Iowa judge sets hearing on CO2 pipeline company’s injunction request | State and Regional News
SIOUX CITY – Carbon dioxide pipeline developers will have a chance to argue next week for a judge’s order to prevent two Woodbury County landowners from interfering with attempts to enter their land to survey the proposed pipeline route.
District Judge Roger Sailer on Wednesday scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30 to hear Navigator Heartland Greenway’s request for an injunction against Moville, Iowa, property owners William and Vicki Hulse, who have twice denied the company’s agents access to their land that lies in the pipeline’s proposed route.
Navigator sued the Hulses last month and is seeking a ruling that will keep them from denying access to their land.
The Hulses have filed a counterclaim challenging the constitutionality of a state law permitting pipeline companies the right of entry to private land to survey and examine it. They asked for an injunction prohibiting Navigator’s agents from entering their property until the constitutionality issue has been decided.
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Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, conducted by video conference in Woodbury County District Court, Navigator attorney Brian Rickert filed a motion asking the judge to expedite the company’s injunction request so agents can complete surveys before winter and avoid potential delays to the project.
“Navigator needs to conduct these surveys and examinations in very short order, as the results of them can determine such things as where the pipeline route is located,” Rickert said in his motion.
Sailer said in his scheduling order that a hearing should be set promptly. Further hearings will be scheduled after he rules on the injunction.
Navigator has filed similar lawsuits in Clay and Butler counties against landowners who have denied company agents access to their property. A hearing on Navigator’s injunction request in Clay County is scheduled for Thursday. The Clay County landowner and one of the two in Butler County also have filed constitutional challenges similar to the Hulses’.
Navigator has proposed a $3 billion, 1,300-mile pipeline that would collect carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and fertilizer processors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois, convert it to liquid form and transport it under high pressure to a site in Illinois, where it would be pumped thousands of feet beneath the surface.
The pipeline would run approximately 900 miles through 36 Iowa counties, including Woodbury, Clay and Butler counties. Other Siouxland counties include Plymouth, Lyon, Osceola, O’Brien, Cherokee, Dickinson and Buena Vista in Iowa and Dakota, Dixon and Wayne counties in Nebraska.
It’s one of two carbon pipelines proposed to run through the area.
Photos: Iowa barn converted to comfortable living
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This lighting figure uses two elements from the barn’s history. The fixture is suspended using the original rope from the barn door. The framework of the fixture is made of hay forks, onto which Diane placed some lighting fixtures.
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Pictured is the view from the deck on the east side of the barn.
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The original support posts and beams were left in place during the renovation projects. At one point, when a small room was taken out, two 2x12s were added give more strength to the ceiling.
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The deck on the west side of the barn overlooks the Finerans’ cornfield, which this year has an open rectangle where corn was not planted this year. The reason is that Kevin and Diane’s youngest child, Kate, is marrying DeAnthony Zanders this October and wanted to get married in the corn. Kevin skipped planting this rectangular plot, which he planted to grass. Because of that, he couldn’t apply herbicide to the 12 rows bordering the plot. He had to cultivate that corn by hand and pull the weeds out by hand. The wedding reception will be inside the barn with dancing in the hayloft. Their other children, Grant, Haley and Kerry, also had some part of their wedding celebrations at the barn.
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This picture of Kevin’s great-grandparents, Patrick and Bridget Fineran, is on the wall in the hayloft of the barn. They immigrated from Ireland and were among the pioneers of Crawford County.
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Among the decorations on the cabinet is a four-generation photograph of Diane as a baby, her mom, Delories Scherner, grandmother Edna Gries and great-grandmother Mary Reimers.
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The Finerans found this rustic door with original hinges in the dirt. It is well over 100 years old. The bearings for the sliding door were frozen up. Kevin soaked the bearings in some diesel fuel for about a month and got them loose. “I don’t know why it didn’t rot out,” Kevin said of the door being in the dirt. “All we did was clean it off and Diane sealed it.”
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Pictured is a sale bill from when Leonard Spahn had his farm sale.
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Two large sliding doors where cattle came into the barn had been in the space where this window was installed. The Finerans found the window in a junk yard in Omaha. “It’s got the form of a barn,” said Kevin. “We thought it was perfect for here.”
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Elliot Fineran looks at a quilting book while seated at one of Grandma Diane’s tables for quilting.
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Another of Diane’s hobbies is to put puzzles together, back them with Masonite and put barn wood frames around them. She was especially prolific with this hobby during the pandemic. One of the puzzles is in the foreground, while quilts serve as wall decorations in the back.
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The door on this cabinet came from a kitchen pantry from Diane’s family home in Holstein. She took the door to Devon Evers with Crossgrain Woodworking, and he made a cabinet to fit the door. The door originally had wood panels. “I wanted to chicken wire behind it to give it a more antique appearance,” Diane said. The chicken wire provides a relatively unobstructed view her quilts that are stored in the cabinet.
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One of the furnishings in quilting half of the barn is the Hoosier cabinet that belonged to Diane’s mother.
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The flooring in the hayloft is from Douglas fir boards. It is the original floor.
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Pictured is the view from the deck on the west side of the barn.
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Pictured is the original ladder going up to the barn door. The bottom has been cut off to prevent kids from testing their sense of adventure. Kevin and Diane’s children gave them the windmill decoration. They like windmills, so much so that they had a windmill taken apart and reassembled between their house and the barn.
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Some interior siding came from a different barn. “All we did when we put it up was to brush it down with a broom to get the dirt and debris off and then sealed it,” said Kevin.
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Kevin always likes to point out this red door to visitors. His carpenter salvaged the door from an old house in Manilla belonging to his mother. Diane painted it red and added black accents to make it look antique. The red door matches a couch the Finerans already had and the wainscoting Diane had painted red. The color is not a true red but more of a barn red, she said.
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Diane and Kevin Fineran stand in front of their converted barn with their son, Grant, and his children, Callum (held by Diane) and Elliot (by her dad). The Fineran’s farm place and the barn will be the site for Market on the Farm on Saturday, August 27. Photo by Gordon Wolf
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Elliot Fineran comfortably reads while on the floor of her grandparents converted barn. The rug came out of the Finerans’ house and fit in nicely with the décor of the living room area.
