Navigator decision spells trouble for other company planning pipeline through South Dakota

Unlike counterpart, Summit Carbon Solutions touts majority of landowner support along route

What once might merely have seemed like a box to check now looks like a mountain to climb for a carbon sequestration company planning a pipeline through 18 South Dakota counties.

The state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted unanimously on Wednesday to block the Navigator Heartland Greenway project, preventing the construction of the pipeline through five eastern South Dakota counties and forcing them to adhere to any county ordinances should they ever get a permit.

And though that’s an entirely different project than the multi-billion-dollar project Summit Carbon Solutions is also planning, the monumental decision could spell trouble for the Iowa-based company that will go before the PUC next week.

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That’s, in part, because Summit’s pipeline — slated to run through even more of South Dakota than Navigator’s — has been dogged by the same criticisms from opposing landowners clamoring about eminent domain reform and carbon pipeline hazards since the projects were first announced more than a year ago. That its planned route runs afoul of some county ordinances where its slated to go could also doom its pending permit application.