Carbon capture and storage bill will put Ohio communities at risk: Randi Pokladnik

According to conception 1509.72 of projected Senate Bill 136, Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources ​would person “sole and exclusive authority to modulate c sequestration and nan cognition of retention accommodation successful nan state.” Like West Virgina, Ohio would summation primacy (primary authority) from nan U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Underground Injection Control Department, which presently regulates Class VI c injection retention wells. Federal authorities for Class VI wells was established successful 2010, and since then, little than 30 wells nationally person received permits, and only 2 wells are operational. There are 33 Class VI good applications pending for Ohio.

According to nan bill’s projected conception 1509.76 (A), “if a retention usability has obtained nan consent of owners of astatine slightest 70 per cent of nan pore abstraction projected to beryllium utilized successful a retention facility,” nan remaining 30% of landowners tin beryllium forced into a pore abstraction lease. Ohio’s Real Estate Disclosure Laws require a location seller to disclose thing that could beryllium “dangerous to occupants.” How will storing CO2 astatine supercritical pressures of 1,000 pounds per quadrate inch (psi) under backstage spot impact one’s expertise to waste their home, get insurance, and participate into early lipid and state leases?

There are nary Class VI CO2 retention wells successful cognition successful Ohio; nary industries aliases powerfulness plants retrofitted to seizure CO2; and nary pipelines to carrier 1000 psi CO2. Granting primacy to nan ODNR for CO2 wells is particularly worrisome, fixed nan current lawsuit revenge against ODNR’s permitting process of Class II lipid and state brine injection wells adjacent Marietta. Residents are concerned that brine wells, projected less than 2 miles from nan city’s drinking h2o source, could pollute their water.

Class VI CO2 wells tin besides impact drinking h2o sources. A 2013 report by nan U.S. EPA, “Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide,” noted Class VI wells risked “impairing drinking h2o value done changes successful pH, contamination by trace impurities successful nan injectate (e.g., mercury, hydrogen sulfide), and leaching of metals and/or organics” into drinking h2o sources. When mixed pinch water, c dioxide creates carbonic acid. Many minerals are soluble successful acidic solutions. This process is akin to what is causing ocean acidification.

In April 2025, nan Illinois State Senate unanimously approved a measure to limit nan storage of CO2 nether nan Mahomet Aquifer. This was successful consequence to caller accidents astatine nan Archer Daniels Midland Class VI well. The Mahomet Aquifer is nan sole-source aquifer for nan region and a drinking h2o root for complete 1 cardinal people.

Class VI wells tin besides leak CO2 backmost into nan atmosphere, and pipelines tin rupture, arsenic was nan lawsuit successful Sataria, Mississippi, wherever 45 group were transported to a section infirmary aft a pipeline collapsed successful 2020. Leakage tin occur astatine nan good pad owed to injection good failure, undetected faults, fractures, seal failure, mediocre tract selection, mediocre preparation, and mineral dissolution. ODNR maps of Ohio’s counties show thousands of orphan lipid wells, fracking wells, and Class II waste brine wells, each of which tin service arsenic a path of slightest guidance for pressurized CO2.

In May, nan U.S. Department of Energy trim $3.7 billion from 24 taxpayer-funded power projects, galore of which were c seizure projects, stating that “they did not meet nan economic, nationalist information aliases power information standards basal to prolong DOE’s investment.”

SB 136, if enacted, will put Ohio communities and residents astatine risk.

Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., is simply a committee personnel of Ohio Valley Environmental Advocates. She writes from Uhrichsville.

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