Illinois — On Friday, September 13, E&E News reported that corrosion in one of Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.’s (ADM) carbon sequestration wells in Decatur, Illinois, allowed carbon dioxide (CO2) to leak. One month prior on August 14, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) filed a Notice of Violation to ADM related to the company’s Class VI underground injection well facility, alleging that ADM failed to comply with federal regulations and the terms and conditions of its permit.
The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition worked closely with Governor Pritzker and his administration, Senator Laura Fine, Representative Ann Williams, and industry stakeholders in the spring legislative session to pass a Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) protections law that ensures Illinois communities and our land and water are protected from the risks associated with new CCS projects. Bolstered by new federal taxpayer incentives, there are 22 pending applications for new CO2 injection wells in Illinois.
In response, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition released the following statement:
“This incident demonstrates how important strict CCS regulations are to protect our communities and environment, and is exactly why we passed the CCS protections act in Illinois this year. There are significant risks at every step of the CCS process, and it’s not a matter of if carbon sequestration facilities leak, but rather when.
“Neither ADM nor the USEPA have released any details about the nature of the leak or its impacts on the local community, groundwater, or the environment, and we are anxious to learn more. This is why we fought for more rigorous public notification requirements, emergency response planning, site monitoring, and to require that sequestration site operators are legally and financially responsible for sequestration sites in the CCS Protections Act. The total lack of public notification of the leak in the month following the agency’s alleged notice of violation to ADM is unacceptable and dangerous.
“When CCS protections passed this spring, we made clear that the fight to protect our communities, land, water, and climate, from the risks associated with every step of the CCS process was not over, and that these protections would likely need to be updated and strengthened as we learned more about these projects. There are real concerns from many legislators, community partners, and Illinoisans who rely on public drinking water about the need for even stronger protections, and this incident shows that these concerns need to be taken seriously to ensure Illinoisians are protected to the fullest extent possible.”
info@ilcleanjobs.org