Take Action: Protect the Mahomet Aquifer
11/1/24
Action Required
The Mahomet Aquifer is the sole source aquifer for nearly one million people in Central Illinois — and it is currently at risk. Tell your state senator and state representative to protect Illinoisans’ drinking water by passing SB3968/HB5874.
Please use the following template to email or send a letter to your legislators before the Illinois General Assembly’s Veto Session begins on November 12.
Dear Representative _________,
Please support HB5874 to protect the Mahomet Aquifer against the dangers posed by carbon capture and sequestration. This action is needed because previous legislation (SB1289) did not adequately recognize that alternative drinking water supplies are not available in this region of Illinois. Whether or not the Mahomet Aquifer is in the district you represent, it is important that all of our state officials recognize their responsibility to protect the citizens of Illinois, and that includes the nearly 1 million people in 100 communities and 14 counties who count on this sole water source for safe drinking water.
[Optional addition:] A fact sheet with additional information is attached.
Thank you,
[Name and address]
Dear Senator _________,
Please support SB3968 to protect the Mahomet Aquifer against the dangers posed by carbon capture and sequestration. This action is needed because previous legislation (SB1289) did not adequately recognize that alternative drinking water supplies are not available in this region of Illinois. Whether or not the Mahomet Aquifer is in the district you represent, it is important that all of our state officials recognize their responsibility to protect the citizens of Illinois, and that includes the nearly 1 million people in 100 communities and 14 counties who count on this sole water source for safe drinking water.
[Optional addition:] A fact sheet with additional information is attached.
Thank you,
[Name and address]
Background
The Mahomet Aquifer is the lifeblood of Central Illinois, supplying clean drinking water to over 100 communities and tens of thousands of rural homes across 14 counties. The EPA’s designation of the Mahomet Aquifer as a sole source aquifer underscores its irreplaceable importance.
Current Illinois law leaves the Mahomet Aquifer vulnerable. It requires companies to provide an alternative if a primary drinking water source becomes contaminated from the injection and storage of CO2. For the sole-source designated Mahomet Aquifer, there is no reasonably available alternative drinking water source. Therefore, no company could meet this requirement.
For the Mahomet Aquifer, the risk tolerance is ZERO. Leaks are inevitable. Twice already this year, ADM’s active carbon sequestration project in Decatur leaked. The 2016 Peoples Gas leak near the Village of Mahomet demonstrates the difficulty of cleaning up leaks. After a methane leak occurred, impacted community members still rely on bottled water years later.
Three proposed projects currently threaten the Mahomet Aquifer, and more may be proposed without swift action. The proposed projects would store 215 million metric tons of CO2 under the Mahomet Aquifer and its precious recharge zones. This is 50 times the volume of carbon ever stored in Illinois.
Support SB3968 / HB5874 to ban carbon sequestration through and under the Mahomet Aquifer and its recharge areas, and protect drinking water for Central Illinois.
League Position
The League supports stringent controls to protect the quality of current and potential drinking-water supplies, including protection of watersheds for surface supplies and of recharge areas for groundwater. We also support measures to reduce water pollution from direct point-source discharges and from indirect nonpoint sources, as well as water resource programs and policies that reflect the interrelationships of water quality, water quantity, groundwater, and surface water and that address the potential depletion or pollution of water supplies. (LWVUS, Impact on Issues, pg 96: Water Resources)
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