KELO: McPherson County says temporary no to CO2 pipelines

KELO by Rae Yost
Feb 1, 2022

“SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — For now, McPherson County does not want any pipeline carrying hazardous material to be built in the county.

Sid Feickert, a county commissioner, said the county’s planning and zoning board and county commission board in January both approved a moratorium on pipelines carrying hazardous material. While Feickert said that would include oil and other materials, the moratorium was passed as a developer plans to build a carbon dioxide pipeline in the county.

Summit Carbon Solutions of Iowa has proposed a CO2 pipeline of about 2,000 miles of which about 469 miles that will travel through South Dakota including McPherson County. A second developer, Navigator, will also have portion of its proposed CO2 pipeline in South Dakota.

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Iowa and southern Minnesota will also have miles of CO2 pipeline in their states.

“There is zero support locally that we can see,” Feickert said of the Summit proposed pipeline. The county established the moratorium after about 50 people in opposition turned up at a January county board meeting.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook (with opposition to the pipeline),” Feickert said. “It’s a really hot topic.”

The county board passed the moratorium as way to “slow up the pipeline,” Feickert said.

“I believe it’s the most dangerous pipeline out there,” Feickert said of a CO2 pipeline. He is worried that if it leaks it will cause significant harm to people and animals… Feickert said leaked CO2 can hang like a cloud in low-lying areas and it can be harmful, even lethal.

Critics often cite the CO2 leak in Sataria, Mississippi, in February of 2020. Yazoo County Emergency Management said at least 46 were checked at the hospital and 300 people were evacuated because of the leak. The pipe contained Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), according to Yazoo County Emergency Management…”