Illinois Senate pauses work on bill protecting Mahomet Aquifer from carbon sequestration

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Illinois senators have paused movement on a bill that could protect the Mahomet Aquifer from carbon capture and sequestration despite growing calls for action.

Sen. Paul Faraci (D-Champaign) and multiple local lawmakers believe carbon capture can play a role in addressing climate change. Although, they stress that the state should not put clean water at risk.

The proposal would ban carbon sequestration over, under or through any sole source aquifer.

"My hope is that we can have a respectful discussion about the issues and come to some agreement about how we protect our sole source aquifer that basically provides life to 500,000 people or more in central Illinois," Faraci said Wednesday.

Senate President Don Harmon told Faraci and members of the Senate Executive Committee that he thought more time was needed to talk with stakeholders on both sides of the issue. Yet, 860 people filed witness slips in favor of the proposal Wednesday. 113 people were opposed to the bill.

Faraci and Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) said the legislation should be a top priority for lawmakers to pass during veto session. Rose stressed this shouldn't be a partisan issue since there is a common sense solution.

"The point is we shouldn't have any risk," Rose said. "There's no acceptable risk because this is the sole source. There is no other alternate source where you just turn on a switch and you get water from somewhere else. You can't."

Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters during an unrelated event that everyone wants to protect the Mahomet aquifer. Still, the Democrat said he doesn't believe the bill is necessary.

"The legislation that we passed actually doesn't directly have any threat to the Mahomet Aquifer," Pritzker said. "The question is do you have to have a new piece of legislation to address something that doesn't seem to be the case with the legislation that we already have on the books."

A coalition of community members, environmental groups, and advocacy organizations said protecting the Mahomet Aquifer is the right thing to do.

"I'm not sure what there is left to 'get right,'" said Pam Richart, co-director of the Eco-Justice Collaborative. "During the hearing, the risks to our drinking water were underplayed by industry and experts. What wasn't discussed was the failures of ADM's leaking project. At ADM, we experienced a design failure, a material failure, an operator failure and a moral failure. The projects already proposed, and there are more to come, would be 50 times the size of ADM's existing project, which has already leaked twice."