Navigator Heartland Greenway CO2 pipeline meeting has been postponed

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A public informational meeting by the second company proposing to build a carbon dioxide pipeline through Floyd County has been postponed because of recent severe weather.

The meeting, by Navigator CO2 Ventures, had been scheduled for noon today (Friday) at the Youth Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds. A new date for the meeting will be announced later.

“Due to severe weather throughout much of Iowa on Wednesday, … the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) will cancel three public informational meetings for the Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC proposed pipeline project. The meetings, in Franklin, Butler, and Floyd counties … will be rescheduled by the IUB at a later date,” the IUB announced in a news release.

Under Iowa Code, informational meetings are required to be held in each county in which real property or property rights would be affected by the proposed pipeline. All meetings must be concluded at least 30 days before the company can file a petition for a new pipeline permit.

“Navigator will provide notice of the rescheduled informational meetings to each landowner affected by the proposed route of the carbon capture pipeline,” the IUB said.

Information about the Navigator project and a schedule of all the informational meetings can be found on the homepage of the Iowa Utilities Board home website, iub.iowa.gov.

Navigator CO2 Ventures announced in October that is was ready to begin the process of seeking pipeline approval from the Iowa Utilities Board, which includes holding a public meeting in each of the 36 counties that the pipeline proposes to pass through.

The company hopes to receive approval from the five states included in the project — Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois, in addition to Iowa — in time to construct the pipeline and begin operations in early 2025.

It would capture carbon dioxide from ethanol plants including eight Valero plants, plus another dozen or so other ethanol and fertilizer plants, condense that CO2 to its liquid state and then transport it in underground pipelines to geological formations in central Illinois where it would be permanently stored a mile or more underground.

Navigator is the second company to propose a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system that will include Iowa and its many ethanol and other carbon-producing facilities.

Summit Carbon solutions held a public meeting in Floyd on Sept. 20 for a project that would involve Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. That project would store the carbon dioxide underground in North Dakota.

The Summit Carbon project, proposed by Summit Ag Investors of Ames, would cut across Floyd County from east to west, including going through Charles City.

The Navigator project would come into Floyd County from the south, through Butler County, and would end a few miles south of Floyd.