iowa and you people want to plow your line through everybody’s farm here, ruin their farms, and you are improving nothing.”
The firm plans to construct the pipeline in 2024, but it first needs to successfully obtain a hazardous liquid pipeline permit from the Iowa Utilities Board.
A separate public hearing will be scheduled for people interested in voicing their approval or opposition on the record and for consideration by the board. Technically, all opinions stated and arguments made Monday and Tuesday nights could not be weighed as evidence.
A 'No carbon pipeline' sign sits in the back of a pickup truck.
A person is welcomed to file a letter of support or objection online – at iub.iowa.gov and select “file a comment or objection in an open docket” – or through the mail.
In the meantime, now that the public information meetings have been held, Navigator will begin negotiations on voluntary right-of-way easement agreements with impacted property owners in Bremer and Buchanan counties.
An Evansdale woman has in mind bringing cameras to the trailheads and parking lots, as well as ‘blue light beacons' one might see on a college campus.
The company also pitches providing payments for land damages and losses.
For the properties in which an agreement is not reached, the expectation is Navigator will put together a case for eminent domain, a rare request made to the IUB.
Being granted that authority would require additional board hearings and proof to be demonstrated by the company that there’s a public good, purpose or use for it.
Additionally, before deals are signed, land surveys are required and company representatives cannot be denied by a property owner access to the grounds if the proper notice is given.
Five states are part of the preliminary 1300-mile route of piping, of which about 810 miles is in Iowa. It will capture and transport up to 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by 21 ethanol and fertilizer processors.
The processors would pay fees to Navigator to use the “carbon management platform” – similarly proposed by a few other companies at this time, but not yet constructed.
Those processors are Valero, POET, Big River Resources, OCI, Iowa Fertilizer Company and Siouxland Ethanol.
In one of many back and forth dialogues those evenings spurred by attendees, Miller said a family member worked at an ethanol plant in Shell Rock and “never had” an incident involving CO2.
First responders were never called to the plant for an emergency, Miller said in arguing that there is no need for the pipeline that would put people at risk.
“You people want to take this product, which is harmless and we all need in this state for our vegetation and growth, and put it in a pipeline under 2,000 pounds of pressure, and it becomes a hazardous material. I don’t understand why you’re doing this. It makes no sense.”
Some plants transport the liquid CO2 via truck.
Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, vice president of government and public affairs, pointed to the economic and environmental drivers behind the infrastructure, and how there’s value added to ethanol based on its carbon intensity.
“We are not new to quantifiable characteristics that determine the value of commodities we’re bringing to market,” Burns-Thompson said. “You, as a farmer, every load of grain you likely took across the scale, you got a scale ticket, and on there you were docked if you were outside of that sweet spot on moisture, or FM (foreign material) or damage. That’s because those were quantifiable characteristics that determined the value of that commodity that you’re bringing to market.
“Carbon is becoming much the same way. It’s something they can quantify.”
Navigator and the processors can receive federal 45Q Tax Credits – introduced under the President George W. Bush administration and updated several times since then, including most recently by the President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – for their role in helping the country reach its goals of decarbonization.
As part of the process, the hazardous carbon liquid could be sequestered in central Illinois. Or there’s said to also be a carbon market for “future innovative uses.”
Despite it being in a dangerous state, under immense pressure, the company believes it will have the personnel, technologies and relationships with first responders to operate it safely and respond to possible emergencies.
However, many speakers harkened back to a CO2 pipeline exploding in Satartia, Mississippi in February of 2020, and feared a leak could lead to wide-spread asphyxiation.
Brett Waggett, of Waverly, took issue with the company not releasing to the public, just the regulator, its plume models, which would predict the paths and concentrations of those released contaminants, and argued computer models aren’t even right a lot of the time.
“If we have a massive leak, that you don’t catch right away and I know you have that fiber cable and it’s supposed to be great and everything, technology does fail, and I can tell you that,” Waggett said.
“But if we have a major leak and you don’t catch it right away, and wind’s blowing to the south toward Waverly, Iowa in a low spot, you’re basically putting everybody in this entire town at risk of asphyxiation from a carbon dioxide pipe that none of us even want.”
One person is dead following shooting in the 1000 block of West Fifth Street, Waterloo, on Sunday.
Yellow placards mark bloody clothing, a cigarette box and other evidence in the sidewalk following a fatal shooting in the 1000 block of West Fifth Street, Waterloo.
The scene of a shooting on West Fifth and Allen streets on Sunday that left one person dead.
The scene of a shooting on West Fifth and Allen streets on Sunday that left one person dead.
Black Hawk County Attorney Brian Williams, left, talks with police investigators on Monday at the scene of a shooting on West Fifth Street from the night before.
One person is dead following a shooting in the 1000 block of West Fifth Street, Waterloo, on Sunday.
Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
Cedar Falls, Waverly City Government Reporter
I've covered city government for The Courier since August 2021. I'm a Chatham, NJ native who graduated from Gettysburg College in 2018 and previously worked for publications in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
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Julie Waggett speaks during the Bremer County informational meeting Tuesday night.
A 'No carbon pipeline' sign sits in the back of a pickup truck.
Marva Schuldt speaks during a Bremer County informational meeting Tuesday.
Navigator representatives were on hand to answer questions during the informational meetings in Waverly and Independence.
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