ABERDEEN, S.D.(AberdeenInsider)- A trial date has been set in a legal dispute between Summit Carbon Solutions and landowners opposed to the company’s proposed carbon capture pipeline.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the Brown County Courthouse, Judge Richard Sommers scheduled trial for the week of Sept. 8, 2025.

Thirty or so residents attended the hearing, all seemingly pipeline opponents.

Sommers also denied a request by the landowners to have the case — a combination of several lawsuits that have been consolidated — dismissed.

Attorneys for the property owners pitched two arguments Tuesday, one of which was unexpected by Sommers and Summit attorney Justin Bell. But the judge didn’t deem either of them worthy of dismissal, at least for now.

The lawsuit stems back to July 2022 when landowners sued Summit, claiming the company doing land surveys without permission from property owners was unconstitutional. Summit then filed counterclaims as it sought to continue doing surveys, some of which involved substantial boring, along the then-proposed pipeline route.

In April 2023, Sommers ruled that because the company had a sitting permit before the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, it had the right to conduct surveys without permission as long as 30 days notice was given as stipulated in state law. Landowners appealed that decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court, which has since remanded the case back to Sommers.

All of that and a mountain of paperwork led to Tuesday’s hearing.

Full story at www.aberdeeninsider.com.