More than 150 advocacy groups signed a letter sent to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan today, calling on the agency to halt the injection of carbon dioxide into existing underground well sites and reject approval of new injection wells. The letter comes on the heels of multiple leaks discovered at the country’s first commercial underground carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility. The letter was facilitated by the environmental group Food & Water Watch along with the Illinois-based Eco-Justice Collaborative. 

In September the EPA launched an enforcement action against the Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) CCS facility in Decatur, Il. after initial leaks came to light. ADM finally paused injections at the site early this month after more leaks were discovered.

The letter states, in part: 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must exercise its broad authority to protect sources of drinking water from “imminent and substantial endangerment” under the Safe Drinking Water Act.. The events at the ADM facility have brought to light systemic problems with CCS technology and its regulation, raising serious concerns that CCS is neither safe nor viable. Reported failures at monitoring and detection systems due to corrosion and the migration of CO2 outside the intended storage zone expose multiple levels of failure… We urge EPA to act now to protect drinking water, public safety, and the environment from the dangers of CO2 injection, transportation, and storage.

“The EPA needs to look at the evidence and listen to the communities directly impacted by these fledgling wells, and put a halt to the expansion of this dangerous practice indefinitely,” said Jim Walsh, policy director at Food & Water Watch. “The well failures in Illinois and Texas raise serious alarms about the ability to store carbon dioxide underground safely and securely in any circumstances, and the existing system of industry self-monitoring and reporting can’t be trusted in any environment.”

“There are just two monitoring wells at ADM’s Decatur sequestration facility, and both of them failed,” said Pam Richart, Co-Director, Eco-Justice Collaborative. “Would we have known about these failures had it not been for some good investigative journalism? No. The EPA did not issue a Notice of Violation until August – although ADM’s monitoring well had leaked, was plugged and was taken out of operation as early as October, 2023. The technology and enforcement mechanisms do not yet exist to ensure the safe and permanent storage of carbon dioxide.”