Delaware County Supervisor Reacts to News of Canceled Pipeline

A pipeline that was proposed to come through Delaware County was canceled last week – and county officials and landowners are elated.

Navigator CO2 announced last Friday that their Heartland Greenway carbon capture pipeline project was canceled. The pipeline would have carried 1,300 miles of liquid CO2 through the Midwest, with over 800 miles here in Iowa – passing through 33 Iowa counties. The idea was to capture carbon dioxide emissions produced by industrial facilities, with proposed plans to start the pipeline at the ethanol plant in Dyersville and bury it several feet below the ground’s surface from the west edge of Dyersville passing through farmland north of Earlville, Delaware and Manchester into northern Buchanan County and the southwest tip of Fayette County. 

Navigator was seeking non-exclusive 50-foot permanent easements on farmland along the route, with landowners overwhelmingly opposed to the project. The Iowa Utilities Board held two public informational meetings on the proposed pipeline in Manchester over the past two years, with landowners, officials and residents angry and frustrated at the lack of landowners’ rights, concerns over impacted cropland and the unknowns surrounding everyone’s safety. 

Last month, South Dakota regulators denied the company’s pipeline route application for that state. And earlier this month, Navigator asked the Iowa Utilities Board to put its Iowa application on hold. Navigator’s CEO says as good stewards of capital and responsible managers of people, the company made the difficult decision to cancel the project. 

Both Delaware County and the City of Manchester took a stand against the proposed pipeline last fall, announcing they were opposed to the project. County Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs says the news of the pipeline being canceled last week brought her a huge sigh of relief.

And while the battle is over with Navigator, that doesn’t mean they can rest easy now. Helmrichs says the County Board of Supervisors will be working on a process to better protect Delaware County residents if another pipeline wants to come through.

And they’ll be protective of any other energy companies that may want to come into Delaware County too.

We’ll keep you up to date on that process. 

top photo and bottom archived photos courtesy of Janelle Tucker/KMCH