IWAA part of effort to urge more time for feedback on carbon sequestration
Environmental groups urge more time for feedback on carbon sequestration proposal near Mahomet Aquifer
GIBSON CITY, Ill. (WCIA) — Several environmental organizations are asking the EPA to delay the deadline for official feedback on draft permits related to a carbon sequestration proposal near the Mahomet Aquifer in Ford and McLean Counties.
WCIA has previously reported on the project proposed by One Earth Energy, which is an ethanol plant in Gibson City. According to Pam Richart, co-director of Eco-Justice Collaborative, the plant aims to create sustainable fuel using ethanol and captures carbon emitted during the process. She said that carbon then needs to be stored somewhere.
Richart said that’s where the sequestration project comes in. It involves building a pipeline from the plant in Gibson City and injecting carbon dioxide deep underground, according to Richart.
“It’s highly pressurized and once it goes into the ground, the hope is that it will stay there. And what we all know, those of us who’ve looked at this is that, you know, CO2 moves,” she said.
The location is also a concern for Richart. The proposed carbon sequestration sites are not directly under or above the Mahomet aquifer; that would be illegal under Illinois state law. But, the sites are within the aquifer’s recharge zone.
She said if a leak occurs and carbon dioxide contaminates the large source of drinking water, it would create a multi-million dollar problem.
“If that aquifer were to be polluted, contaminated by CO2, then there is no readily available alternative source of water,” Richart said.
With three draft permits recently issued, a public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 22 at Gibson City’s Countryside Event Center. Richart said there will be a 90 minute Q&A followed by two hours of formal comments, with written comments due the very next day.
“So the EPA really needs to do a good job satisfying the people who rely on [the aquifer], that they’ve done everything they can to make sure that this water that we drink is protected. And they’re not going to be able to do that in 90 minutes, not with hundreds of people attending this this hearing,” Richart said.
Richart is asking the EPA to change that timeline.