North Dakota county approves pipeline safety ordinance

BISMARCK — The Burleigh County (North Dakota) Fee has accredited a hazardous liquid pipeline well being and security ordinance in response to plans for a regional carbon dioxide pipeline that can cross the county — a transfer the developer says unnecessarily duplicates federal regulation.

County officers are also crafting a zoning ordinance associated to such pipelines that can decide necessities akin to minimal distances from houses, faculties and animal feedlots.

The ordinance the five-member fee unanimously accredited Monday, March 6, is aimed toward guaranteeing the security of individuals within the space of Summit Carbon Options’ deliberate Midwest Carbon Specific pipeline, which might cross the county 5 miles to the north of Bismarck.

Commissioner Wayne Munson careworn that it additionally applies to different future hazardous liquid pipelines, together with pure gasoline, however he acknowledged that “I perceive CO2 is the hotbed matter of the day.”

Bismarck-Burleigh Well being Officer Dr. David Pengilly instructed commissioners final month that the danger to public security from a carbon dioxide pipeline is not any better than that related to different varieties of hazardous gases and pipelines, and that “There isn’t a unacceptable threat to well being, welfare and life security for a CO2 pipeline.”

However many residents and landowners north of Bismarck oppose the pipeline, and several other spoke at Monday night time’s assembly, arguing for the adoption of the security ordinance.

“We wish it to be protected, and I do not really feel it’s going to be protected the place it is going,” Karl Rakow stated of the pipeline.

Former Bismarck Mayor John Warford stated the pipeline would cross a mile of his land, and can be lower than 2 miles from the place his kids reside and the place his grandchildren go to high school. He additionally stated there are 1,247 residents inside 2 miles of the pipeline’s path by means of the county.

“I worry for the security of my household; I worry for the security of the schoolchildren; and I additionally worry for the security of these within the rural residential space that this pipeline is proposed to undergo,” he stated.

Jeff Skaare, Summit’s director of land, authorized and regulatory affairs, and Alex Lange, the corporate’s engineering supervisor, instructed commissioners that CO2 pipelines are protected, with dangers “considerably much less” than dangers related to different hazardous liquid pipelines. Summit lately submitted to the county a prolonged threat evaluation.

“I am not dismissing anyone’s considerations right here; I believe they’re genuinely held,” Skaare stated on the Monday assembly. “I am undecided they’re primarily based the truth is.”

County Planning Director Mitch Flanagan instructed commissioners that the Summit evaluation relied on information as much as 2019 — earlier than a CO2 pipeline ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi, in 2020, prompting the evacuation of a whole bunch of individuals and sending dozens of individuals to the hospital.

The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Supplies Security Administration is now updating security rules for carbon dioxide pipelines, together with necessities associated to emergency preparedness and response.

The truth that PHMSA regulates CO2 pipelines — and has achieved so for greater than 40 years —makes native ordinances pointless, based on Skaare and Lange.

“They’ve the subject material consultants, they’ve the sources to take a position all that point and ensure pipeline tasks like ours are protected to the general public,” Lange stated.

Flanagan stated Summit is “dancing round the truth that PHMSA ordinances are outdated.”

The fee, convening first because the County Board of Well being on Monday, accredited a public well being assertion that “expresses concern for the danger of hazardous liquid gasoline publicity to people, the surroundings and livestock.” Fee Chair Becky Matthews stated it’s a “assertion of considerations that we have heard from constituents and researched.”

It set the stage for the security ordinance that requires corporations constructing hazardous liquid pipelines to submit emergency plans to native officers, to make sure public well being and security.

The ordinance requires a pipeline firm to offer academic supplies to landowners and upon request to every other ” individuals” concerning the undertaking and any related risks, and to offer an emergency motion plan for approval by native emergency responders. The pipeline firm will then present common updates to county Emergency Administration.

If a carbon dioxide pipeline falls beneath federal rules, the ordinance requires the corporate to offer documentation that it complied with these guidelines, in addition to submit a plan for the way the corporate will work with native officers within the occasion of an emergency. These provisions additionally apply to pipelines transporting hazardous liquids aside from CO2.

If a carbon dioxide pipeline doesn’t fall beneath federal rules, the corporate has to submit an emergency response plan with quite a few necessities. They embrace “an estimate of the worst-case discharge of carbon dioxide,” a pc mannequin displaying the “blast zone” for the pipeline, an evaluation of dangers of other routes in comparison with the proposed route, and a map and authorized description of all occupied buildings and animal amenities inside 2 miles of the route. The corporate additionally has to safe county approvals for highway use and can be liable for repairing any highway harm.

Lange stated Summit already is proactively assembly with emergency response officers in all 81 counties the pipeline would move by means of on emergency response plans.

Skaare stated there was “nothing on this ordinance that’s overly offensive or burdensome,” simply duplicative of federal guidelines.

Munson stated, “We have all heard about (the) Mississippi accident. I’m horrified for what occurred there. I do not need it right here.”

The county doesn’t have any authority to cease the pipeline however it could possibly approve sure restrictions. The Planning and Zoning Fee will talk about the second ordinance being drafted at a gathering on Wednesday night time. It pertains to particular use permits required for hazardous liquid pipelines. The assembly is at 5:15 p.m. within the Tom Baker Assembly Room of the Metropolis/County Constructing, at 221 N. Fifth St. in Bismarck. The ordinance in the end will come earlier than the County Fee for approval.

The North Dakota Public Service Fee will allow the route of the pipeline, and the state Industrial Fee will allow the CO2 disposal website. Summit should additionally adjust to federal rules.

The PSC will host 4 public hearings. The primary is subsequent Tuesday, March 14, at 8:30 a.m. Central time in Russell Reid Auditorium on the North Dakota Heritage Middle & State Museum on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck.

Commissioner Jerry Woodcox on Monday stated he thinks the county must get guidelines in place “earlier than the PSC will get too far down that path.”