Delaware County is hiring an attorney to fight Heartland Greenway’s proposed carbon capture pipeline.
County Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs:
Helmrichs says having an attorney with knowledge of this issue will help them in several areas.
A company called Navigator CO2 is proposing the Heartland Greenway project – which is 1,300 miles of new liquid CO2 pipeline in the Midwest – with over 800 miles here in Iowa, passing through 33 Iowa counties. It’s designed to capture carbon dioxide emissions produced by industrial facilities, including ethanol plants like the one in Dyersville. Navigator is seeking non-exclusive 50-foot permanent easements on farmland along the route, with the pipe to be buried several feet below the ground’s surface.
Supervisor Helmrichs says Delaware County is hoping to slow down the proposed pipeline plans with a Petition to Intervene.
The pipeline is proposed to travel west through Delaware County – starting at the ethanol plant on the west edge of Dyersville, heading north of Earlville, Delaware and Manchester and then into northern Buchanan County and the southwest tip of Fayette County before heading west through the state. The Delaware County Board of Supervisors still haven’t been provided with a good map showing the landowners who would be impacted by the pipeline, but Helmrichs estimates that number to be about 60 to 80 – and the majority of those landowners are against it, with safety and eminent domain their biggest concerns.
Helmrichs says dates for the Iowa Utility Board public hearings about the pipeline have not yet been set.
photo courtesy of Janelle Tucker/KMCH
