Letter to the Editor: Water use is another problem with CO2 pipeline projects

By Kathy Carter, Rockford

After the proposal by Pattison Sand Co. (2019) to sell billions of gallons of Iowa water to water-poor western states, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources rejected the permit application because the company didn’t demonstrate “beneficial use,” as required by state law.

Following that, Mike Gannon of the Iowa Geological Survey stated that allowing exports would bring similar requests and would threaten an aquifer heavily used by Mason City, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, Des Moines metro, and other areas.

While he was referring to the Jordan Aquifer, these same threats apply to the other aquifers that serve various portions of the state of Iowa. He went on to state that the Jordan already has been lowered 100 to 150 feet in parts where it started with water that was 400 to 500 feet deep. Any depleted water will take 300,000 years to replace with water trickling down through rock layers.

As of today’s date, one or more portions of Iowa has been in a drought status for more than 180 straight weeks. Summit Carbon Solutions (the CO2 pipeline) has created at least 12 affiliated LLCs, attached to its partner ethanol plants, in order to submit applications to the Iowa DNR for massive amounts of Iowa water.

In May, the Iowa DNR, without even investigating the full situation, rubber-stamped a permit for Lawler SCS LLC for 55 million gallons of water per year. Currently, there is a permit application pending for Goldfield SCS LLC, for 27 million gallons of water per year.

The Lawler and Goldfield projects would draw water from the Devonian Aquifer – which also serves Charles City, Floyd, Rockford, Clear Lake, Northwood, Forest City, Belmond and many other areas of north central Iowa.

If all the LLCs are awarded permits, it would equal 500 million gallons of Iowa water per year.

The Iowa DNR must deny the Goldfield water permit, withdraw the Lawler permit, and deny future applications by Summit LLC affiliates. The Iowa Utilities Board must be cognizant of the ramifications to the entire Iowa population, including communities, livestock, and businesses, should the pipeline permit be granted, because surely that will be followed by more requests for our water.

Our land, our tax dollars, our water – what will Summit try to take from us next?