With the spring state legislative session in the rearview mirror, one issue still creating rumblings is the Mahomet Aquifer. Two area GOP legislators continue to say it is a huge mistake to have pipes for carbon sequestration storage running through the Mahomet Aquifer.
State Senator Chapin Rose says the Aquifer may have the name Mahomet on it, but it’s really an underground layer of water bearing material stretching across Central Illinois, providing water for over a half-million people people. This includes a good part of Northern Vermilion County, especially the northwest quadrant. Rose says anyone who knows something about the December of 2016 methane gas leak in the Urbana area should realize pipes are not foolproof. He says this case, like that one, is putting water in danger.
AUDIO: And then, low and behold, what goes Captain Environment do? Governor Pritzker? He cuts a deal to allow the sequestration and storage of carbon dioxide over, under, and through, our water supply. I mean, this is just absolutely dangerous, dangerous stuff.
State Rep Brandun Schweizer says the Mount Simon Sandstone that’s underground covers about 3/4 of Illinois, with the Mahomet Aquifer only being included in about ten percent of that. He wants to know why the aquifer had to be part of this, and why the environmentalist groups did not push harder to have the aquifer excluded.
AUDIO: As powerful as these environmentalist groups are, for them not to be able to get a restriction on the Mahomet Aquifer, to me, is unacceptable.
Senator Rose says Illinois residents should speak up, now.
AUDIO: Get on illinois.gov, get the governor’s office number, and call him and tell him, “Hey, don’t do this. Don’t poetentially poison our water supply. Why on earth, Governor Pritzker, would you think this is a good idea in the first place, when you cut thsi deal?
Rose says people who claim this is safe are a lot of the same people that said things were safe prior to the Urbana methane leak in 2016.
THE FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY STATE SENATOR PAUL FARACI:
“I was proud to vote for Senate Bill 1289, which establishes some of the most comprehensive safeguards in the entire country for carbon capture technology. The protections are so strong that nearly every environmental group in the state supported this legislation. Illinois will soon be one of two states in the country to establish a moratorium on CO2 pipelines, so there will be more protections here than 48 other states. This bill not only establishes groundwater protections and monitoring requirements, it pumps the brakes on any pipeline construction until federal safety rules are in place.
“With respect to the Mahomet Aquifer, I have been working with all the stakeholders involved in this process to ensure that it will be protected. We established state-level safeguards in addition to the existing U.S. EPA Class VI Well requirements in order to protect valuable groundwater resources in Illinois. I intend to monitor the progress and effects of carbon storage in the state, and this bill provides state agencies with the necessary resources to do so.”
