Iowa DNR erred in giving pipeline company permit to draw from aquifer, says Sierra Club - Des Moines Register

Iowa DNR erred giving water permit to pipeline, alleges Sierra Club

Iowa DNR erred in giving pipeline company permit to draw from aquifer, says Sierra Club
Donnelle Eller

The state’s environmental agency erred in giving pipeline developer Summit Carbon Solutions permission to withdraw nearly 56 million gallons of water annually from an aquifer as part of its carbon capture process, the Sierra Club's Iowa Chapter alleges.

The environmental group said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources should revoke the permit granted Summit to withdraw water from the Devonian Limestone aquifer in northeast Iowa after failing to adequately require the company to justify the amount needed or support why its use of the water should be considered a public benefit.

Action is needed, the Sierra Club said, because Summit has a second permit request to pull nearly 28 million gallons from an aquifer in northwest Iowa pending with the agency.

Neither the Iowa DNR nor Summit immediately responded Thursday to requests for comment. In assessing the permit, the agency said in a May summary that the request met state requirements.

Summit proposes to capture carbon dioxide from 13 Iowa ethanol plants, liquefy it under pressure, then transport it via a pipeline to be sequestered deep underground in North Dakota. Summit told the Register in an email earlier this month it needs a "quantity of fresh water" to cool the CO2, which heats up when it’s compressed.

Summit proposes building the $5.5 billion carbon capture pipeline in South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota, as well as Iowa and North Dakota.

In May, the Iowa DNR approved letting Summit pull 55.9 million gallons annually from a new well near Homeland Energy Solution, located between Lawler and New Hampton in eastern Iowa.

In a summary of the permit request, the Iowa DNR said it anticipated the withdrawal would create “no substantial impacts on water availability in the aquifer” and that based on previous pump tests “there appears to be sufficient water” for Homeland Energy and the city of New Hampton’s municipal use. Lawler, the agency said, withdraws water from the Devonian Cedar Valley Limestone aquifer.

More: Other states are rejecting carbon capture pipelines. Will Iowa follow their lead?

A private well about 5,100 feet from the new well, however, could experience “some minor degree of interference,” the agency said.

The Iowa Utilities Board is considering Summit's pipeline permit request in a hearing that is on hiatus until Nov. 6.

Summit Carbon Solutions also seeking second water withdrawal permit

Summit also has requested to withdraw 27.6 million gallons from a new well at Corn LP in Goldfield, tapping into the Mississippian aquifer. A public hearing is expected later this month on the request.

Landowners and counties across the state have objected to the pipeline plan on a variety of grounds, including safety concerns, worried about damage to agricultural land and the Summit's proposed use of eminent domain to obtain easements.

The Sierra Club said public records it obtained through a request showed the Iowa DNR “failed to grasp the significance of the Lawler application” until becoming aware of opposition to the company’s proposed water use in South Dakota.

Rep. Chuck Isenhart, a Dubuque Democrat, emailed the agency a South Dakota Searchlight story about opposition to Summit's request to withdraw 21 million gallons a year from the Dakota aquifer. Isenhart questioned if Iowa had received water permit requests and how the agency would handle them.

In the internal agency email exchange the Sierra Club obtained, a DNR geologist said he didn't believe the state had received a request and questioned whether Summit’s permit constituted a new use, similar to a request from Pattison Sand, which sought to tap Iowa's Jordan aquifer in 2020 to ship water to drought-stricken areas in the West. The DNR denied the application, saying it didn't meet "the legal standard that Iowa’s public water ‘be put to beneficial use.’”

A senior environmental engineer said the state had issued a permit, but had received no public comments. "It is not a lot of water given the Devonian historical productivity," the engineer said.

More: Water wars ahead? As climate change intensifies, drought areas could look to raid Iowa's supplies

“I guess there’s a lot I don’t know about this technology,” the geologist replied, questioning if Summit would discharge the water into a stream or if it would become steam. “The need for 21 million gallons of water per year to pipe the CO2 is also something I’m not quite grokking.”

The senior engineer responded that most of the water likely would become steam, but added, "none of numbers have been field-tested."

Sierra Club scientist: DNR approval recommendation 'unfathomable to me'

The Sierra Club said Summit’s request should go through a review similar to Pattison Sand's. The group pointed to the DNR permit summary that said “a beneficial use seem(s) evident.” Despite the uncertainty, the summary said the permit met the state requirements that it not waste Iowa water resources, not impair pollution control efforts or be detrimental to the public's interest, among other standards.

“It’s unfathomable to me that after the internal DNR discussion in mid-August about their 'whoops, did we do that' fiasco in granting the Lawler permit in May, they went ahead in the first week of September and recommended approval of the Goldfield permit without addressing any of their mistakes,” Steve Veysey, a retired Iowa State University chemist and Sierra Club member, said in a statement.

Summit and other companies have said the carbon capture pipelines are critical to helping ethanol remain marketable as the nation seeks to reduce the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Iowa is the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, which absorbs half the state's also U.S.-leading corn crop.

An economic study that Summit commissioned says the project over the five states will create about 11,430 jobs each year during construction, with $2.1 billion paid to workers, contractors and suppliers. Landowners are expected to receive $309 million for right-of-way access, the report says.

The Sierra Club said Summit has created 13 limited liability companies in Iowa — one for each ethanol plant partnering in the pipeline — that will be used to apply for environmental permits tied to the project.

Iowans can comment on the Goldfield permit request by emailing michael.anderson@dnr.iowa.gov by Oct. 24, and RSVP to participate in the public hearing, slated for 7 p.m. Oct. 24, by emailing kelli.book@dnr.iowa.gov.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.