More than 100 families impacted by Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed hazardous CO2 pipeline have filed a lawsuit with the District Court in Polk County, Iowa challenging the Iowa Utilities Commission’s ruling granting Summit a permit and eminent domain powers to seize landowners’ property against their wishes for the project.
The Iowa landowners are represented by attorney Brian Jorde with Omaha-based Domina Law Group, and are affiliated with the Iowa Easement Team landowners’ legal co-op, a group of landowners who are pooling resources to fight eminent domain threats against their property for the proposed pipeline in the courts and at state agencies like the Iowa Utilities Commission, which has the power to grant eminent domain authority.
“Because the IUC committed numerous substantive and procedural errors in reaching its final decision and grant of permit, and because those errors prejudiced the substantial rights of Petitioners, the Court must “reverse, modify, or grant other appropriate relief” from the IUC’s Decision,” the landowners’ lawsuit states.
“For over three years Iowa landowners have been tormented by threats of eminent domain and lived under the weight of arcane laws allowing wealthy investors to invade family farms and land against their will. This week we set course on a path that will hopefully bring sanity back to a process,” said attorney Brian Jorde of Omaha-based Domina Law Group, who is representing landowners with the Iowa Easement Team in the new lawsuit. “Landowners are appealing the Iowa Utilities Commission decision approving Summit’s hazardous pipeline route. We are asking the court to determine that this proposed pipeline is neither publicly convenient nor necessary, that Summit is not a common carrier, and that eminent domain is not appropriate for this type of a project.”
“Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline is unjustified and unwarranted. They may look at our farm and just see land, but to us it is so much more,” said Susie McDonald, whose family farm in Montgomery County is impacted by Summit’s proposed pipeline. “This land has been entrusted to us and we have been good stewards, doing everything to care for it. Our land is our way of life, but more importantly, our legacy to pass down free and clear. Summit wants to make our legacy a deadly pipeline. They want to threaten our livelihood, burden us with liability, and put our future at risk. Our legacy will never be free and clear again unless we stop this dangerous project. We trust that an impartial court will recognize Summit’s abuse of eminent domain for a project that serves no public good or necessity.”
“I am very excited for the appeal. Even as an affected neighbor, I was denied the opportunity to testify in front of the IUC. This is now my opportunity to have my voice heard and protect my family’s land. An opportunity that I’ve been waiting for the last three years,” said Meghan Sloma, a landowner in Sioux County directly adjacent to the proposed pipeline route, who was denied the opportunity to intervene against the project during the Iowa Utilities Commission’s permit consideration hearings.
