Map from US EPA
How the Story Broke
On September 13, 2024, E&E News by Politico broke a shocking story about an underground carbon dioxide (CO2) leak six months earlier at Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM)’s much-lauded carbon capture and storage facility in Decatur, IL. After only seven years, a corroded pipe had allowed high pressure CO2 to move above the shale cap rock intended to contain it forever. Digging deeper, we learned there were problems with this monitoring well years before. The problems were not revealed to the public and the well continued to operate.
The monitoring gauges on Monitoring Well #2 were experiencing intermittent electrical shorts as early as September, 2020, less than three years after injection of CO2 began. By January, 2022, the gauges had fully failed. Later that year, ADM discovered the well had leaked 307 metric tons of CO2 into the Ironton-Galesville formation above the confining zone. Its reports to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed the company intended to take “temporary measures to isolate the CO2 leakage,” which included plugging the well with cement.
It wasn’t until October of 2023 that ADM discovered its monitoring well had corroded. According to its own reporting, that’s when ADM removed the completion assembly, plugged it with cement, and stopped using the well. It is not clear whether the well continued to leak from the time it was discovered in 2022 until it was plugged in October 2023.
We do not know when the March, 2024 leak was reported to US EPA. Nor do we know whether the plugged well leaked and may still be leaking. We do know the EPA inspected all of ADM’s wells in June of 2024, and the following August issued a Notification of Violation. The EPA issued an Administrative Order on Consent to ADM on September 18, 2024.
Then, as ADM was responding to the requirements imposed by the EPA in its September order, it found its other monitoring well, #1, was leaking.
Both wells were constructed with 13 Chrome steel, which was approved by the EPA. As reported by E&E News by Politico, the EPA now says 13 Chrome steel should not be used when CO2 and water are present. The steel has been used for decades in oil and gas wells, but is vulnerable to corrosion when exposed to the liquids in carbon sequestration wells.
As of now, ADM claims that Monitoring Well #1 has not shown signs of corrosion, and the company believes it may have leaked only brine. And ADM has stopped injecting CO2.
Overarching Concerns
The two leaks from monitoring wells at ADM’s sequestration facility took place within seven years from the time injecting CO2 began. The Illinois EPA should have initiated a Notice of Violation when formation fluid was discovered to be above the confining zone and the well totally malfunctioned in 2022. But it didn’t. ADM should have notified the public that its well was leaking, but chose not to. Instead, it negotiated easements with Decatur’s city council to store CO2 under Lake Decatur, the city’s primary source of drinking water. ADM negotiated the CCS [Carbon Capture and Sequestration] Protections Act with the governor’s office while it knew its well was leaking. Governor Pritzker signed the new CCS bill in July, less than a mile from the leaking well. Would outcomes for each of these actions have been different had ADM disclosed its two leaks? Likely, yes.
These incidents—the lack of transparency by ADM, and decisions by US EPA to withhold enforcement for two years after a subsurface leak was detected—demonstrate that technology and enforcement mechanisms do not exist to ensure the safe and permanent storage of CO2. We need a federal moratorium on CCS.
While many may think ADM’s incident is small and contained, we don’t yet know its full impact, including how much CO2 escaped, whether one or both wells are still leaking, nor what paths the highly pressurized CO2 might be moving through to try to reach the surface—and, potentially, drinking water.
Without E&E News’s investigation and reporting, it is likely the public would not know about the leaks today. The lack of accountability and transparency we experienced from US EPA and ADM has put profits over public safety, and risked Illinois’s drinking water. That should never be tolerated.
Help Us Protect the Mahomet Aquifer!
Recognizing leaks were possible, Eco-Justice Collaborative (EJC) and advocates for the Mahomet Aquifer attempted to include a Mahomet Aquifer Sequestration Ban in the CCS Protections Act. That didn’t happen, so we are bringing it back now, along with partners Prairie Rivers Network, the Sierra Club Prairie Group, and Illinois People’s Action. This revised bill not only will protect the Mahomet Aquifer, but also any future sole-source aquifer in Illinois.
But we need your help. SB3968 and HB5874 were postponed and referred to the Rules Committee during the Ilinois Legislature’s November veto session; it is likely it will be voted on during the General Assembly’s lame duck session, after the first of the year.
If your state senator or representative has not yet signed on as a cosponsor, you can send this letter to them asking for their vote. You also can use the form to send a letter of thanks to Senator Paul Faraci and Representative Carol Ammons, who are leading the charge to protect your water.
Why is This Important?
There are nearly one million people, as well as businesses, industries, and farmers, who rely on this aquifer for fresh water and crop irrigation. If you are reading this article, it is likely you are one of those who depend on the Mahomet for your fresh drinking water.
The aquifer’s federal sole-source designation means that there are no reasonably available alternative drinking water sources for over 50 percent of the population, should the aquifer become contaminated. It states that contamination of the Mahomet Aquifer System would create a significant hazard to public health for east-central Illinois.
When CO2 mixes with water in an aquifer, it forms carbonic acid, which can leach heavy metals from sand and rock formations in the aquifer. These include manganese, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, uranium, barium, and more. Heavy metals can cause severe health issues, such as cancer, liver damage, and anemia.
Ironically, the CCS Protections Act requires a sequestration operator to provide an alternative supply of potable water if it is contaminated by CO2. But with a sole source aquifer like the Mahomet, that just can’t be done. Only a ban can do that.
We need to protect drinking water from potential CO2 pollution. Please send the letter today. Ask your elected officials to support a sole-source aquifer sequestration ban, then share widely! We need to reach beyond our community to other parts of the state in order to ensure enough support to pass these bills.
Lan and Pam Richart are co-directors of Eco-Justice Collaborative (EJC) in Champaign. Through coalition-building and grassroots organizing, EJC works to incorporate environmental, social, and economic justice as it addresses the climate crisis.
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