Whether you are for or against Summit Carbon Solution’s (SCS) proposed carbon capture pipeline, that is your prerogative. I am not sharing this to stir up controversy, but after what happened to my parents and my family, I felt it my civic duty to be more informed.

I simply want to help spread awareness because there are two sides to every story. Waiting to take action until you’ve heard from both sides and have drawn your own conclusions will ensure we make decisions that are best for families, our land, and our community.

I’ve personally attended multiple Summit Carbon Solutions meetings, landowner meetings, Lamberton community meetings, and listened to Chamber of Commerce and Public Utilities hearings trying to understand all angles.

My biggest takeaways from sitting at the table with Summit (SCS): The 45Q tax credit (the tax program that makes this a profitable business venture for SCS) expires in 12 years, pipeline infrastructure lasts roughly 20-25 years, and these easements are for eternity.

Why does SCS need an easement that outlasts the project?

SCS can sell your easement to whomever, whenever they choose. The route can change within that parcel to where they see fit.

This pipeline is not for the common good. It won’t bring heat, water, or electricity to your home. This hazardous CO2 pipeline must be pressured at three times the rate of a natural gas pipeline (1,200-2,800 psi).

Our local EMS teams are not equipped to manage a rupture in a highly pressurized pipeline. Your combustion engines won’t work in a plume of CO2 that displaces oxygen at ground level.

Our local communities lie less than a mile from the proposed pipeline route. There has been no plume modeling or information released about the potential risks around an unintended CO2 release or rupture. Remember, if this were to rupture, it is an asphyxiant that will rapidly disperse along routes that are too close to our homes, school, daycares, businesses, and nursing home.

SCS has failed to prove that it would not negatively impact residents, wildlife, water, and the environment.

Where are the pumping stations located?

How much noise pollution will this project create?

There is more info needed on the safety shut offs, their location and their distance between each. Where is SCS going to get all of the water they need to make this project work?

We were told by SCS that they would need to match the amount of water an ethanol plant would use but were still unsure of the amount. They may use their own wells for their project if they cannot obtain water elsewhere, but we all share the same underground aquifer. Soil compaction will affect your crop yield long after the three years landowners are compensated for it by SCS. The pipeline would transport CO2 at 88-90 degrees, generating extra heat and adversely affecting surrounding soil and crop yields.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission denied Summit’s siting permit application. NDPSC felt that SCS had not taken the proper steps to address outstanding legitimate impacts and concerns expressed by landowners and demonstrated why a reroute is not feasible.

Did you know there is no active permit application filed for a sequestration site or a permit for a route?

This is currently a “pipeline to nowhere”. According to an IEEFA report, trapped CO2 will need monitoring for centuries to ensure it does not leak into the atmosphere — raising the risk of liability being transferred to the public, years after private interests have extracted their profits from the enterprise.

Take a look at how Summit is treating our Iowa neighbors, having no regard for their grievances and invoking eminent domain. The parent company of SCS is Summit Farms, and they have bid up and purchased several parcels of land in our area which will eventually be subsidized by the government.

They are bidding against local farmers who would like to grow their family operations and secure their future. I don’t know about you, but Summit is not my friend nor are they “for the farmer.” They won’t be here caring for local residents when a rupture happens or our local water sources are contaminated with CO2.

I wonder how long it will take to fix our tile when it is damaged?

Restoring soil health and productivity will be a long term struggle both we and our future generations will have to bear. Living daily life with the potential health and safety hazards of a pipeline in my backyard is a risk my family is not willing to take.

Bottom line, please do your due diligence and take the time to learn about both sides of this project. Talk to your neighbors, seek out information from sources other than Summit, and consider the short term gains versus long term consequences around this. Protect your family and your land.

There is absolutely no hurry to sign anything. Nothing is wrong with waiting. You have no obligation to speak to SCS. Rash decisions can lead to lifetime regret.

I recently spoke with Kerri Zimmermann whose family signed an easement last year. Kerri stated, “I feel victimized and taken advantage of by Summit.” She stated, “I had just undergone a procedure due to cancer during that time and was under duress.”

Kerri’s testimony, my family’s bad experience with SCS, and the countless others who have been pressured by Summit to sign an easement are the reasons I am voicing my concern so others are not taken advantage of.

— Anita Vogel is a resident of Redwood County