Thanks to Bill Rau and The Community Word for highlighting the concerns around the massive CO2 pipeline buildout planned for Illinois. These pipelines are dangerous, especially when run through densely populated areas like Peoria’s South Side where the geography ensures the cloud of asphyxiating gas will settle into the valley and make it impossible to breathe. In a cruel irony, dense CO2 clouds in low-lying areas also incapacitate vehicles since internal combustion engines don’t work when there is no oxygen present. Should an accident occur, it will also cut rescue vehicles off from Peoria’s emergency oxygen supply, which is warehoused on the South Side.
This CO2 pipeline spur would continue the legacy of environmental injustice in central Illinois. The South Side has borne more than its share of our area’s cumulative pollution burden for as long as pollution has been tracked. That, amplified by the area’s poverty and high rates of asthma and other respiratory conditions, makes it an inappropriate place to pile on this additional risk.
The CO2 pipeline spur is also troubling because it will extend the life of a polluting neighbor. The whole reason for the spur into Peoria lies with the BioUrja plant on the river at the foot of Edmunds Street. In a rush to claim federal dollars, it is part of a project to capture, compress, pipe and sequester carbon for a lucrative tax credit of $85/ton.
This is the plant that burned for a week last summer, shutting down a bridge and requiring mutual aid from Chicago to put it out. Its persistent, warm-weather odor problem forces residents to close their windows and stay indoors. It’s unclear what exactly is coming out of those stacks, but generally, if it doesn’t smell good, it’s a sign it’s not good for you.
The plant has a spotty pollution record with many quarters of air and water emissions simply unreported. It is not an appropriate neighbor for some of the most vulnerable in our community. We should not throw BioUrja a lifeline and let it use the CO2 capture and pipeline apparatus to claim a false “zero-carbon” title. The overall energy required to actually capture, compress, pipe and sequester the CO2 from plants scattered across Illinois and Iowa, makes this overall project just another source of net CO2 emissions.
To track this issue and for information on ways you can help, please visit
NoToCO2Pipeline.
On the website you can join the Coalition Against CO2 Pipelines mailing list, find out about events, help pass protective legislation and more. The Coalition and others are pushing for state regulations on all aspects of these CO2 pipeline projects and lobbying local electeds to pass HB 3119/ SB2421, The Carbon Dioxide Transport and Storage Protections Act. Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance and Sierra Club Heart of Illinois Group are part of the Coalition and encourage both organizations and individuals to join and stand up to this injustice.
Tracy Fox
Chillicothe