Tallgrass CO2 Pipeline Construction Moving Forward In Mills County

Construction work is progressing on a CO2 (carbon dioxide) capture and transport pipeline that will pass through portions of northwest Mills County.

Tallgrass, a Nebraska-based energy infrastructure company, is building the approximately 5-mile pipeline to carry CO2 from the Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE) ethanol production plant on the south side of Council Bluffs to the Trailblazer Pipeline in Nebraska. Once in Nebraska, the CO2 will flow through the pipeline to a sequestration hub in Wyoming for permanent underground storage.

The pipeline will begin in Pottawattamie County, but most of the route will run south and west through an agricultural and industrial area of Mills County before reaching the Missouri River.  At the river, it will connect to an underwater stretch of pipeline to carry the CO2 into Nebraska.

Preliminary pipeline work was taking place last week near the Allis Road – Bunge Ave. (Highway 370) intersection in Mills County. Jack Sayers, a member of the Mills County Board Of Supervisors, said pipeline construction work in Iowa began in the spring at the SIRE plant and is expected to be completed up to the Missouri River by late summer or early fall.

“The pipeline will be done (in Mills County) this year,” he said.

Mills County was required by state law to hire an inspector to ensure the project’s agricultural mitigation plan is being followed. Snyder and Associates is responsible for reviewing all agricultural and land restoration facets of the project before, during and after the pipeline is constructed. Snyder and Associates is not responsible for inspecting the actual pipeline construction. The firm has three inspectors assigned to the project in Mills and Pottawattamie County.

According to a weekly update letter from Snyder and Associates, construction in Iowa is taking place 10 hours a day, six days per week. Construction was not impacted by the storms that produced heavy rainfall in June. As of the first week of July, 12,529 linear feet of topsoil had been stripped and stockpiled in Mills County.

Although Mills County was required to hire the inspection firm, Tallgrass will be required to reimburse the county for the expenses.