The Greene County supervisors’ recent discussions of Summit Carbon Solution’s proposed carbon dioxide pipelines across the county have centered on concerns of safety and the use of eminent domain to acquire land. They were reminded of another concern – water usage – at their March 3 meeting.
Roger Rowles, who lives just southwest of the Louis Dreyfus ethanol plant at Grand Junction, reminded the board during the open forum that well monitoring was set up before Louis Dreyfus went online in 2010. He said he has two wells affected by the ethanol plant and that Louis Dreyfus paid to remedy a situation caused by decreased water levels in one of them.
He asked the supervisors if they had given consideration to well monitoring going forward if either Phase 1 or Phase 2 of the CO2 pipelines are approved, as that would allow Dreyfus to increase ethanol production. Additionally, cooling the CO2 to liquify it for transport via pipelines requires a great amount of water.
Board chair pro tem Dawn Rudolph and supervisor Dan Benitz both said the board had discussed water usage, but not monitoring, and agreed that it’s a good idea.
“You really have to have some kind of monitoring going on prior to compare to where things are now to know how the wells are affected,” Rudolph said.
Rowles also mentioned an artesian well further southwest of the plant that had flowed for more than 100 years but went dry shortly after the Dreyfus plant started production.
County attorney Thomas Laehn said the question of well monitoring is a complicated issue, partly because there is no certain knowledge of how much water is in an aquifer to start with. Also, Summit Carbon claims it is not subject to county ordinances. The county could have a monitoring program, but Summit’s position is that they need a DNR permit and a permit from the state, and the county has no authority over them.
“The county could set up well monitoring to provide you with the data people need, but I think Summit is going to say that we can’t regulate it,” Laehn said. “It (water usage) is a legitimate concern.”
Rudolph and Gannon agreed the board should seek out guidance and then decide what to do with any information they get.
“If you look at the trainloads of ethanol going out, and that’s great for the county, but it’s kind of scary because it’s water-based. It’s coming from somewhere,” supervisor Dan Benitz said. “I’m glad we got it, but yet, it’s concerning. With the carbon pipeline on top, that really bothers me.”
As agenda items, the board approved a 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson for recycling services in the unincorporated areas of the county. Total cost to the county will be $53,440.38. County towns will enter into their own 28E agreements with the city of Jefferson for services.
The supervisors gave consent to adjusting the legal description of a parcel of property given to the county by the late Wallace Teagarden. The specific property is to be used as a wildlife refuge, but it’s landlocked. Attorney Laehn is working out a land swap with other Teagarden heirs to provide access to the property. The land swap must be approved by a judge. The consent allows for the first step in the process.
Heidi Kuhl of Northland Securities updated the supervisors on selling general obligation general fund loan notes for the courthouse HVAC process. The county will use ARPA funds on hand and will borrow about $2 million for the rest of the cost. The supervisors will hold an informational hearing April 7, followed by a hearing May 12 at which the board will approve selling bonds for up to $2 million.
The public can petition to have the bonding on a public ballot. The petition for an election would require 488 valid signatures and would need to be submitted to the county auditor’s office by May 8.
Kuhl also outlined the process of selling urban renewal capital loan notes totaling $11.5 million for secondary roads projects. The notes would be paid for through tax increment financing (TIF) funds. Kuhl said the county has an AA- rating and could look for interest rates of about 2.85 percent.
