The Webster County Board of Supervisors is going to vote today on whether to authorize the board chair to sign a letter on behalf of the board to send to the Iowa Utilities Board opposing the use of eminent domain for the carbon capture pipeline projects being considered in Iowa and Webster County.

The pipelines would carry millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide every year from ethanol plants to geological storage areas in Illinois and North Dakota.

The issue is on the supervisors’ agenda two weeks after a few local landowners shared their displeasure with the supervisors’ lack of action on opposing the proposed pipelines.

“As of today, 25 county boards of supervisors have sent objections to the Iowa Utilities Board and Webster County has not submitted objections or questions — why?” land owner Al Hayek said to the board April 12. “I would like to know what the Webster County Board of Supervisors plan to do to protect our land. Are you for or against the use of eminent domain for a CO2 pipeline?”

In 2021, Summit Carbon Solutions, of Ames, and Dallas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures, introduced plans for carbon capture pipelines that would cross the state of Iowa. Both proposed pipelines would cross through Webster County.

Local landowners have voiced their opposition to the proposed pipelines over the last several months, showing outrage at the possibility of the companies using eminent domain when landowners deny the companies easement rights to their property.

“I’m appalled at this board that no objection has been submitted,” Chris Hayek, wife of Al Hayek, said to the board on April 12. “Please rethink your stance.”

Jean Granger, another landowner, shared her concern that a carbon pipeline is going to affect land values and land resale.

“As these dominoes start to fall, it’s going to affect your county taxpayers,” she said.