Recent leaks at carbon dioxide sequestration wells in Illinois operated by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have drawn attention from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and caused the company to pause carbon injections at one of its wells in Decatur, IL.
ADM operates multiple carbon injection wells in the area, part of its foray into carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology which captures a portion of the CO2 emitted from ethanol plants and other industrial facilities and pumps it deep underground into rock formations.
The U.S. is facing the prospect of a massive buildout of CCS infrastructure right now due to a recently updated federal tax credit, including the Summit’s Midwest Carbon Express pipeline system which is seeking regulatory approval in Minnesota and several other states. This pipeline system would move captured carbon to wells in North Dakota like the ones operated by ADM. It would also make the carbon available in the future to be sold to the fracking industry for so-called Enhanced Oil Recovery, which would move the country backwards on climate at a time when we need to invest in solutions.
Starting in March of 2024, ADM discovered that more than 8,000 metric tons of injected carbon had escaped from the sequestration zone due to corrosion in a monitoring well and traveled into “unauthorized zones” about 5,000 feet underground. The well in question was until recently the only “Class VI” well approved by the EPA, which are wells specifically permitted for CO2 sequestration. Such leaks are explicitly prohibited.
In a proposed federal order against the company, the EPA found that ADM didn’t seek an emergency permit when the leakage was discovered and didn’t maintain its testing and monitoring equipment in working order as required. The company also did not disclose the leak to the Decatur City Council despite seeking permission at the time to inject CO2 underneath city-owned land.
ADM’s injection site is within about five miles of the Mahomet Aquifer, which is the water source for over 800,000 Illinois residents.
On Sept 27, the company disclosed a new potential leak, suspected to be movement of brine between underground rock formations. ADM has paused CO2 injections in this well while it conducts further tests.
Although lauded as a carbon capture success story by CCS proponents and the federal government (which has poured millions of dollars into the ADM project), the company has never come close to meeting its stated goal of capturing and storing one million metric tons of CO2 per year and only captures a small portion of the facility’s overall emissions.
The leaks further highlight the degree to which CCS technology is unproven, both at the scale of large systems like the Summit pipeline system and the long time horizon necessary to keep CO2 sequestered underground rather than warming our atmosphere. A recent report from Texas called CCS “a U.S. government-sponsored economic experiment with little, if any, climate change mitigation efficacy.”
Given the existence of alternate carbon-free technologies including wind and solar power that have a lower cost per ton of averted emissions and are better tested and proven, Minnesota’s regulators should say no to the long-term commitment to CCS that the Summit pipeline system represents. Read more at CarbonPipelinesMN.org.
