The proposed route for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline may run through Webster County’s county-owned farm ground as well as the ag park, according to Grant Terry, a representative from Summit Carbon Solutions.

Terry spoke with the Webster County Supervisors Tuesday morning in a special workshop to discuss the current path of the proposed pipeline, as multiple maps of the route have been provided to the county.

“The workshop was in response to a couple of conflicting maps that were submitted,” said Webster County Supervisor Niki Conrad. “As discussed, one was the initial path that we negotiated last year and another was a path proposed by a landowner. This workshop was to clarify the two with Summit directly and express our preference based on taxpayer dollars spent on land in the Iowa Crossroads of Global Innovation (ag park).”

Terry confirmed during the workshop that the proposed route was still being discussed with a landowner in the area and had not been finalized, which is why multiple maps had been drawn up.

According to Conrad, Tuesday’s workshop was only to gather information on the proposed route. No action was taken by the board at the workshop.

“The county continues to follow the progress of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline,” said Conrad. “Supervisor (Austin) Hayek has been following this for several years now and continues to be our point person.”

Summit Carbon Solutions is developing a large-scale carbon capture and storage project that would capture carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and transport the gas through a pipeline with those gases being permanently stored underground in North Dakota.

The project received conditional approvals in Iowa, but construction on the pipeline has not begun. The Iowa Utilities Commission issued a conditional construction permit for the project last year, but those conditions have not yet been met.