Navigator pipeline shutdown rumors do not reflect current project status in SD, company says

Navigator CO2 Ventures is not yet officially pulling the plug on the South Dakota branch of its multi-billion dollar pipeline project, the company confirmed to the Argus Leader.

On Thursday, Iowan landowners received correspondence from former Navigator land agents — a person who negotiates in land sales and easement agreements — who wrote the Nebraska-based carbon capture company intends to shut down their project for good.

Tessa Kostas, one Navigator land agent, was the source of at least one of the messages. According to text messages obtained by The Des Moines Register, Kostas texted Iowa landowner Amy Solsma and a neighbor, saying she was canceling her meetings with the families because the "project is getting shut down permanently."

However, these comments were not official communications from the company, Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Navigator's vice president of government and public affairs, told the Argus Leader.

Kostas and a number of land agents pursuing easement agreements in South Dakota and northwest Iowa had been released from Navigator following the denial of the company's permit application to build their Heartland Greenway System by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission last week.

Kostas was not a Navigator representative at the time the texts were sent out.

Merritt added the former employees' statements "do not reflect the current status of the project" or the company's plans in the Mount Rushmore State.

"I don't think they're done. I don't think they've dropped the ethanol plants, and I don't know if the ethanol plants would let them off that easy after how much they've gone through the dirt for this project," Dakota Rural Action Lobbyist Chase Jensen told the Argus Leader.

More: Navigator says it's 'pausing' efforts to buy land easements 'in some parts of Iowa'

In a statement to Argus Leader Friday, Burns-Thompson said the company is "temporarily suspending" its easement acquisition work in South Dakota and portions of Iowa.

As a result, a number of land agents by Navigator have been let go by the company. Remaining employees, Burns-Thompson said, will be reassigned to other states "to continue assisting local landowners throughout the project's progression."

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied Navigator's permit application for their Heartland Greenway System last week after 12 days of hearings.

However, the commission has yet to issue a formal, written order to deny the application on Navigator's docket. PUC Deputy Executive Director Leah Mohr told the Argus Leader the order is expected to be made by Sept. 26.

"We will not pursue additional right-of-way in South Dakota until we have a better understanding of the potential project footprint, which will largely be guided by the details of the final order from the PUC," the company said in a statement Friday. "The remaining contracted land teams have been reassigned to other state footprints to continue assisting local landowners throughout the project's progression.

Navigator is currently "reevaluating" its permit process in South Dakota, according to the Thursday statement. Navigator has not publicly said whether it intends to reapply for its now-denied permit, but state law allows for the company to pursue this route.

Navigator's pipeline system was slated to cross 111.9 miles of eastern South Dakota farmland in Brookings, Lincoln, Minnehaha, Moody and Turner counties.

Overall, the project promised to bring more than 1,300 miles of pipeline to Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, for the purposes of sequestering the greenhouse gas and the financial windfalls that would come from transportation fees associated with the project.

The proposed system was planned to connect to five ethanol plants under POET, one of the largest biorefiners in the U.S., as well as a Valero Renewable Fuels plant.

If Navigator decided to abandon its aims to build its pipeline in South Dakota, Jensen said the company would lose out on their major agreement with POET.

"POET signing with Navigator was a really big thing. I think if they gave up in South Dakota … I think it would be significant," Jensen said. "Jeff Broin waited late in the game to decide who he signed up with, and he went with Navigator, so unless he could get the same deal … with Summit on each of the plants' contracts, I don't think he would switch."

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Rumored shutdown of Navigator project came from fired land agent, company says