The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) is blasting a report from the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter this week claiming the Summit Carbon pipeline project in the state will need over three billion gallons of water and threatens to drain the aquifer.

“Today’s ‘so-called’ study from the Iowa Sierra Club is no more based in reality than the report they released a few weeks ago claiming that CCS does not lower the carbon intensity of Iowa ethanol production. There is simply no basis in fact for the numbers they are throwing around,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw

“It appears they have exaggerated the potential water usage by at least a factor of four. To put it in context, one inch of rain across Chickasaw county alone equates to 8.8 billion gallons of water, roughly 10 times what is needed for all CCS projects across the state annually. According to Iowa State University, Chickasaw county averages roughly 2.7 inches of rain per month over the last 123 years.”

The Sierra Club report claims “Summit’s 31 carbon capture facilities across Iowa will require 3.36 billion gallons of water from Iowa’s aquifers annually—equivalent to adding 10-11 new ethanol plants in Iowa” and calls for the Iowa DNR to deny any water withdrawal permits for Carbon Capture.

“If they truly believe Iowa is in the middle of a water crisis, maybe they should start crunching the numbers on how much water it takes to keep an 18-hole golf course green in August,” said Shaw. “This is nothing more than another baseless attempt at scaring people.”