Summit Carbon Solutions outlines landowner payments, $50,000 county emergency grant in Franklin County presentation

Kaylee Gibson, a Summit Carbon Solutions representative, told the Franklin County Board of Supervisors the company’s new management is emphasizing outreach and changes to payments to landowners and counties as it advances pipeline planning.

Gibson said Summit will offer an emergency-response and preparedness grant of $50,000 per county plus $1,000 per mile as construction approaches, and described renewed public-awareness efforts that include open houses and a website to share project information. “For each county, once we get closer to construction, we will be giving out an emergency response grant, and that is $50,000 per county plus a thousand dollars per mile,” she said.

The company also outlined new landowner-easement options. Gibson described a “lump-sum” approach that is paid in three installments (initial payment, a payment when permits are amended/approved, and a payment at construction start). She said an annual payment option would allow a landowner to split compensation over multiple years and that Summit is adding a payment option linked to distributions to the company’s current owners. "For the lump sum, it will be split up into 3 payments," she said.

Gibson described a baseline, project-wide annual payment for landowners of $0.25 per foot, which she said could rise toward $0.50 per foot per year if the company achieves very high voluntary acquisition rates statewide. She said the county-level baseline starts lower: about $0.125 per foot per county per year, with scaling tied to county-level participation. "Every landowner will get that 25¢ per foot per year baseline payment on top of that easement payment," Gibson said. She added that payments to counties are calculated based on county-level acquisition instead of statewide metrics.

Board members pressed Summit on tax and revenue estimates. A supervisor said the county assessor’s projections did not match Summit’s figures and expressed skepticism about whether projected tax receipts would materialize; Gibson recommended meeting with Summit’s tax analyst to review conservative estimates and cited examples from other counties to indicate outcomes can vary.

Gibson also summarized construction commitments including use of prequalified contractors, a preference for union and local labor where possible, compliance with Iowa’s agricultural impact-mitigation plans, tribal engagement as applicable, and water-efficiency measures for cooling-tower systems.

The presentation concluded with an invitation for further county-level meetings and an offer to return with updated numeric details; Gibson said Summit expects to provide final numbers to the county next week.