CO2 Concentration Dangers
Dear Iowa Utilities Board,
I, fire chief, Dan Harvey along with our entire Gruver, Iowa fire district completely objectto all hazardous carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines proposed to be constructed within the State of Iowa.
Below are two quotes from Satartia, Mississippi after the Denbury Hazardous CO2 pipeline break on February 22, 2020 “It was almost like something you’d see in a zombie movie — they were just walking in circles,” sheriff’s officer Terry Gann told HuffPost, while survivor Hugh Martin said the “only thing I been through worse than this was the gas chamber when I was in the Army training for Desert Storm, and that was cyanide gas.”
Bad as that may sound, though, the situation could have been significantly worse, as they actually “got lucky,” as Yazoo County Emergency Management Agency director Jack Willingham explained. “If the wind blew the other way, if it’d been later when people were sleeping, we would have had deaths.”
I have been fire chief for the community of Gruver, Iowa since 1991, and by far, if an incident with the CO2 pipeline were to occur; it would be the largest devastating event that we will need to deal with, if approved. The Gruver Fire district will have the majority of the Navigator Heartland Greenway (Navigator) pipeline in Emmet County.
Navigator has hosted a first responder initial training event in Emmet County which included attendees from surrounding jurisdictions. Summit Carbon Solutions (Summit) has attended numerous county supervisor meetings and have made a few comments based on the safety and impact of the CO2 pipeline. Below are the points of focus that first responders have raised question to and will need to know in order to perform our duties safely.
1. Navigator hosted an initial first responder training on January 31, 2023 for several area jurisdictions. When questions were asked to the Navigator engineer onsite of how much liquid is in our 8” 20-mile shutoff valve, he didn’t have an answer. He also didn’t know the oxygen needed for an engine to be able to run in. The audience grew to question the integrity of the Navigator project, based on them not being able to answer basic, math driven questions.
2. Navigator, in the same meeting, had a retired assistant fire chief from Oklahoma to explain the CO2 plume and what we first responders could expect. Navigator’s plume outlines lay closely inline with what we have been addressing to our county constituents. If there is a breach from the pipeline, we as fire fighters/first responders, will need to don self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) at a minimum of 1,100 foot diameter based on Navigator’s 8” pipeline with 20 miles between valves. We were told that night at Navigator’s training, that we would need to decide if we would risk any responder’s life to get occupants out of that situation, if they are withing the hot zone of the breach.
3. Navigator, during the same meeting, gave a brief overview without description of high concentrated areas (HCA) which are expected to have valves placed 6-7 miles apart and low concentrated areas (LCA) which are expected to have valves placed 20 miles apart. The first responders asked for clarification on what are the criteria for the region to be classified as HCA and LCA. HCA of people is to be anything 50,000 of population or higher than the valves will be put closer together. There are only three regions along the Navigator pipeline path that meet the HCA criteria, the remainder of their line will have valves placed 20 miles apart on average.
4. I have witnessed two meetings that Summit has been present at telling their aspect on safety. Summit’s statement at Wright County’s meeting, “Our plume study only shows 100’ that’s critical, out to 300’ is border line health problems and after 300’ nothing to be aware of.” This statement based on mathematical oxygen depletion studies along with being highly contradictory of Navigator findings based on the same pipeline and material being transferred deems this as false. Same Summit people at a Kossuth County supervisor meeting asked the same question on wanting to see Summits plume study and quote “we cannot give that out due to security reasons.”
In conclusion, based on the meetings I have attended for both Navigator and Summit along with the first responder training session held by Navigator; there are numerous holes in their processes and safety for their hazardous carbon dioxide pipeline projects. It is becoming apparent that Navigator and Summit want to move this project forward faster than safety protocols and guidelines can be created and emphasized. It should be the standard of the IUB to withhold any decisions until the guidelines on hazardous CO2 setbacks are determined in the fall of 2024 by PHSMA. If these pipelines are installed without proper setbacks and construction mandates the risk to human life is inevitable.