Connect with us

North Dakota

Summit modifies North Dakota pipeline route to avoid potential landslides

Published

on

Summit modifies North Dakota pipeline route to avoid potential landslides


BISMARCK — Changes made by Summit Carbon Solutions to its pipeline route in North Dakota include avoiding areas where landslides are likely to occur.

It also has moved farther east of Bismarck and some Bismarck intervenors have withdrawn from the case.

North Dakota is one of the few states to have possible landslide areas mapped, according to State Geologist Ed Murphy.

Those maps are used when siting several different types of infrastructure, such as wind turbines, roads and pipelines.

Advertisement

The state Geological Survey had identified 17 areas of soil instability on or near the hazardous liquid pipeline route originally submitted by Summit.

Murphy submitted a letter dated March 7 that says Summit has addressed those concerns, including rerouting the pipeline around some landslide areas.

“They’ve moved the pipeline, specifically to get away from some of those areas, and then they move the pipeline for other reasons,” Murphy said in an interview.

The letter was filed with the North Dakota Public Service Commission, which will decide whether to grant Summit a permit for its 335-mile route through North Dakota.

The pipeline would capture carbon emissions from ethanol plants in five states, including Tharaldson Ethanol near Casselton, to underground carbon storage sites in Mercer and Oliver counties.

Advertisement

A map of North Dakota’s landslide areas shows that they are mostly in western North Dakota, but there are also unstable areas along rivers, including the Sheyenne River. A branch of the pipeline from Casselton will cross the Sheyenne River connecting to another branch from Green Plains Renewable Energy ethanol plant in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

Those branches will connect to the main trunk of the pipeline that runs through south-central North Dakota.

A landslide contributed to an oil pipeline spill in North Dakota in 2016 and shifting soil caused a carbon pipeline rupture in Mississippi in 2020, a case that many carbon pipeline opponents point to as an example of their safety hazards.

The North Dakota pipeline spill in Billings County caused crude oil to contaminate Ash Coulee Creek, according to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The federal investigation was finally closed in February, with a PHMSA letter to the Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. that the agency was satisfied with the corrective measures that were taken. Dustin Hubbard of PHMSA confirmed for the North Dakota Monitor that a landslide caused the leak.

Advertisement

In Satartia, Mississippi, a PHMSA report blamed heavy rain and a landslide for the rupture of a CO2 pipeline.

The PHMSA standard for injuries as a result of a pipeline leak is for a person to be hospitalized.

While there were no overnight hospitalizations, dozens of people were treated, according to a PHMSA report.

In a North Dakota Public Service Commission hearing on Summit’s permit application in 2023, Gerald Briggs, a first responder from Mississippi, reported finding three people unconscious with foam around their mouths after the carbon dioxide leak.

Pipeline advocates maintain that they are the safest way to transport liquids and gases.

Advertisement

The Liquid Energy Pipeline Association, citing PHMSA data, says that 99.999% of crude oil and petroleum products delivered by pipeline reach their destination safely. In addition, it says CO2 pipelines have a lower incident rate than pipelines for both crude oil and refined energy products.

Summit calls its Midwest Carbon Express pipeline project the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project. It recently grew to more than 50 ethanol plants in five states. There is one ethanol plant in North Dakota, Tharaldson Ethanol at Casselton.

Contributed / Summit Carbon Solutions

Advertisement

Summit made changes to its route as it tries again to obtain a pipeline route permit from the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

The PSC denied Summit’s permit application last year but is giving the Iowa-based company another chance to make its case.

A March 4 letter to the PSC from Bismarck attorney Lawrence Bender, who represents Summit, notified the commission of landowners that no longer have the Summit route through their property.”

The list includes the John H. Warford Jr. Revocable Trust in Burleigh County. John Warford, a former Bismarck mayor, had been outspoken about his opposition to the pipeline.

The same day that Bender submitted his letter to the PSC, Bismarck attorney Randy Bakke filed a letter with the PSC stating that the Bismarck intervenors, which included Warford, Chad Wachter and Chad Moldenhauer, were withdrawing from the Summit case.

Advertisement

Warford did not want to comment on the withdrawal from the proceedings. Bakke could not be reached for comment.

Brian Jorde is an attorney with Domina Law of Nebraska that represents landowners along the pipeline route in multiple states. He said he still has North Dakota clients opposed to the Summit route and expects to hear from others.

“When you’re heating up and there’s a scheduling order for the hearings, we tend to hear from people,” he said.

This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com

______________________________________________________

Advertisement

This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.





Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

North Dakota

Bankruptcies for North Dakota and western Minnesota published April 27, 2024

Published

on

Bankruptcies for North Dakota and western Minnesota published April 27, 2024


Filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court

North Dakota

Diana M. Sherwin, Bismarck, Chapter 7
Anna Renae Cogdill, Fort Rice, Chapter 7
Allen J. Johnson, Devils Lake, Chapter 12
Troy A. Bestul, Fargo, Chapter 13
Steven Mitchell Kartes, Crystal, Chapter 7
Mary De Los Angeles Delgado Randolph and Daniel Gregory Randolph, Williston, Chapter 7
Amanda Lee Levey, Bismarck, Chapter 7
Jessica Lee Gunville, also known as Jessica Lee Azure, Dunseith, Chapter 7
Leslie Michelle Vannatta, Minot, Chapter 7
Mindy L. Stratton, formerly known as Mindy Hearn, Fargo, Chapter 7
Benjamin Randall Blair, Grand Forks, Chapter 7
Lindsey Lynne Livingston, Fargo, Chapter 7
Michael Allen Wolf, West Fargo, Chapter 7
Stacy Ann Darrell, formerly known as Stacy Ann Lonon, Williston, Chapter 7
Pro-Mark Services, Fargo, Chapter 7

Minnesota

Advertisement

Bankruptcy filings from the following counties: Becker, Clay, Douglas, Grant, Hubbard, Mahnomen, Norman, Otter Tail, Polk, Traverse, Wadena and Wilkin.

Weymeth Floyd Long, also known as Wayne Long, and Polly Dee Henning, Chapter 7
Molly Therese Remer, Freeport, Chapter 7
Rebecca Thanel, doing business as The Coffee Hut, Fergus Falls, Chapter 7
Anna Rae Dosso, Georgetown, Chapter 7
Kathleen Diane Klaers, Ottertail, Chapter 7
Roger Lee and Stacie Helen Hahn, Fergus Falls, Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is a petition to liquidate assets and discharge debts.

Chapter 11 is a petition for protection from creditors and to reorganize.

Chapter 12 is a petition for family farmers to reorganize.

Advertisement

Chapter 13 is a petition for wage earners to readjust debts.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

North Dakota

North Dakota Health and Human Services awards six organizations with suicide prevention grants

Published

on

North Dakota Health and Human Services awards six organizations with suicide prevention grants


BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – North Dakota Health and Human Services announced the recipients for its suicide prevention funding initiative this past week.

HHS said it chose six organizations based on their ability to support individuals struggling with their mental health.

The groups are: Minot State University’s Center for Persons with Disabilities, Peer Vision for Mental Health, Haugen Performance Consulting, Eyes on the Horizon Consulting, Consensus Council and Cook Center for Human Connection.

“Prevention of suicide is possible. Early intervention is prevention, and we all have the same collective goal of reducing and eliminating suicide in the state of North Dakota,” said Melissa Markegard, suicide prevention administrator for HHS.

Advertisement

If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, call or text 9-8-8.

The line is open 24-7.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

North Dakota

South Dakota governor, a potential Trump running mate, writes in new book about killing her dog

Published

on

South Dakota governor, a potential Trump running mate, writes in new book about killing her dog


South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — is getting attention again. This time, it’s for a new book where she writes about killing an unruly dog, and a smelly goat, too.

The Guardian obtained a copy of Noem’s soon-to-be released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” In it, she tells the story of the ill-fated Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer she was training for pheasant hunting.

She writes, according to the Guardian, that the tale was included to show her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it has to be done. But backlash was swift against the Republican governor, who just a month ago drew attention and criticism for posting an infomercial-like video about cosmetic dental surgery she received out-of-state.

In her book, Noem writes that she took Cricket on a hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming down the wild puppy. Instead, Cricket chased the pheasants while “having the time of her life.”

Advertisement

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone – free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

On the way home from the hunting trip, Noem writes that she stopped to talk to a family. Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens, then bit the governor.

Noem apologized profusely, wrote the distraught family a check for the deceased chickens, and helped them dispose of the carcasses, she writes. Cricket “was the picture of joy” as all that unfolded.

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, deeming her “untrainable.”

“At that moment,” Noem writes, “I realized I had to put her down.” She led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.

Advertisement

That wasn’t all. Noem writes that her family also owned a “nasty and mean” male goat that smelled bad and liked to chase her kids. She decided to go ahead and kill the goat, too. She writes that the goat survived the first shot, so she went back to the truck, got another shell, then shot him again, killing him.

Soon thereafter, a school bus dropped off Noem’s children. Her daughter asked, “Hey, where’s Cricket?” Noem writes.

The excerpts drew immediate criticism on social media platforms, where many posted photos of their own pets. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign surfaced the story on social media alongside a photo of Noem with Trump.

The Lincoln Project, a conservative group that opposes Trump, posted a video that it called a “public service announcement,” showing badly behaved dogs and explaining that “shooting your dog in the face is not an option.”

“You down old dogs, hurt dogs, and sick dogs humanely, not by shooting them and tossing them in a gravel pit,” Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project wrote on X. “Unsporting and deliberately cruel … but she wrote this to prove the cruelty is the point.”

Advertisement

Noem took to social media to defend herself.

“We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” she said on X. “Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

She urged readers to preorder her book if they want “more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping.”

Republican strategist Alice Stewart said that while some Republican voters might appreciate the story “as a testament to her grit,” it ultimately creates a distraction for Noem.

“It’s never a good look when people think you’re mistreating animals,” Stewart said. “I have a dog I love like a child and I can’t imagine thinking about doing that, I can’t imagine doing that, and I can’t imagine writing about it in a book and telling all the world.”

Advertisement

It’s not the first time Noem has grabbed national attention.

In 2019, she stood behind the state’s anti-meth campaign even as it became the subject of some mockery for the tagline “Meth. We’re on it.” Noem said the campaign got people talking about the methamphetamine epidemic and helped lead some to treatment.

Last month, Noem posted a nearly five-minute video on X lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas for giving her a smile she said she can be proud of. “I love my new family at Smile Texas!” she wrote.

South Dakota law bans gifts of over $100 from lobbyists to public officials and their immediate family. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine. The state attorney general’s office has declined to answer questions about whether the gift ban applies to people who are not registered lobbyists.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending