OH residents watching bills proposing carbon-dioxide storage under homes

Terri Dee

A bill which could approved the injection of large amounts of carbon emissions or industrial carbon dioxide into underground Ohio wells is raising concern.

Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency makes carbon storage decisions but if House Bill 358, pending in Columbus, becomes law, companies would be allowed to capture carbon emissions from industrial facilities and bury them underground.

Tom Torres, hydrogen program director for the Ohio River Valley Institute, said U.S. regulators and developers have very little hands-on practical operational experience with the technology.

"This is largely untested," Torres emphasized. "It's an immensely complex kind of operation that is taking place in a very poorly understood geology, and particularly a geology that is also peppered with holes from the oil and gas industry."

In 2020, a CO2 pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi, ruptured, causing 200 residents to evacuate and hospitalizing 45 people. Another fear is carbon injection companies may obtain underground pore space -- empty space between particles of soil, sand, rock and sediment -- without a landowner's consent. According to the site NationalGrid.com, carbon capture storage removes CO2 emissions, which could help address climate change.

Under the newly amended bill, liability for cleanup, disaster response and repair costs would fall to taxpayers.

Randi Pokladnik, an environmental scientist and activist, sees a lack of experience and knowledge in maintaining CO2 transport and injection wells on the part of Ohio regulators, which she called dangerous.

"I think the biggest issue for me, being a scientist, is the fact that the legislatures will only listen to what the oil and gas industry tells them," Pokladnik stressed. "They do not have the science background to be making decisions like this."

Critics said injection wells are not maintained properly and pressurized carbon could affect groundwater supplies businesses and homes depend on.

Carol, Jefferson and Harrison counties are targeted for the storage wells by a Texas-based company, Tenaska. Under the measure, companies would receive extensive tax credits for storing CO2.