What you need to know:
Hazardous
Unlike the air we breathe, concentrated carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and intoxicant. It is odorless and colorless, with no safety or warning signal.
In order to transport via pipeline, it must be liquified and concentrated at very high pressures 2-3X higher than natural gas.
Compressed carbon dioxide expands rapidly and concentrates in a plume taking oxygen out of the air, without warning, leading to suffocation.
Untested
Carbon dioxide pipelines of this type, size and length have never been built before and would be the largest & longest ever constructed in the United States.
Compressed carbon dioxide has only been transported in small amounts and distances within the oil industry, yet has a history of higher rupture – two times that of natural gas with only a fraction of the volume (5,100 vs. 3,00,000 miles of pipe).
Dangerous
Carbon dioxide pipelines have a history of rupture with devastating impacts to people, communities and the environment.
Ruptures can open a pipe like a zipper, releasing a large plume into the air and a shrapnel of dry ice, carbon dioxide gas, dirt, rock, and pipe steel.
Studies have shown, a 12.5-inch pipe rupture can travel more than four miles from center. The proposed pipeline is 24-30 inches.
Download the CO2 Pipeline Safety Facts Sheet
“We are getting ahead of ourselves on pipelines. For billions of dollars, you make smart people do incredibly stupid things.”
Richard Kuprewicz
INDEPENDENT PIPELINE SAFETY CONSULTANT
Expert witness with 50 years in oil and gas industry
8″ Pipeline Rupture Demonstration Video
Hazardous
Carbon dioxide through a pipeline is concentrated at very high pressures 2-3X higher than natural gas.
- Carbon dioxide + water = carbonic acid
- Eats through metal transport pipes
- Unlike the air we breathe, concentrated carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant & intoxicant – an odorless, colorless, silent killer
Untested
This type of carbon dioxide pipeline has never been built before and would be the largest & longest ever constructed in the United States.
- Very limited existing pipelines in US
- 229,287 total miles of hazardous liquid pipelines
- 5,100 miles (~2.2%) of those are CO2 (most in the world)
- Most are less than 100 miles
- Safety valves proposed every 20 miles
- Leak can open a pipeline like a zipper
- Leaks can threaten aquifers, wells, waterways, rivers
- It takes more than fifteen 8-inch pipes to carry the volume of one 24-inch pipe.
- A 20-mile long 24-inch pipe could fill 1,880 Olympic size swimming pools.
Dangerous
Carbon dioxide pipelines have a history of rupture with devastating impacts to people, communities and the environment.
- Ruptures pose unique, significant safety hazards
- Create a shrapnel of dry ice, CO2 gas, dirt, rock, and pipe steel
- Incident rate currently is about twice that of natural gas
- One mile long 8-inch pipe rupture sends gas 197 feet high, 1,312 feet wide from pipe center
- 12.5-inch pipe rupture can travel more than four miles from center
Want to Learn More?
What You Can Do:
Educate Yourself.
There is a lot of misinformation pushed by interests outside of South Dakota communities and families. We’ve tried to include resources for further research here.
Contact Your Legislators.
Find your officials here and tell them to support eminent domain reform and oppose hazardous carbon dioxide pipelines in your area.
Spread the Word.
Help us do the right thing for our Constitutional rights, freedoms and safety of our families and communities.