Landowners prepared for more pipeline struggles, hope for new ordinances

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – On Friday, the North Dakota Public Service Commission unanimously approved a route permit for Summit Carbon Solutions and its CO2 pipeline project.

The pipeline would run through five states, including 18 counties in South Dakota, to transport sequestered carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to an underground storage location west of Bismark, North Dakota.

South Dakota is now one of the last things standing in the way of the project.

Landowners opposing the project like Ed Fischbach are still optimistic that they can prevent the pipeline, but they believe more action is needed to protect South Dakotans.

Fischbach said it wasn’t a surprise that North Dakota approved the permit.

“North Dakota’s laws are unfortunately not as good as ours are,” Fischbach explained. “Their law basically is what we just defeated in the referral. They have that in place up there similar to what RL 21 was.”

Opponents said that Referred Law 21, which South Dakota voters shot down, would have allowed Summit Carbon Solutions to supersede local and county laws and ordinances.

Some landowners pointed out that some counties have been slow to incorporate their own regulatory ordinances, like Turner or McCook Counties.

“I just can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to do that. They have the authority. They have the power,” Fischbach said.

Northern South Dakota Counties like Brown, McPherson and Spink counties have all set a standard for what these ordinances might look like.

Fischbach is proud of the work that was done to provide setbacks to route any potential pipeline project further away from homes schools, hospitals, feedlots and more.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission deemed these ordinances fair and reasonable. Although this reasoning was used by the PUC as part of the reason for denying Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application, landowners believe more counties need to create these ordinances to better protect residents and their property rights.

“Any county that’s not doing that, I think they’re just not representing their people like they should be,” said Fischbach. “For the citizens of those counties, they just need to go to their county commission meeting and keep speaking out and asking them to step up and do it.”

As for Summit Carbon Solutions, they celebrated their win in North Dakota and now look forward to reapplying for a permit in South Dakota.

They stated that their application would be submitted on November 19, which is now just a few days away.

They remain hopeful that they can get the project to the finish line and provide economic benefits to the region.

In a press release, they said, “Summit Carbon Solutions remains committed to working collaboratively with affected landowners and communities as the project progresses toward construction and operations.”

The landowners opposing the pipeline have said that they have had a total of six big victories over Summit Carbon Solutions thus far, including the previous rejections from the South Dakota PUC and the South Dakota Supreme Court.

They believe that the South Dakota PUC will rule in their favor again.

“This has been a three-and-a-half-year struggle from the very beginning,” Fischbach said. “No one ever gave us a chance up against this giant of a company with millions of dollars and we’ve still defeated them just by doing things on the ground and going out directly to people. The frustrating part of this whole fight is that this company doesn’t seem to get the message. I mean, how many times does it take for them to understand that the people of South Dakota are saying no? Our grassroots coalition is energized, we’re not going anywhere and we’re going to stay in the fight until they are gone once and for all.”

Outside of county ordinances and showing up in opposition of Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application, South Dakotans who oppose the pipeline project are hoping that legislation to change eminent domain laws in South Dakota will be passed in the upcoming session.

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