The company planning to build a 1,300-mile carbon capture pipeline system through five states, including Illinois and Iowa, will hold informational meetings in western Illinois.
All of the meetings are scheduled for next week:
- Tuesday, January 11, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Knoxville American Legion
- Tuesday, January 11, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Spoon River College Community Outreach Center in Macomb
- Wednesday, January 12, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. University of Illinois Extension Center in Carthage
- Wednesday, January 12, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Knights of Columbus in Mt. Sterling
Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Navigator Heartland Greenway, which proposed building the pipeline, said the meetings will be open house style so that people can arrive when they want and ask questions directly of the company’s representatives.
“We’re trying to make sure that we have a format that’s most efficient for everyone,” she said.
“We thought having a large block of time that people can come when it’s convenient for them and stay as long as they’d like until they get their questions answered provides more flexibility.”
Virtual meetings will also be held. You can register for the January 14 virtual meeting in Illinois here or for the January 19 virtual meeting in Iowa here.
In this region, the proposed pipeline will run through McDonough, Knox, Fulton, Schuyler, Hancock, Adams, and Brown counties in Illinois as well as Lee, Des Moines, and Van Buren counties in Iowa.
The project will capture carbon dioxide from biofuel plants in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and South Dakota. The carbon dioxide will be dehydrated and then compressed into a liquid that is a hazardous material. That liquid will be sent through steel pipes to a sequestration site in Christian County in south central Illinois.
“Ultimately pumping that about a mile to a mile-and-a-half underground into a porous formation that’s found in that geological formation in that area where it’s permanently stored.”
Burns-Thompson said the pipeline’s final path has not been chosen. She said the company is studying a half-mile wide corridor.
“What that half-mile corridor does allow for us is kind of an initial observation area for us to then go out and begin doing surveys and working with landowners and tenants and local leaders along that footprint to determine where within that half-mile makes the most sense for final placement or determination of that ultimate route.”
Burns-Thompson said Navigator will need about a 50-foot easement for the pipeline, which could be built in 2024.
Navigator will need to get permits from the states involved and from the federal government before construction can begin.
The company said the project will create around 8,000 construction jobs and an estimated 80 permanent jobs.
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