No, you do not have to agree to any surveys of any kind if you do not want Summit on your property. Landowners like you successfully fought Summit on surveys in the SD Supreme Court in 2024 and these legal issues related to surveys are back in the courts now and may be resolved in late 2025 or 2026. There is a trial set for September 2025 in Brown County that will address whether Summit is a common carrier, whether CO2 is a “commodity” and whether Summit is truly a “for hire” entity – these complicated legal issues will determine is Summit is the kind of company that could exercise eminent domain in South Dakota, and in turn whether they can survey your land.

Join hundreds of other families like yours by becoming join up with the South Dakota Easement Team and become a part of the landowner legal coalition. Apply for party status/intervention with the PUC right away. Document all interactions with the Summit.

SDET helps you develop the best practices for dealing with pipeline company calls, letters, and visits and helps you understand their typical tricks and tactics.

A big benefit is the sharing of information from folks like you across the state and the region so everyone has a better idea of what the truth of the project is as opposed to what pipeline companies may lead you to believe. A common statement pipeline companies use early on is “all your neighbors have signed easements.” We have yet to hear of a case where this turned out to be true.

Once you obtain legal representation, pipeline companies should not contact you further unless you want to receive information from them. This can help reduce or eliminate the high-pressure phone calls. Collective legal representation before the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission and the Courts can make the process less intimidating and far less expensive than fighting alone or in a small group.

Our goal is to best protect your land and property rights by resisting these projects that seek to go on, under, and through your property and helping you develop the tools to navigate the challenges of these project.

SDET will keep landowners abreast regarding if, and when, it may eventually be necessary to negotiate with pipeline companies over easement terms. This would occur only if and after all other efforts at legal protections have failed.

If a pipeline is approved and an easement is unavoidable, SDET will work to negotiate the best uniform terms for all SDET landowners using expertise from decades of easement negotiations so that landowners can have the best protections possible.

Any easement is a legal right usually reduced to writing in an Easement Agreement that spells out how the pipeline company will use your land for their profit while you continue to pay taxes and insurance.

It spells out what the pipeline company can do and therefore what you can’t do and establishes restrictions on your land.

The proposed easements are “perpetual” which means forever. The pipeline company proposes to pay you one time and you can never go back and obtain more easement compensation in the future.

The pipeline company can sell or assign their easement on your property to any person, company, or country in the world at anytime and you can’t do anything to stop that.

No, you do not have to sign an easement. Summit cannot force an easement on you unless they file a condemnation lawsuit against you and win that lawsuit. As of December 2024, the PUC evidentiary hearings are nearly a year away — so there is no need to feel pressured or rushed to make any decision about an easement.

However, if and when you want to learn more, SDET can help explain all your rights and the dangers of Summit’s “boilerplate” easement language. 

For now though, you can join over 1,500 other landowners across the Midwest that are unwilling to sign over their land.

You will be placed on our landowner email list and receive frequent updates about the pipeline projects, invitations to expert ZOOM training session, monthly calls where your questions can be answered, and you can share stories with others around the state and region.

There are also rallies, town halls, and events we organize in which you can participate.

Information is provided about current state agency proceedings and how to become involved in those hearings, as well as what you can do to effectively voice your opinions.

You will receive updates on legal actions related to the pipeline projects and learn how that affects you and we also discuss best practices and strategies around pipeline resistance, including how to get involved locally and what your county and township boards can do to help protect you.

You will receive periodic email updates on the latest news and as well as urgent updates.

Once you sign up to become a S.D.E.T. member, you do NOT have to speak with them in person or by phone, nor invite them into your home. You should ask for the representative’s name and position with CO2 Pipelines, ask them for identification if in person, and politely state that you do not wish to speak to them.

You should advise them to call your lawyer, Brian Jorde, and provide his information to them. You do NOT have to give them ANY other information.

Condemnation is the name of a legal proceeding that occurs when an entity (usually a governmental entity) who has the power of eminent domain uses that power to condemn or take all or a portion of another’s property for the condemner’s use and purpose.

Condemnation is a process by which the landowner whose property is being taken can present evidence in Court to jurors from the county were the land is located who will determine the value, or the monetary compensation, that the taker must pay the landowner.

Often before Condemnation litigation starts, there is a period of negotiation with the taker, here potentially a Carbon Pipeline company, and you can negotiate the terms or fine print of the contract, called an Easement, and you can negotiate price or the financial compensation that will be paid.

If negotiations fail, condemnation often starts where you can go all the way to trial and/or continue to negotiate along the way if you think it is likely you can reach an agreement.

First, Summit has not been vested with eminent domain powers in South Dakota at this time. A voluntary easement is not necessarily the most profitable option. The eminent domain process allows a jury of your peers from your county to decide the fair compensation amount for your damages should you have to live with this hazardous pipeline forever, which may be more that Summit is offering.

Summit thought they would already have pipeline in the ground by now, but organized resistance has prevented that. This is the second attempt by Summit to obtain a PUC Permit and that decision will likely occur on or before November 19, 2025. Any potential legal challenges following the decision could take years. But first, Summit has asked the PUC to disregard any and every county ordinance that Summit doesn’t like and thinks is unreasonably restrictive. We need to fight to protect local control just like the state overwhelmingly did by voting to REJECT RL 21 – known as Summit’s Law.

S.D.E.T. (South Dakota Easement Team) was organized for landowners in March 2022 for the purpose of providing education and support to South Dakotans who confront demands by pipeline companies, or others, for easements, other rights, or interests in title to their land through the threat of condemnation.

S.D.E.T has an agreement with Bold Education Fund to operate as S.D.E.T’s fiscal sponsor as a nonprofit corporation under § 501C(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and this allows donations to S.D.E.T. to be tax-deductible.

You can reach out to info@sdeasement.org with any questions or give Chase a call at 605-277-3730.

S.D.E.T. will have the most impact for landowners and tenants who own or farm land the pipeline will cross and we urge you to become a S.D.E.T. Supporter and tell your neighbors to as well. As a tenant you also have property rights and interests in the land you rent - these rights are compensable if and when affected.

If you have signed an agreement to let a pipeline company on your land to survey you can still join S.D.E.T.

If you have voluntarily signed an Easement already S.D.E.T. may be able to assist you in rescinding that easement or getting more money for it. Call or email today to learn more about this.

If you are someone who thinks "I will never voluntarily sign anything with a pipeline company" - we respect your opinion and option to exercise your Constitutional rights and force them to take you to Court and want you to know you can still join and become a Supporter of S.D.E.T. and benefit from our efforts! To learn more about Condemnation options Contact Us.

If you believe in what S.D.E.T. stands for and want to support S.D.E.T. but don’t have any land affected you can still join and support our efforts.