Bipartisan push to protect Central Illinois drinking water from carbon capture

(The Center Square) – After passing a bill that regulates carbon pipelines, a legislator has introduced a supplemental bill adding protections for the Mahomet Aquifer.

State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 3968 , which says no person shall conduct a carbon sequestration activity within a sequestration facility that overlies, underlies, or passes through a sole-source aquifer.

Julie Fosdick, an opponent of carbon sequestration projects, said legislators seem to be protecting the aquifer now that news broke about the Archer Daniels Midland leaks.

"People became much more aware that having carbon sequestration near an aquifer is a serious risk after learning ADM had two leaks," said Fosdick. "The one leak had already occurred at ADM when the bill [Senate Bill 1289], but that was kept secret."

ADM's carbon sequestration wells are approximately 13 years old.

Koehler sponsored Senate Bill 1289 , which was signed into law this summer. The measure puts in regulations of carbon sequestration projects, including a two-year moratorium on carbon pipeline projects.

On the Senate floor this spring, state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, urged the sponsors to add protection for the aquifer.

"I don't want to hear a damn thing about cleaning up the environment when these people can't drink their water," Rose said.

Rose filed a bill, Senate Bill 3963 in July, that bans carbon sequestration activity over the federally designated sole-source of drinking water, the Mahomet Aquifer. Koehler's bill was filed in October 2024.

Recently filed House Bill 5874 also aims to protect the Mahomet Aquifer, which is the sole source of clean drinking water for many in the Central Illinois area.

Fosdick, who lives near the aquifer, said the current law allows for carbon sequestration under the aquifer.

"It serves nearly a million people in Central Illinois and there really isn't another physically available or economically available source of water if that were to become contaminated," said Fosdick.

SB1289 was sponsored in the House by state Rep. Carol Ammons. Now she's sponsoring HB5874. Fosdick said carbon sequestration is a new technology and writing a regulatory bill for something unknown can be difficult.

"They could have put it in the comprehensive bill that was signed earlier this summer, but it didn't happen. There was no support... I don't think it [protection for the aquifer] was really pushed hard," said Fosdick.

In July, Rose urged the public to support his efforts to ban sequestration near the Mahomet Aquifer by signing a petition.