McLean County grew only slightly closer to a decision on permits for carbon sequestration wells on Tuesday night after three hours of testimony.
The county’s Zoning Board of Appeals may schedule up to two more meetings before deciding on special-use permit requirements for carbon sequestration.
At issue for the board is how such wells should be zoned. The McLean County Land Use and Development Committee voted in September to requite sequestration wells be placed no less than 1,500 feet away from an occupied residence, livestock shelter, school, community building or commercial and manufacturing building.
The ZBA was initially set to hear the issue on Oct. 3, but the hearing was postponed due to a large public turnout in a small room.
Tuesday’s meeting marked the board’s return to the newly renovated McLean County Board room, but in this meeting, time — not space — was the limitation. After three hours of discussion among board members and testimony from more than a dozen members of the public, the board adjourned around 10:15 p.m.
Carbon sequestration wells seek to reduce atmospheric CO2, the primary driver of climate change, by confining it deep underground. CO2 is captured, condensed to a supercritical (balance between liquid and gas) state, and brought by pressurized pipelines to well sites, where it is injected deep underground.
Navigator CO2 was the focus of the debate as the company’s proposed multi-state Heartland Greenway project would capture carbon from four other states and be drilled into sequestration wells in Illinois. Navigator announced on Friday it had decided to cancel the project, citing “unpredictable” regulatory hurdles, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa.
Don Carlson, executive director of Illinois People’s Action (IPA), a progressive faith-based community group that’s opposed to the project, testified Navigator has not withdrawn its well drilling permit with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Navigator has been talking with landowners in McLean, Logan and Tazewell counties about placing sequestration wells on their property.
Steven Whittaker has contracted with Navigator and serves with the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) as director of energy and materials. He said innovations in underground imaging and resilient materials make new wells both safer and better maintained.
“Right now, all that is pretty advanced as it is,” Whittaker said after the meeting. “So, there’s probably going to be incremental changes in all of those kinds of technologies, but right now I think we’re very secure in what we have.” Whittaker added that a 1,500-foot setback for wells may be excessive and gave 1,000 feet as a more palatable figure.
Some residents on whose land Navigator would build had already signed on with the company.
One planned well location falls on the farm of Lance Rogers of Eureka, who said the proposed 1,500-foot setback could force the well to be located in a low lying area, where a leak of denser-than-air CO2 would linger longer and pose a greater safety risk. Rogers said the board should allow landowners the ability to waive the setback for projects on their land, although it may be possible to address such issues through zoning variances.
Skepticism about the wells filled most of the room, with about 30 public attendees pushing for more restrictive policy. Of particular concern was the potential of above-ground leakage of carbon dioxide from pipelines and wells, producing a plume of invisible, scentless and poisonous gas. An example was given in the form of the 2020 Satartia CO2 pipeline rupture in Mississippi that hospitalized dozens and left some with lasting health effects.
Underground containment failures also were raised as a potential threat to drinking and agricultural water, specifically in area’s served by the Mahomet Aquifer, that includes about 500,000 residents in central Illinois.
IPA organizer Dawn Dannenbring said the group has met with federal regulators, including the EPA, adding the profit motive of companies motivates them to move forward regardless of safety.
“PHMSA, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, who we have met with, they are doing a safety study right now. This rush to do this (well drilling) is crazy. They said that no one should be rushing to capture, transport and sequester until the safety study is done.”
Lea Cline, chair of the McLean County Land Use and Development Committee, said Navigator made an informal offer to the county of $29 million over 30 years, but she said the county never responded to that offer.
Cline also shared that a county working group studying the issue was informed the county’s role in regulating carbon capture technology is limited.
“We cannot control that the EPA gives or doesn’t give permit to have a well. But what we can do is control the zoning,” Cline told the ZBA.
Carlson of the IPA countered by saying the county can and should take on a greater role in restricting where wells can be placed.
“While the county may not have the power to prohibit these sequestration sites, our lawyer says you certainly have the power to deny a unique permit if and when it is applied,” he said.
The ZBA plans to reconvene on the issue on Oct. 31. It may hold an additional hearing on Nov. 14 if needed.
