Eastern Iowa is not
the right place for a hazardous CO2 pipelineThere’s no safe corridor in Eastern Iowa for the Wolf hazardous CO2 liquid pipeline project.
The majority of the 5000 miles of hazardous CO2 pipelines built in the United States are located in remote and very sparsely populated areas. Wolf’s only existing hazardous CO2 pipeline is in a population density area of 5 people per square mile (PPSM).
The proposed Wolf pipeline in Eastern Iowa includes southwest Cedar Rapids, Linn, Cedar, Clinton and Scott counties. The population density of Linn County is 321 PPSM, excluding Cedar Rapids 129 PPSM.
Wolf incredulously claims it can provide a safe corridor through densely populated areas with infallible construction methods and minimal setback requirements. PHMSA reported 54 CO2 hazardous liquid pipeline accidents since 2013. After the 2020 Satartia, Mississippi accident PHMSA determined their regulation data for CO2 pipelines was inadequate, starting a multi-year effort to develop accurate and safe data. Until PHMSA can provide data for location, safety and construction considerations Wolf’s dubious claims seem incentivized by lucrative financial gains. The Satartia accident’s CO2 plume dispersed over a 1-mile radius at life-threatening concentration levels. Therefore, if this project progresses without the new PHMSA guidelines it would be logical to require a minimum one-mile clearance on each side of the proposed pipeline. Eastern Iowa has too many homes, schools, businesses and people to support an infrastructure project that demands such a wide safety setback zone.
Simply, there is no room for a CO2 hazardous liquid pipeline to be built in the proposed Eastern Iowa corridor.
Michael Daly,
Lisbon
Letters to Editor Feb. 23
February 23, 2023