Your Right, My Responsibility.
Representative John R. Sjaarda
I am a father and farmer; raise hogs, cattle, corn, soybeans; am a State Representative and a volunteer fireman.
My operation was impacted when the carbon dioxide pipeline route crossed through two different farms I rent, threatening my business.
However, I take my responsibility to do the right thing for, “the people”, very seriously and have an obligation to do the right thing for everyone.
As an elected official, I understand the importance of economic development to the future vitality of our communities.
As a corn and livestock producer, I know ethanol is important to our ag economy. I use ethanol to fuel my vehicles, distillers grains in my rations and sell corn to ethanol plants.
As a volunteer fireman, I worry about responding to an emergency that I cannot get to or am improperly equipped or trained to handle.
As an American, I am concerned about rights. Under the Constitution, we have to have the right to do what we want with our property. If we are concerned about safety – that concern takes care of itself – if we do not allow dangerous things on our property.
So, above all else, as a public servant, I must uphold our Constitution, that I swore under oath, on the Bible, to protect and that is what’s best for, “the people.”
Without property rights, we don’t have freedom.
My Dad. Our Legacy.
My “Flying Farmer” dad just turned 104, my son graduates college this spring, gets married this summer and my daughter is a 100% country girl.
My dad grew-up in the great depression and worked hard to buy his first quarter of land in 1950. Our family has been working this land together for three generations. It’s what we do.
My dad’s first concern of the day is still the land – the weather and the crops.
My greatest concern each day is the threat of private companies condemning our land through eminent domain and the dangerous carbon dioxide pipelines they aim to build just a few hundred feet from where my children live and plan to raise their children.
Fighting for property rights and protecting my family from this hazardous pipeline has consumed my life. My children now call me, “Pipeline” but I just can’t let this go. It’s too important – property rights are too important. The laws are too loose, compressed carbon dioxide is too dangerous, the company pushing it is too reckless, and local control is too important. My dad has now added the “pipeline report” to our morning conversations and follows intently.
There are many, many families like ours and like yours with similar stories.
We need to stand up and together for what’s right and protect this land our parents worked so hard for… this way of life …and the legacy for our children and their future.
My Ranch. My Right.
Orrin Geide
“No eminent domain for private gain,” is about as simple as it can be.
As a rancher, land and livestock are my livelihood. I raise buffalo and beef.
Preserving the land and protecting the health and safety of my livestock is my way of life.
As landowners, we’ve worked with public utilities for years to cross our property, safely and respectfully. These utilities are essential to live and work here at the ranch.
Hazardous carbon dioxide pipelines do not contain anything that I need or use. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission confirmed, this is not just another pipeline.
When it comes to private companies that want to stronghold taking our land through condemnation, lawsuits and use of local law enforcement for their investors’ profits, we should have the right to say, “No!”
My Worry. My Worth.
Walter Theis
Sleepless nights have become the norm for me in my Milwaukee home since the threat of eminent domain for a dangerous carbon dioxide pipeline has impacted my grain farm in South Dakota, an important source of income and beloved and valuable asset to our family.
I am a farm crop-grower owner, with land near Valley Springs, that has been in my family for more than 70 years. My grandfather settled there from Germany in the early 1900’s and I have memories of <reference picture
As I lay awake many a night – a worst case scenario plays out and reels through my mind. A scenario of a rupture that could zipper, opening the pipe for miles; a large plume releasing asphyxiating carbon dioxide gas settling into the rolling hills and creek bed, contaminating the water suffocating wildlife, humans and causing permanent debilitating damage or even death to a community of 900 residents.
As I force myself to sleep… I awake again… what about the drain tile?
Our families have worked for generations to preserve land while living off of its harvest. I just can’t get past the “cloud” this would cast over our family’s homestead forever – the easement is forever, you know.
There are many paths to economic development, like increased ethanol demand and sustainable solutions for the environment. The real cost and high risks of this project outweigh any benefit to South Dakotans.
My Role. Local Rights.
Jason Vandentop
As a farmer who has crossed the half a century finish line, I’ve done a lot of reflection. I recall how I begged my dad to put me in a tractor when I was nine years old… how farming is a wonderful life, stressful, more times than not, but my dream come true.
We’ve weathered storms, recessions and droughts to preserve this way of life… never thinking the biggest safety threat would be a hazardous carbon dioxide pipeline. Nor did we imagine abuse of eminent domain to take our land against our will for a private company’s profits.
The first pipeline route affected the land I rent; and the new routes the land I own. I just can’t understand how a private company can “roll” into a state… intimidate unsuspecting citizens with eminent domain and when there’s pushback; they sit back while government insiders use back door politics and public propaganda campaigns to pave the way for corporate agendas.
Now, the very officials who should be supporting the citizens that elected them, are expected to support bills that strip our property rights and local control.
Our township, where I serve as chairman, was the first in the state to adopt an ordinance to protect our people, when our county struggled to get one in place. We cannot lose local control. Local citizens need to have a say, It is a right that deserves fighting for in order to preserve.
Property rights are one of the most important things we have as Americans. We cannot afford to lose these rights… because what is next? I can’t even imagine.
My Future. My Fear.
Turner Thompson
People say I’m an old soul, I guess. I worry about the weather, the crops, the future. I’m a junior at Groton Area High School. I am not a farmer – yet – but I will grow up to become a farmer one day.
My family’s worries have multiplied since the carbon dioxide pipeline project has affected our community, neighbors and friends. We are also concerned about how it may play out for me.
I’ll admit, I didn’t care, or know much about this until my mom and I started talking about it. It started to sink in just how much this can affect my future. I wouldn’t want to own, farm or live near ground with a toxic carbon dioxide pipeline.
When the pipeline is in the ground, it is nothing but a sitting hazard for any human, equipment, or animal that moves over it, or lives near it.
Most people don’t realize that carbon dioxide isn’t dangerous until it’s pressurized or that this hazardous pipeline is being buried on people’s land against their will by abuse of eminent domain with lasting effects far into the future and much broader than one landowner.
I have spoken up – from putting posters in people’s doors – to testifying in Pierre. I do not agree with the current eminent domain laws that allow companies onto people’s land with guns and a contract saying that they MUST sign it.
I have no idea how the future will play out with this pipeline by the time I am a farmer with a family. I do know I never want my wife, or kids injured or killed because the pipeline burst. It is something I would fear every day.
No Choice. No Way.
Lois Campbell
Some of my greatest memories are when we walked the beans, picked up rocks, and planted and harvested the crops with my parents, my children and now my grandchildren.
For 35 years I farmed with my husband and four children on the same 160 acres that were my grandfathers, and then my mothers before me. As a farm family, it was part of the right of passage; a way of life in agriculture.
Now, a private company wants to put a big pipe carrying poisonous gas underground without giving us a choice, not even say of where it goes. There is no way I would feel comfortable letting my grandchildren walk there again – not with a carbon dioxide pipeline a few feet underfoot.
I wonder, even if the pipe is safe now… who would be there to fix a problem? Will it fall on my neighbors? Or will we be forced to rely upon the same people who gave us no choice to say no in the first place? Will they even care?
I can’t understand the full impact and consequences of the carbon dioxide pipeline, which is constantly in the paper and on TV.
Is it really farmers that are saying if I’m not willing to sacrifice my land, “ag and ethanol will die and I will hurt every South Dakotan?” This is absurd. Are these farmers you know?
It disappoints me that in rural South Dakota communities, greed has crept into our farming community that used to value life, the land, the livestock and, “thy neighbors.”
At the end of the day, won’t we soon have electric cars anyway?
My Home. My Horizon.
Linda Dansman-Nichols
My father and I both live on our fifth generation farm near Hartford. My mom passed away when I was young; so I’ve been working with my dad to protect and preserve our “piece of heaven,” for the next generation.
Today, my horizon doesn’t look the same as I remember as a kid nor envisioned for the future.
For nearly a decade, we have been racking up legal fees and spending countless hours at meetings and hearings, fighting to keep our property from corporations who aim to take it for a passageway for their products without respect to this being our family’s home for half a century.
It began in 2015, when we were contacted by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), with plans to install a 30″ oil pipeline on our property. Our land was not for sale. Not satisfied with the placement, we would not agree to the easement, given the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had not yet ruled on the application.
As a result, DAPL filed a condemnation suit against us, using eminent domain to force us into signing their easement. After hiring a lawyer, we were informed that there would be an above ground shut-off valve on our property. Although we did end up settling before going to court, the pipeline and shut off valve location ruins our future plans and beautiful country horizon .
Fast forward to 2021, we received a letter from Summit Carbon Solutions regarding a carbon dioxide pipeline. Again, our land is not for sale. After researching we were NOT interested in a large hazardous carbon dioxide pipeline on our property – proposed between the oil pipeline and my home – just 143 feet from my home!
We joined a landowner group, hired legal counsel and denied the survey letter – again were sued.
Fortunately, to this point, the PUC did their job and denied the application based on multiple points including safety, prompting a brief sigh of relief – but more worry as to what’s next.
South Dakota’s current eminent domain laws give all the leverage to corporations and leave the property owner powerless, with the only “say” settling on cost.
Today, as I look across the horizon, an oil pipeline shut-off valve in a chain link fence with barbed wire around the top, is the eye-sore that sits in the prime spot for our next generation’s home.
Not here. Not about Ethanol.
Brad and Luann Severson
Have you ever been sued without warning? Summit Carbon Solutions sued us to take our land through eminent domain for their carbon dioxide pipeline. Yes, a private company sued us to take our land for their private profits. They want to put a two-foot diameter pipe carrying compressed toxic gas to bury it in North Dakota and collect government tax credits – something that’s not been done before at this size or scale.
We don’t want to be part of this experiment, yet we have been forced to hire a lawyer for more than a year in order to fight to keep a hazardous carbon dioxide pipeline from crossing our land.
South Dakotans should be alarmed and prepared. We have a loophole in our current eminent domain laws big enough for investors from another continent to jump through. This is the first; but if we let them, there will be more, and more. Maybe not this time, but next time the impact will be broader and broader.
It is the right as property owners to say “no” if we do not wish this project or any other project on our land. If we sign away our property, we will lose our rights forever.
Eminent domain is used to force us to let them on our land. We would no longer have the choice to build on our land because no one wants to live next to a pipeline which will leak sooner or later and could be fatal when it does.
I grow corn and am pro-ethanol. However, I do not believe this is about ethanol. This is a money grab by out of state investors trying to collect tax payer’s money. Regardless, I have no issues if they can get easements to build their pipeline without using eminent domain. We simply do not want it on our land.
Our Farm. Our Fear.
Arny Erickson & Kay Burkhart
More than 140 years ago, my great grandfather bought his first piece of land, which my family built upon. This land has provided both a home and “made us a living” for generations.
Today, my wife, Kay and I farm alongside our son and grandson making five generations that have lived on this land, cared for this land and made many memories on this land.
Being a retired veterinarian, Kay knows the potential fatal affects of concentrated carbon dioxide used to euthanize animals. The high concentrations of carbon dioxide proposed through first-of-a-kind pipelines, would also be toxic, even deadly, to people as well.
Our greatest fear is not just for ourselves, but for our three young grandchildren living within 1,250 feet of the proposed pipeline route.
The constant angst of when and where a leak could happen torments us. Will they know? How will they know since there is no odor? Can they get to safety, especially if they were walking down the road to Grandpa’s house?
The very first letter we received from the pipeline company threatened the use of eminent domain – a premonition that they think we’re living in a communist country!
I have served our country as have many generations of our family, including Kay’s Dad, our uncles, niece and nephew – fighting for our freedoms – essentially, property rights.
What has happened? Why is our state not protecting us from these large corporations threatening our safety and taking our land? What happened to the Golden Rule – “treat others as you would want to be treated”?
My Risk. But not my Land.
Rick & Kim Ahlers
A “first-of-its-kind” hazardous carbon dioxide pipeline is proposed to go in 1,300 feet from our front door. We do not own the land; nor do we have any input or say, although the safety risk for our family is just as great or even greater than our neighbors who own the land.
We have little information, no say, and no idea what we can do about it. As a retired couple, this has caused a lot of stress for us and triggers a flood of questions and worries.
How can this happen?
How will this toxic pipeline be monitored? What would the response be in the case of an event? How quick would the response be? How big is the impact zone in a leak or rupture? What would we do? Will anyone care?
We have gone to many meetings and didn’t get answers to any of these questions. Our biggest concern is for the safety of my family and animals in the event of a leak or explosion that could, in a worst case, result in deaths.
It scares the heck out of us that there has been a huge amount of advertising dollars spent scaring the public on the consequences of, “killing” a pipeline (that does not yet exist) to the economy, ethanol and agriculture.
Yet, almost nothing has been provided to educate or inform those directly impacted about the safety consequences of an untested pipeline, an uncontrolled company and an unknown toxic substance – compressed carbon dioxide through a 30” pipe.
We understand every pipe will leak or rupture at some point. What does this mean? Landowners, local officials, and the public have the right to know about compressed carbon dioxide pipelines and their operation before one is in our backyards.
How did this happen?
The current eminent domain laws in South Dakota should be very concerning to everyone. This could happen to anyone and currently there isn’t anything you could do to stop it.
People need to understand the potential dangers of a carbon dioxide pipeline and the exploitation of current eminent domain laws that rely on good behavior by large corporations – this is not safe nor good behavior.
This should not happen in South Dakota.