SOUTH DAKOTA LAWMAKERS APPROVE $650 MILLION PRISON PROJECT

PIERRE, S.D. (John Hult / SD Searchlight) – After 144 years, South Dakota lawmakers decided Tuesday it’s time for “the Hill” to retire.

The required two-thirds of each legislative chamber voted to endorse a 1,500-bed, $650 million replacement for the state penitentiary building that opened its doors when South Dakota was still Dakota Territory. The new prison will be the most expensive capital project ever funded by the state’s taxpayers.

The prison will be built in northeast Sioux Falls, on an undeveloped patch of industrial land near the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society. The location is about 3 miles northeast of the penitentiary, which is nicknamed “the Hill” for its perch overlooking the Big Sioux River.

The votes came during a one-day special session at the Capitol called by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden after a prison construction task force he created via executive order had recommended a new prison with that size, price tag and location. The Senate approved the prison plan legislation 24-11, and the House approved it 51-18, with one House member, Rep. Jeff Bathke, R-Mitchell, excused while on a military deployment.

A previous men’s prison proposal, with a higher price and a controversial location in rural Lincoln County, was presented in February during the regular legislative session and failed to earn the two-thirds support mandated for spending bills by the state constitution.

Tuesday’s vote answers the most pressing and expensive question posed during a four-year saga on the future of South Dakota’s prison facilities. In 2021, then-Gov. Kristi Noem commissioned a study of the Department of Corrections properties that concluded the state needed a new women’s prison — which is now under construction in Rapid City at a cost of $87 million — and that the oldest parts of the penitentiary had too many inmates and was unsafe for them and the staff.

The state plans to pay for the new prison with cash. In 2022, lawmakers voted to begin putting millions in excess revenues, which ballooned thanks in part to federal cash infusions during the COVID-19 pandemic, into an incarceration construction fund that has since grown with further deposits and interest earnings. The next year, they approved the construction of the women’s prison.

The bill passed Tuesday transfers $78.7 million from the state’s budget reserves to the prison construction fund and authorizes the Department of Corrections to spend up to $650 million to build it. Most of the money is already in the fund, but about $42 million of the required funding is expected to come from future interest earnings.

Between 2024 and Tuesday’s vote, the state put $52 million into a plan to build a 1,500-bed men’s prison — at a price of $825 million, in that case — in southern Lincoln County. Lawmakers rejected that prison pitch in February, an act that spurred the creation of Rhoden’s Project Prison Reset task force. Last week, Rhoden’s office said much of that investment was recaptured by reusing designs on the $650 million version that did earn approval, but $21 million of the money spent on the Lincoln County site is unrecoverable.

The approved prison legislation includes the purchase of the Sioux Falls land and an exchange of the Lincoln County land to the owner of the Sioux Falls land. In that $17 million deal, which is included in the overall $650 million project cost, about $12.5 million will go to the landowner, along with the Lincoln County land, which the state valued at $4.5 million.

The state shaved $175 million off the cost of the Sioux Falls prison plan by shrinking common areas within the facility and designing 300 of the beds as a barracks. Rhoden said the new plan does not reduce rehabilitation and vocational programming space.

Questions on how to pay for the ongoing operations of the new prison will greet lawmakers when they return in January for their regular session.

Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko, who tendered an Oct. 20 resignation in a letter to Rhoden earlier this month in the face of criticism, told lawmakers earlier this year that it could cost the state up to $20 million more a year to run the new prison.

Two newer units on the grounds of the penitentiary in Sioux Falls will remain in service when the new building opens. That’s expected to happen in 2029.

 

TENSIONS FLARE AS NORTH DAKOTA CONSIDERS LAWSUIT AGAINST SOUTH DAKOTA CO2 PIPELINE LAW

BISMARCK, N.D. (Joshua Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – Supporters of South Dakota’s law barring the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines are pushing back after North Dakota’s attorney general suggested his state might challenge the measure in court.

In an interview published Thursday, Fargo radio station The Flag (WZFG) asked North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley if he would file a lawsuit against South Dakota. Wrigley said his office is “examining all possibilities.” He also criticized South Dakota’s law, calling it a “bad policy choice” and a “hostile act.”

“To have a nation, you have to have commerce between, around and across states,” Wrigley said. “There are limitations on what one state can do that then would make them the regulator of the nation, so to speak.”

The South Dakota legislation, signed into law in March, prohibits the use of eminent domain for carbon pipeline projects. Eminent domain is the legal right to access private property for projects that benefit the public, with compensation for landowners determined by a court. It’s commonly used for projects such as electrical power lines, water pipelines, oil pipelines and highways.

The change effectively blocked Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions from constructing its proposed $9 billion pipeline across South Dakota to connect ethanol plants in that state, as well as Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, with plants and an underground storage site in North Dakota. The project would capitalize on federal tax credits incentivizing the prevention of heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere.

Summit has since sought to remove language from its Iowa permit conditioning the start of construction on approvals in the Dakotas. The project has permits not only in Iowa but also in North Dakota and Minnesota, while Nebraska has no permitting process for the project and South Dakota regulators have twice rejected Summit’s applications. Summit did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

South Dakota’s Speaker of the House, Rep. Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, criticized Wrigley’s comments. Hansen, one of several candidates for governor next year, was one of the sponsors of the eminent domain ban and voted for it. He is campaigning with his running mate, Rep. Karla Lems, R-Canton, the bill’s prime sponsor in the House.

“Let’s call this what it is,” Hansen wrote on social media. “It appears the carbon pipeline lobbyists have found their latest puppet — and now North Dakota taxpayers might be forced to bankroll a lawsuit against their own neighbors in South Dakota, all to help a private carbon pipeline company.”

Sen. Mark Lapka, R-Leola, the bill’s prime sponsor in the South Dakota Senate, defended the legislation. He said the bill “in no way, shape or form” prevents a carbon pipeline from being built in South Dakota but instead gives landowners an option.

“They now have the ability to choose whether they want to participate in something, or — if it does not work out for their best interests — they have the opportunity to say no,” Lapka said.

Republican South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office would be responsible for defending the state if a lawsuit is filed.

“I will defend the laws and people of South Dakota, it’s as simple as that,” Jackley said in a statement to South Dakota Searchlight. “The Legislature voted for the private property rights by wide margins, and Gov. Rhoden signed it into law. The people of South Dakota voted decisively on this issue, and I will support them.”

Republican South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office referred Searchlight to a letter he sent legislators in March explaining his decision to sign the bill. The letter referenced “easements,” which are land access agreements, and made a distinction between voluntary easements and the involuntary kind that could come with eminent domain.

“South Dakota landowners feel strongly that the threat of involuntary easements for the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline infringes on their freedoms and their property rights,” Rhoden wrote in the letter.

 

400,000 TURKEYS KILLED IN RESPONSE TO SOUTH DAKOTA’S LATEST BIRD FLU OUTBREAK; DUCKS IDENTIFIED AS CARRIERS

SOUTH DAKOTA (Joshua Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – The number of turkeys killed at South Dakota farms in response to recent detections of avian influenza has risen to 419,650, continuing the state’s status as the national epicenter of this season’s outbreak.

The numbers come from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which reports bird flu detections in eight commercial South Dakota flocks and one backyard flock in the state during the last 30 days.

Meanwhile, South Dakota State Veterinarian Beth Thompson said blue-winged teal, a species of duck, have been identified as carriers of this season’s virus. John Cooper, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent and former state Game, Fish and Parks secretary, said it makes sense that the state would find itself combating bird flu early this year if teal are carrying it.

“Teal are traditionally our first migrators,” Cooper said.

Detections this early in the fall season are troubling, according to Thompson. The peak avian influenza seasons typically happen later during the fall and spring migration of wild birds, which can carry the virus without becoming sick.

In a statement to South Dakota Searchlight, the state Department of Health said “bird flu has the potential to be transmitted to humans from wild birds” but emphasized the risk to people remains low.

The department pointed to federal guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which offers steps for hunters to reduce risks:

Gut and de-feather game birds in the field rather than at home and practice good hygiene to prevent disease spread.

Use dedicated tools for cleaning game, do not use the same tools around poultry, and wash and disinfect all tools and work surfaces afterward.

Wear gloves, a mask and eye protection when handling game birds.

Throw away the gloves and facemask afterward and wash hands with soap and water.

Cook meat to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Commercial turkey products remain safe to eat thanks to existing food safety protocols in the industry, according to Thompson.

The bird flu depopulation process is federally mandated and involves killing all birds at affected sites to prevent the virus from spreading to nearby farms. Thompson said “foaming” is the most common method in turkey barns, where foam is sprayed atop turkeys inside the barn to suffocate them.

She said the process is carried out with assistance from federal and state officials who oversee the work, with the federal government offering compensation for losses through indemnity payments. Those payments have totaled more than $1 billion nationally since 2020, according to an analysis by CBS News, including about $130 million in South Dakota.

Recent avian influenza detections in South Dakota

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture lists the following detections of avian influenza during the past 30 days in commercial or backyard flocks in South Dakota. The list includes the number of birds killed in response to contain the spread of the disease.

Sept. 16: Commercial turkey meat bird in Beadle County, 53,000 birds affected.

Sept. 13: Commercial turkey meat bird in McPherson County, 70,100 birds affected.

Sept. 11: Commercial turkey meat bird in Jerauld County, 44,500 birds affected, poultry in Spink County, 750 birds affected.

Sept. 10: Commercial turkey meat bird in Beadle County, 74,100 birds affected.

Sept. 9: Commercial turkey meat bird in Beadle County, 42,300 birds affected.

Sept. 4: Commercial turkey breeder hens in McPherson County, 26,900 birds affected.

Sept. 2: Commercial turkey meat bird in Beadle County, 52,600 birds affected.

Aug. 28: Commercial turkey meat bird in Faulk County, 55,400 birds affected.