Wolf Carbon Solutions presents Carbon Capture Pipeline to Scott County

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - Wolf Carbon Solutions is proposing a plan which would take carbon dioxide from ethanol plants like the ones in Cedar Rapids and Clinton and remove it before it can damage the environment.

Carbon pipelines have caused controversy among developers and land owners. After this afternoon’s informational meeting at the Adler Theatre, many questions still surrounded the proposal even after a question and answer session with developers.

So what exactly is a carbon capture pipeline? As the name states, it’s a pipeline that captures and carries carbon away from it’s original source.

Why would we want that? Well carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere causing Earth’s temperatures to rise and significantly impacting climate change.

The proposed plan would liquify CO2, send it through the pipeline, and inject it into sandstone well below the Earth’s surface effectively eliminating it form our atmosphere.

This pipeline, if approved would run through roughly 36 miles of Scott County.

Several audience members at the informational meeting had several questions ranging from eminent domain to contingencies if the pipes fail.

“I am comforted by the knowledge that you have never show up eminent domain,” Ken Croken asked during the meeting. “I’m pleased that you don’t intend to start with this project. But is Wolf carbon solutions prepared to commit to taking eminent domain off the table?”

“The reason we’re hesitant to make that commitment is that there’s certain areas like for instance, crossing the rivers, where we have to go to a specific point to cross the river,” David Schmunk, the President of Wolf Solutions said. “And if those landowners on either side of that river, say, No, we’re not coming across, pretty much. That’s our whole project in jeopardy.”

“How does it make sense to run the pipeline so close to the Wapsi River and I would assume under the Mississippi river?”, another audience member asked.

“At that point, its about 3000 feet across the Mississippi. we will drill down, we will do a directional boar,” Patrick Bierley, the VP of Engineering said. “It will go under the river and we will not be in the water and we will be below the water line in the deepest part of that channel. in kind of a u shape horizontal directional boar under the river with block valves on each end. that technical design will be thoroughly reviewed by our core of engineers and we’ve already started that process.”

We currently are at the land-owner outreach section of the proposed schedule and if the project is approved it would run from Cedar Rapids, through the Quad Cities, and end in Decatur, Illinois.

There will be one final meeting, held virtually, on Sept. 16 at 6 p.m.

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