Leah Douglas

(Reuters) – Iowa landowners have been slow in ceding their property rights to a proposed 1,219-mile carbon dioxide pipeline. This would run through the U.S. Midwest.

Summit Carbon Solutions said last month it had negotiated easements with hundreds of landowners along the pipeline route, marking a major advance for what it hopes will become the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

However, Iowa is the state in which the most section of the proposed line will be located. According to Reuters analysis of a database by the Office of the Iowa County Recorder that was maintained and analyzed, the company only reported 40 land easements covering 1.9% of the route’s 703 miles.

The discrepancy raises questions about Summit’s progress in securing a route for the $4.5 billion project, dubbed the Midwest Carbon Express, which would transport carbon dioxide siphoned from ethanol processing facilities in five Midwestern states to North Dakota for underground storage.

According to the company, the project will help biofuel producers decarbonize and create new jobs. However, many landowners are concerned that the project may also cause damage to their farmlands and adversely affect human health in case of a spillage. This is according to Reuters interviews as well as a review by state regulators of the public comments.

Summit may have to resort, in case Summit is unable to negotiate with landowners a way to get a road, to eminent Domain, controversial legal instrument that permits the government and its agents to seize land to the public good.

On Feb. 1, Summit issued a news release in which its CEO, Bruce Rastetter, said, “we’ve had early success signing hundreds of pipeline easements with farmers who have a vested interest in our success.”

Summit, however, had only 40 easements as of February 22nd, the date of most recent Iowa filings, which contained 68 tracts and covered 13.6 mile of the pipeline route according to data reviewed by Reuters.

Other states that are along the pipeline route, including Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and North Dakota, do not have statewide easement records.

Summit stated to Reuters, when asked to clarify the discrepancy among its public statements with the land records that it did not include the most recent Iowa easement total because of administrative delays.

According to the company, it had paid more than $17 million in landowner payments along the pipeline route. Negotiating the remaining route will likely take at least a year.

“Summit Carbon Solutions has already signed on several hundred parcels of land along the Iowa route, and many more across the five-state footprint of the project,” said Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Powell.

Summit does not have to file easement records legally, but the files protect Summit from any future renter or buyer of the land who claims they did not know about the easement. Wally Taylor is an environmental lawyer representing the Iowa Sierra Club chapter, which opposes the pipeline.

“You’d think they’d want to record these to prove what they’re saying,” he said.

Iowa approval of the project is especially important because it supplies a quarter the country’s corn ethanol (a fuel that can be blended with gasoline). The Summit pipeline promises to drive down ethanol’s carbon intensity and make it a more competitive climate-friendly fuel.

Don Tormey of the Iowa Utilities Board who handles the pipeline permitting said that approximately 868 people have made comments about the Summit project.

Tormey said the IUB does not track the number of supportive and opposing comments, but a Reuters review of the comments found that the overwhelming majority – 98.9% – are opposed to the pipeline.

Landowners worry that the pipeline could reduce the value of their land, cause damage to underground drainage systems, and pose a risk of leaking. They also object to Summit’s potential use of eminent domain.

“When you have a large number of landowners refusing to sign easements, that should send a loud message that this project is not wanted,” said one recent comment.

Summit said that the company will return the land to its original condition. It also plans to compensate the landowners for any reductions in crop yields during the first three year.