Lincoln County moving forward with carbon pipeline regulations

Ordinances expected to be released at next commission meeting

Lincoln County officials are preparing ordinances to present to the Lincoln County Commission that regulate carbon pipelines in the county, following the recommendations of a committee that studied the issue.

“We will have draft ordinances by next week,” Drew DeGroot, the chief civil deputy state’s attorney, told the commission Tuesday.

The Carbon Dioxide Transport and Storage Advisory Committee adopted recommendations last month for the commission to consider. Lincoln County is one of 18 counties in South Dakota that Summit Carbon Solutions hopes to plot a carbon sequestration pipeline through. The purpose of the pipeline is to capture carbon emissions from ethanol plants in the region, making ethanol a greener source of energy.  

Among the recommendations approved were setbacks of 330 feet from a property line and two miles from a municipality. A proposal to require setbacks of 1,855 feet of any pipeline larger than six inches was rejected by the committee.

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