Lake County Commission rejects petition for pipeline ordinance

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Carbon pipelines have been hotly debated in recent years. Landowners in Lake County are hoping to create an ordinance relating to pipelines, but so far, with no luck.

Many landowners in Lake County have been pushing for a pipeline ordinance similar to other counties in the state for around three years.

They said their request for discussion on the topic has been met with silence from the County Commission.

Lake County landowners like Aaron Johnson have had concerns about the lack of a pipeline ordinance for a while.

The grassroots group, Lake County Citizens for Agriculture, Recreation, Environment and Stewardship (CARES), proposed a pipeline ordinance similar to the eight other counties that have one in the state.

It includes a 1,500-foot setback from property lines, with a waiver option.

“It is unique to Lake County, but also shares some similarities to neighboring counties. That’s the beauty of having counties is that our residents can help craft the way they want their county to look,” Johnson explained.

Lora Zwart said it was disappointing to have a one-sided discussion at county commission meetings, presenting the idea in public input and getting no response from the commissioners.

They took matters into their own hands, getting over 500 signatures on a petition, around 100 more than required by law.

The petition hoped to bring the ordinance to the ballot in the next election.

Initially, the Lake County Auditor said she would not “officially receive” the petition.

“She had a statement that was already prepared ahead of time, ready and prepared for us. By Monday, she kind of changed her stance of it and she said that they were officially received and they would be presented at the next County Commission meeting,” Zwart said.

Zwart said that the statement given to landowners when they tried to submit the petition to the Auditor described that the Auditor was “In receipt of the petition”, but could not officially accept it because the petition was already under review by the State’s Attorney.

“Obviously, we had a lot of questions and didn’t understand what they were under review for, and is that even allowed?” Zwart asked.

Lake County CARES was first encouraged by an attorney to go through the petition process, citing information from the South Dakota Secretary of State and South Dakota Codified Law 7- 18A.

Things came to a head at a recent commission meeting where advocates for a new pipeline ordinance anticipated discussion about the petition.

Instead, another statement was read that said the petition was found “improper for the intended purpose” by the Lake County State’s Attorney.

“It’s such an open-ended statement. There’s no clarification to it and I’ve requested, as of yesterday and today, we’ve requested clarification on this and, again, met with silence,” Johnson said.

“We are completely frustrated with our County Commission, and I don’t know how ignoring our petition and refusing to implement a pipeline ordinance is looking out for the health and safety of their citizens,” Zwart expressed.

Lake County State’s Attorney Aaron McGowan cited Codified Law 11-2-28 and a number of court cases in the written statement, but no further explanation was given to landowners, leading to more frustration.

“We’re unclear as to what’s ‘improper’ about what we did. I don’t know what that means. ‘Improper’ is very vague. Our number one issue is that we’re unable to get clarification. We followed the guide from the Secretary of State,” Zwart said.

Until proven otherwise, some landowners believe the Lake County Commission is not working in the best interests of the citizens in the county because on its issue alone, citizens receive a cold shoulder.

“Lake County currently has quite a few ordinances in place, including [ordinances for] a repair shop, a landfill, and a cannabis dispensary. Yet, for some reason, we’re getting such resistance from them [for a carbon pipeline ordinance],” Zwart said.

Johnson and Zwart allege that Lake County State’s Attorney Aaron McGowan refuses to answer emails or phone calls, and they even went to his office last week and McGowan allegedly refused to have a conversation.

“It’s just another day in Lake County, where there’s no transparency, no public discussion, no public votes. They’re doing so much to silence the people. There was such a concerted effort to make sure that they had prepared statements to throw up a roadblock in front of us. I just really question, who are they really representing?” Johnson expressed.

Johnson said they will continue to ask for clarification and find out if the commission’s statement has any merit so that they can correct their petition efforts.

If it doesn’t have any merit, they will look into other options.

Dakota News Now contacted the County Commission Chair for comment and was referred to the Lake County State’s Attorney, who did not respond to the inquiry, as of the time of publishing.