(Radio Iowa) – It’s a farmer versus farmer debate over proposed rules for developers planning to build three carbon pipelines through Iowa. Under a bill that’s cleared a House subcommittee, landowners along 90 percent of a pipeline’s route would have to grant voluntary access before developers could get state officials’ permission to seize the rest of the land. Kevin Kuhle, a lobbyist for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says the organization backs the bill. “We believe that infrastructure projects and property rights can coexist,” Kuhle says. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association opposes the bill, arguing it would kill the pipeline projects intended to make ethanol carbon neutral. Devon Mogler represents Green Plains, which operates ethanol plants in Shenandoah and Superior.

“Our downstream customers that we reduce carbon intensity and now there are federal incentives in place that can not only benefit us, but farmers as well.” Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison is the bill’s lead sponsor. “I have no problem with the pipeline. I do have a problem with the blunt force of government being used to seize other people’s land for this project,” Holt says. “That is my concern. That is the reason we wrote this legislation.” Jake Ketzner, a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions, says it would be devastating for Iowa if the pipelines don’t get built.

“In Iowa, over 60% of the corn produced in our state goes to ethanol production,” Ketzner said. “Can you imagine and rural Iowa or our state in general with reduced ethanol plants and 60% of the demand for corn gone?” A large group of landowners who oppose the pipelines rallied on the Iowa Capitol steps this (Tuesday) morning.  “We cover every corner of this state and we’re here to say it’s time that our elected officials work for us and stop these carbon pipelines,” she said. That’s Kim Junker. She and her husband farm near New Hartford and they’re unwilling to voluntarily let the Navigator pipeline pass through their property.

Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, has proposed five different bills that would limit carbon pipeline development. He spoke to rally goers. “Even though my bills are stalled on the Senate side right now, the House bill would not have happened if not for you guys lighting a flame under we legislators here at the Capitol,” Taylor said, to cheers. “I know that’s true.” Three companies have proposed pipelines through the Midwest to capture carbon from ethanol plants and store the material underground in North Dakota.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors held their regular weekly meeting this (Tuesday) morning, in Atlantic. The Board approved a Class B retail alcohol license for the Griswold Dollar General Store, and they approved an adjustment to the status of Secondary Roads Department employee James Stokely, from “Probationary,” to regular full-time employee, for the Operator 1 position. Stokley’s promotion is effective March 1, 2023.

In other business, the Board received a regular weekly report from County Engineer Trent Wolken. He mentioned like most of the other County Department Heads, he’s been busy working on his budget, and he has interviews scheduled this for an Equipment Operator 1 position. Wolken said also, there are problem spots crews are trying to hit with spot road rock until they can a better layer down.

He said also he’s working with Mid-American Energy to close out the Wind Mill repower project, which he calls “A process,” including a couple of other meetings, with regard to road & bridge damage.

HCA’s John Thomas addresses the Cass County BOS

The Supervisors also heard from Hungry Canyons Alliance representative John Thomas, whose office is in the Golden Hills R C & D building, in Oakland. The Alliance represents 19 counties in southwest Iowa. Thomas said Cass and other alliance members pay a fee of $5,000 per year. He discussed efforts to control stream bed degradation.

He says on the downstream side of the bridges, HCA cost-shares on building those projects known as “weirs.

They also build culverts and other structures to control erosion and bank degradation. EWP (Emergency Watershed Protection) and HCA combined to complete 67 projects in 2020 and 2021, he said. The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program, a federal emergency recovery program, helps local communities recover after a natural disaster strikes.

In Cass County, there were three recent projects, including one each along Turkey Creek and the West Nodaway River.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Utilities Board has issued a schedule for the permit application process for Summit Carbon Solutions proposed carbon dioxide pipeline. The I-U-B order says it will hold a technical conference on March 15th at 10 a-m to discuss logistics for the hearing and to help those who want to file opposition or support of the pipeline can proceed.

The conference will discuss the schedule and provide information about how the I-U-B envisions the hearing will be conducted. Specific dates for the hearing will be determined at the technical conference. Summit is proposing approximately 687 miles of pipeline in Iowa.

For more information on the technical conference, go to iub.iowa.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – From driving tractors to school to educating elementary students on the importance of feeding the world, F-F-A Week is underway nationwide. There are 18-thousand-606 Iowans involved in this program — including Hunter Hayes of Webster City who likes the interaction. “Big opportunity to get involved with the community, and high school, get your name out there be able to help out with a lot of different organizations. F-F-A does help out with food drives and different stuff like that and it does actually help make a difference within the community,” Haye says. Haye says F-F-A has helped him broaden his abilities.

“You become a really close group of friends you spend a lot of time together you do some traveling you learn practical skills for the real world going out talking to people for some donations lining up different events you really learn a lot of skills that help you out moving forward with your life,” he says. Hayes says the group used to be called Future Farmers of America, but became F-F-A to make everyone feel welcome to the group.

“And that is to really broaden that spectrum. F-F-A doesn’t look to just say this is only for farmers and farmers’ children, we really want this to be a community organization and bring everyone in to be a part of it,” Hayes says. F-F-A is 95 years old. Find out more information or find a chapter in your area at: www.ffa.org.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Pork Producers Association is hosting four regional conferences across Iowa this week. Dal Grooms, the organization’s spokeswoman, says the meetings will be focused on providing useful information for hog farmers. “In the morning, we’re going to have Pork Quality Assurance Plus training for people who need to get their certification in that,” Grooms says, “and that’s really a training that helps people understand how to take better care of pigs.” Grooms says the afternoon sessions will include a host of local and regional experts who will be discussing a range of issues.

“We’re going to talk about African Swine Fever and what’s going on in Europe with that and what kind of lessons can be learned,” Grooms says. “We’re also going to talk about economic issues for the livestock industry, for the swine industry, and probably talk a little bit about corn and soybean prices.” One session will zero in on how hot weather can quickly cause critical problems for pork producers during the Iowa summer.

“We’re going to talk about some research that’s been done at Iowa State in terms of heat stress as it relates to barn ventilation,” she says, “and then finally, we’re going to talk about the value of manure. Iowa State’s done a lot of research there as well and can help people determine what is that value that they put on their crop fields.”

The meetings will be held in Orange City today (Monday), Webster City on Tuesday, Nashua on Wednesday and in Washington on Thursday. Learn more at: iowapork.org.

(Radio Iowa)- The Iowa D-N-R will start a series of series of town hall-style meetings Monday where local staff provide updates on the recently completed hunting seasons and possible changes to hunting rules and regulations.
Wildlife Biologist, Todd Gosselink, they hope for some good interaction.

Gosselink says there are often questions that come up and this is a chance to provide some answers.

Gosselink says he hasn’t heard of any major concerns with the most recent hunting seasons.

The first meetings are Monday at the DeWitt Community Library at 7 p-m and at the Waverly Public Library at 6 p-m.
Here is the schedule for the rest of the meetings:

• February 21st: Bloomfield, 6 p-m, Wapello County Conservation Board Pioneer Ridge Nature Center; Creston, Southern Prairie YMCA 6 p-m; Des Moines Izaak Walton League, 6:45 p-m; Lakeview Speaker Park Shelter House; Perry Forest Park Museum Building, 7 p-m; Otter Creek Lake & Park Nature Center in Toledao at 7 p-m.
• February 22nd: in Algona,6:30 p-m. at the Waters Edge Nature Center; Okoboji, 6 p-m, Maser Monarch Lodge; Onawa,6 p-m, Lewis and Clark State Park visitor center, Ventura, 7 p-m, Iowa DNR Wildlife Office; February 23rd, Chariton, 6:30 p-m, Chariton Community Center; Council Bluffs, 6:30 p-m, Council Bluffs Fish and Game Club, Decorah, 7 p-m, Franklin W. Olin Building, Room 102, Luther College; Dubuque, 7 p-m, EB Lyons Nature Center at Mines of Spain; Iowa City, 7 p-m, Johnson County ISU Extension Office; Wapello, 6 p-m, Langwood Education Center.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says she’ll have a conversation with House Republicans who’ve proposed regulatory changes for the proposed pipelines for capturing carbon from ethanol plants.  “I’m sure there’s areas where we could tweak and make it better,” Reynolds says, “but we just need to make sure that we’re having an open and honest conversation about what the consequences could be moving forward.”

Twenty-two House Republicans, including the House speaker, have introduced a bill with nine different proposals that would impact when, where or even if the pipelines are built. The bill’s lead sponsor says he’s standing up for landowners along the proposed pipeline routes. Reynolds says a current state law spells out how pipeline companies could be granted eminent domain authority to seize property from landowners who don’t sign voluntary easements for the pipeline. “When eminent domain has to be used, it should be used as a last resort. We should make sure that they’re fairly compensated,” Reynolds says.

And Reynolds says, as governor, she needs to make sure the state supports adding value to Iowa agricultural products, like corn that’s turned into ethanol. “When 55% of our farmers’ corn goes to ethanol and renewable fuels, I need to make sure that’s part of the conversation that we’re having,” Reynolds says.

Reynolds, who spoke briefly with reporters at the statehouse late Thursday, indicated her comments shouldn’t be interpreted as favoring or opposing the House G-O-P bill on pipelines. “I have to be very careful because if I weigh in on anything that’s not a bill of mine, then that kind of gives you all a pass to ask my opinion on everything that gets filed in this building and we’re coming up on our first funnel (deadline) and we’ll see a lot of those well intentioned ideas that won’t make it through the funnel, so I have to not engage too much in the process because that’s what it’s for — unless it’s a bill that I’ve filed and then I definitely will engage,” Reynolds says, “so we’ll watch and see what happens and we’ll have a good conversation about that.”

Friday, March 3rd is the date of the so-called funnel deadline Reynolds mentioned. Bills that deal with taxes or spending are eligible for consideration at any time. But policy bills — like the pipeline bill — have to be approved by a House or Senate committee or they’re no longer eligible for debate.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is reporting a stellar first quarter of the fiscal year. Deere and Company reports net income for the first quarter of one-point-nine billion dollars, that’s up just over a billion from the first quarter a year ago. Quad Cities-based Deere also reports worldwide revenues rose 32 percent, while net sales hit 11-point-4 billion, compared to 8-point-5 billion the year before.

In a news release, Deere chairman and CEO John May said the company’s “performance is a reflection of favorable market fundamentals and healthy demand for equipment as well as solid execution on the part of employees, dealers and suppliers.”

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers at Iowa State University are studying beavers and the dams they build to determine what impact they may be having on the state’s fragile system of watersheds. The study’s name is the question they hope to answer — “Beavers: Superheroes for Water Quality?” Billy Beck, an I-S-U professor of natural resource ecology and management, says it’s still early in the three-year study, but they’re already starting to see some fascinating results. “We’re not really saying that they’re good or they’re bad at this point,” Beck says. “We just want to get some numbers on what exactly they’re doing for water quality and water quantity. For water quality, we’re looking at do they trap sediments and other nutrients behind the dam, which, nutrients can be problematic in excess, like phosphorus and nitrate.”

Beck, who’s also an I-S-U Extension and Outreach forestry specialist, says beavers were hunted to near-extinction in Iowa more than a century ago but have since rebounded. Some farmers and landowners may be annoyed by the nocturnal rodents because of the flooding caused by their dams. “Flooding is often thought of as a bad thing, but when rivers flood, a lot of good things happen for water quality and water quantity,” Beck says. “There’s a lot of nutrient deposition on our floodplains that goes into long-term storage. It’s a huge sponge that soaks up that flood velocity, preventing excessive downstream flooding.”

ISU Prof. Billy Beck (right) and grad student Andrew Rupiper at a beaver dam study site. (IA Learning Farms photo)

Beavers rarely just build one dam, it’s usually a whole string of dams, so Beck says they’re carefully testing the water in multiple areas. “We’re taking water quality samples from above, we’re checking water quality at a series of places throughout the dam chain, and then finally at the end of the chain,” Beck says. “We’re sampling those for nitrogen or nitrate, phosphorus, sediments, and then things like dissolved oxygen and temperature, things like that.” Early findings indicate that nitrate levels are being reduced by beaver dam chains at the rate of one-to-two parts per million. “Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you factor in all the water that runs through there and multiply that by the concentration, that’s a lot of pounds of nitrates that are being removed in that dam system,” Beck says. “Then, comparing that to an equal length of non-dammed stream, that’s a big reduction in that short of a time.”

The study, supported by the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, is looking at beaver dams in north-central Iowa, including along Prairie Creek near Fort Dodge and along Caton Branch, near Woodward. Beck says there’s been much more study in the Pacific Northwest of beavers and their impacts, especially on fish populations, but little is known about them in the agricultural landscape of Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – The speaker of the Iowa House and 21 of his G-O-P colleagues have introduced a bill that could delay or possibly even derail proposed carbon pipeline projects in Iowa. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, is a lead sponsor. “I am standing up for landowners that were there first,” Holt says. If the bill becomes law, pipeline developers would have to get voluntary access to 90 percent of the pipeline route through Iowa before state utility regulators could grant the companies eminent domain authority to seize the rest.

The bill also says the Iowa Utilities Board could not issue permits until new safety guidelines for carbon pipelines are issued by the federal government AND developers secure permits from the neighboring states that the pipelines would pass through. “All of these things, again, are designed to provide some protections for our property owners that are going through this situation,” Holt says. “Some of them do not want the pipeline to come through their property.”

Legislators began discussing new pipeline specific rules last year, but took no action. Pipeline backers have said it’s unfair to change regulations after project development is well underway. Holt says it’s not the concept of capturing carbon from ethanol plants that’s the issue, it’s the use of eminent domain to seize private property for these projects that’s the concern. “Let’s talk about the landowners. Let’s talk about the Century Farms that have been there for over 100 years. Let’s talk about these property owners that don’t want this pipeline under their farms,” Hotl says. “What about them? What about the rug being pulled out from under them?”

A Republican senator has introduced five different bills to address pipeline issues, but it’s unclear what the G-O-P majority in the Senate would support. The House bill has the backing of the top Republican in the House as well as the chairmen of House committees that deal with taxation and legal issues. Holt, who chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says the bill would set up a process for landowners to file complaints with the Iowa Utilities Board about inadequate land restoration along the pipeline route.

“The bill expands damages that can be compensated for…This includes soil compaction, damage to soil or water conservation structures and damage to irrigation or drainage systems,” Holt says. “The bill further expands the claims a landowner can bring to include any identifiable loss due to pipeline activity and then finally it allows that a landowner may file a claim of relief in either small claims or district court.” Holt says the pipelines are major issue in his district, which includes Shelby County.

The Shelby County Board of Supervisors has established local zoning rules for the pipelines — and is being sued by Summit Carbon Solutions. “It’s a huge issue for landowners that believe as I do that the use of eminent domain should be for highways, it should be for essential government services and infrastructure that meets the public good,” Holt says, “and this is a very different project that does not meet those requirements.” Holt made his comments late this (Thursday) morning during an online news conference.

A spokesman for Summit Carbon Solutions says the company announced its carbon capture project two years ago and is hopeful that legislators will not change the regulatory rules in the middle of the game.