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JOHNSON COUNTY — MidAmerican Energy is seeking permission to extend a natural gas pipeline into Washington and Johnson counties to connect to an Alliant Energy power plants.
The plant in question — Alliant Energy’s Prairie Creek Generating Station in Cedar Rapids — is poised to cease coal operations by the end of 2025, and pivot to using natural gas to power the plant.
Sara Houlihan, director of right of way services with MidAmerican Energy, said MidAmerican has agreed to provide natural gas to Alliant to support the Prairie Creek plant. In order to do so, she said MidAmerican must expand its current natural gas pipeline that runs north from Washington County.
Currently, MidAmerican owns and operates a natural gas pipeline in northeastern Washington County up to the southern edge of Johnson County.
The proposed expansion would extend that pipeline north to near Highway 1 in Iowa City and south into rural Ainsworth in Washington County.
The project will include building a new power station along the pipeline’s track near Highway 1, where the extended pipeline will end near Iowa City.
If approved, MidAmerican would add 13.1 miles of pipeline, 20 inches in diameter, to its route. Of the 13 new miles, 7.1 miles would extend farther into Johnson County and 5.8 miles would stretch farther into Washington County.
The pipeline MidAmerican is seeking to expand was built in 2009.
Bill Barry, MidAmerican’s gas projects manager, said the new pipeline would follow a similar route to a MidAmerican pipeline that is already underground in the area.
“The construction schedule could be as early as March of 2026,” Barry said.
For the project, MidAmerican will use two easement types, one of them being a permanent easement and the other being temporary construction easement.
Currently, MidAmerican serves natural gas to customers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Illinois.
Within that service area, the company has about 670 miles of transmission gas main lines — which move larger volumes of gas across longer distances — and more than 13,000 miles of distribution gas main lines, which deliver gas in smaller amounts to homes and businesses.
What’s next
MidAmerican’s public informational meeting on Tuesday with the Iowa Utilities Commission in Hills marked the first step in the utilities permit process under Iowa Code 479, which is specifically for underground pipelines.
The company must obtain permit amendments to formally change an existing utility.
Scott Bull, a senior engineer with MidAmerican, said the company will petition for two amendment permits, one for each side of the pipeline they are seeking to extend.
Bull said MidAmerican is not “going to be doing any work until those amendments are approved.”
If approved, Barry said construction for each amendment will take place over two phases.
According to a tentative construction schedule, MidAmerican is aiming to begin construction on the Washington County end of the of the pipeline as early as March 2, 2026. The second amendment in Johnson County will tentatively start as early as April 13, 2026.
Bull said the company also must obtain several other permits — outside the IUC — before it can start construction. These include both county and environmental permits, which “are also being sought” he said.
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.
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