Farmers concerned about Navigator requesting eminent domain to build pipeline

CHRISTIAN COUNTY, (WAND)- Farmers in Christian County are pleading with the Illinois Commerce Commission to not approve a proposal for a carbon dioxide pipeline to be built in central Illinois.

"They knocked at my door, presented us with a manila envelope and it was very foreign to me because I hadn't heard anything about what the project was," Edinburg farmer Jim Grieve told WAND News.

Navigator Pipeline has begun approaching landowners about leasing a portion of their farm to build a new CO2 pipeline.

"The pipeline itself actually would only be under quarter-mile from my home and it will criss-cross some family farms that have been in our family for over 100 years," Grieve explained.

He said he doesn't want his farmland disrputed, and worries about the long term impacts of injecting CO2 underground in Christian County.

"What happens to the production of the farm ground around here after its had 10 years of CO2 pumped underneath it-- nobody knows," Grieve argued.

Farmers are also worried about their local water source.

"As a farmer we have our concerns for our land and preserving it and maintaining it. Something like the aquifer- that affects everybody," Grieve added, "we can repair our field tiles, we can't repair an aquifer."

These issues have prompted organizations like the Citizens Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline, Sangamon County, the Commonwealth of Edison, Nicor Gas Company and individual landowners to intervene before the Illinois Commerce Commission. Several were granted motions to intervene in a pre-hearing before the Illinois Commerce Commission Thursday morning.

The agency is set to hear the case as to whether they should approve the CO2 pipeline and allow the company to use eminent domain to seize land needed to build it.

"The land owners at the proposed sequestration site have widely rejected, and have so far have shown no indication to provide no rights to the pore space- making this a pipeline to nowhere," Joseph Murphy, an attorney representing Citiznes Against Heartland Greenway Pipeline, said in the hearing Thursday.

Written testimony and rebuttals will submitted to the ICC over the next several months with evidentiary hearings taking place in February.