Landowners raise eminent-domain, water and safety concerns over Summit CO2 project; company outlines community commitments

Jan Norris, a Montgomery County resident, used the meeting's public-comment period to urge Page County supervisors to scrutinize Summit's carbon-capture pipeline project, saying the proposal "is still trying to obtain imminent domain to seize what landowners won't sign over" and raising concerns about water use, damage to farmland and proximity to homes.

Summit representative Kelsey Gibson told the board the company has expanded a community and landowner partnership program that includes open houses, emergency-response grants, annual stakeholder payments and new flexible easement and payment options. Gibson said project water would be used only for cooling in the compression process: "This is the water for our project is only used for the cooling process of compressing the c o 2, and putting it into this, dense space that it needs to be in to be transported in a pipeline." She also described a $50,000 emergency grant per county plus $1,000 per pipeline mile for local emergency-response equipment and training.

Why it matters: Norris warned supervisors that the company could seek eminent domain and use federal and local resources to build a privately operated pipeline, and she said landowners and local municipalities risk short-term payments that would not cover long-term liabilities. Summit's representative emphasized mitigation and community payments intended to address landowner concerns and said the company is pursuing permit amendments through the IUC to add routing and pipe-size options.

During discussion, Gibson described three new landowner payment structures: an immediate lump-sum schedule split into three payments (initial, on permit approval and at construction), an annual payment option and a payment option tied to owner distributions; she said landowners would receive a baseline payment and that landowner payments would begin at 25 cents per foot per year and could rise to 50 cents per foot if the project reached specified voluntary-acquisition thresholds. Gibson also told the board the company had nine unsigned parcels in Page County and that it would continue landowner outreach until construction.

Board members asked for verification that turbines and other project elements complied with earlier settlement terms and building permits; Gibson offered to provide documentation and said tribal engagement and agricultural impact mitigation plans would be followed and that county inspectors would have stop-work authority during construction.

The board took no formal action on the pipeline at the meeting.

Ending: Supervisors did not vote on Summit's latest update; company materials and follow-up documentation were promised to the board and to landowners.