BROOKINGS — The proposed construction of a CO2 pipeline across South Dakota — including through Brookings County — will be the subject of an informational meeting that’s planned in January.

On Tuesday morning, Brookings County Commission Chairman Larry Jensen said the pipeline discussion is expected take place during the regular county commission meeting on Jan. 7, the same day two new commissioners — Doug Post of Volga and Dave Miller of Brookings — are sworn into office. They will replace departing commissioners Ryan Krogman and Mike Bartley.

Because of that, however, the pipeline discussion might be delayed to later in January so that Post and Miller have time to become acclimated to their new responsibilities, Commission Department Director Stacy Steffensen told the Brookings Register on Tuesday afternoon.

The overall issue has been simmering for months not only in Brookings County, but in other parts of South Dakota as well. It was given renewed urgency when Summit Carbon Solutions filed a new permit application on Nov. 19 with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission to build and operate its CO2 pipeline in the state.

Summit’s initial proposal last year was denied by the state PUC.

The five-state project, formally known as the Midwest Carbon Express Pipeline, would connect to 15 of South Dakota’s ethanol plants — including the Valero Renewables plant in Aurora — and transport their CO2 to North Dakota for below-ground injection in wells.

Included in Summit’s application were maps, and those showing Brookings County indicate the pipeline route would angle away from Valero in Aurora in a roughly southwestern direction. It would go beneath Interstate 29 between 216th and 217th streets and then pass north of Lake Campbell between 217th and 218th streets before turning south/southwest between 466th and 467th avenues — west of the lake — before crossing into Lake County at 220th Street.

The PUC plans public hearings in January. The nearest ones are:

• De Smet: 11:30 a.m. Jan. 16 at the De Smet Event Center Theater, 705 Wilder Lane
• Sioux Falls: 5 p.m. Jan. 15 at the HUB Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Technical College, 2001 N. Career Ave.
• Watertown: 6 p.m. Jan. 16 at Kampeska Hall in the Ramkota Hotel & Watertown Event Center, 1901 Ninth Ave. S.W.

In a sign of the uphill battle Summit could be facing, South Dakota voters on Nov. 5 rejected Referred Law 21, with 59% opposing the measure to 41% supporting it. RL 21, put on the ballot by state lawmakers, sought to establish pipeline-related rules, give a new source of income to counties via a surcharge and establish a “landowner bill of rights.”

That referendum was also unpopular in Brookings County, where 58% of the voters opposed RL 21, with 41% in support of it.

All in all, if the Summit project is ultimately approved, it will involve roughly a total of 2,500 miles, with approximately 698 of them being in South Dakota. The CO2 pipeline would affect numerous counties besides Brookings, including: Beadle, Brown, Clark, Codington, Davison, Edmunds, Grant, Hamlin, Hand, Hyde, Kingsbury, Lake, Lincoln, McCook, McPherson, Minnehaha, Miner, Sanborn, Spink, Sully, Turner and Union.

Summit has already received the OK for its project in North Dakota and Iowa, with a decision pending in Minnesota while Nebraska has no state-level rules for CO2 pipelines.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.