Posted on 01/14/2015 8:44:01 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
7000 ft below the city of Decatur, Illinois, population 74,710 people, is a high pressure reservoir which contains 1 million tons of CO2.
From the press release:
"One of the largest carbon sequestration projects in the U.S., the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project (IBDP) has reached its goal of capturing 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and injecting it deep underground in the Mount Simon Sandstone formation beneath Decatur, Illinois. The project is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of carbon capture and storage. IBDP director Robert Finley talked about the million-ton milestone with News Bureau physical sciences editor Liz Ahlberg. Finley is director of the Advanced Energy Technology Institute at the Illinois State Geological Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois."
The reservoir has been created to demonstrate the viability of carbon sequestration – capturing large quantities on carbon, to prevent the CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.
The University of Illinois scientists responsible for this demonstration project assure us that the reservoir does not pose a safety threat. According to a University of Illinois press release;
“Extensive monitoring takes place during and after injection to be sure the stored CO2 stays in place. Monitoring techniques include using geophysical technology to confirm the position of the CO2 underground and wells to monitor groundwater and soils.
No out-of-bounds health, safety or environmental risks were observed from this properly designed and managed storage site. Appropriate risk mitigation and management plans were an integral part of the overall project planning. Extensive monitoring took place before, during and now after the injection to be sure the CO2 stays in place. The first line of monitoring begins deep below the ground, so we know if any leakage occurs long before any CO2 might reach the surface.”
http://illinois.edu/emailer/newsletter/65417.html
They’re probably right – when you create a demonstration project, a showpiece for what you hope will become a lucrative business, you want to make sure nothing goes wrong. I’m sure that elaborate precautions have been taken to prevent any possibility of adverse news, in the hope that this reservoir will be the first of many.
However, as the scientists responsible for the project admit, a serious carbon sequestration effort will need to store a lot more than a million tons of CO2. “… One million tons is scalable in its behavior to the 3 million tons that would be emitted annually from a typical medium-sized, coal-fired power plant. …”
If just one of those proposed sequestration projects suffers a major containment breach, say if an earthquake cracks the geological structure, or if a mistake or greed leads to the reservoir being overloaded, the result could be a disaster.
In Africa, in 1986, an abrupt release of an estimated 100,000 – 300,000 tons of CO2 killed 2,500 people up to 25km (15.5 miles) from the source of the release.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster
A similar release near a major city would kill a sizeable fraction of the city’s population. The region of devestation was comparable to the loss of life which would be caused by a large nuclear explosion – the only reason a lot more people didn’t die, was Lake Nyos is a sparsely inhabited rural region.
The Lake Nyos CO2 release was so deadly, because CO2 is heavier than air – when the huge CO2 cloud boiled out of lake Nyos, it hugged the ground, displacing all breathable air to an elevation 10s of ft above ground level, suffocating almost everyone in its path.
Its not just people and animals which would be affected – car engines would also stall, as the blanket of CO2 choked off the supply of oxygen.
If carbon sequestration becomes commonplace, sooner or later someone will get greedy and careless, and will be careless in their choice of geological reservoir, and / or will overload their geological reservoir to boost their bottom line. And that carelessness will, in my opinion, almost inevitably lead to a catastrophic loss of life.
Just add water (vapor) to the process and you have Carbonic Acid.
Think of the mega BB guns that could be fired with all that gas.
hmmm.....shale fracking causes earthquakes and this will not WHY exactly??
Good think it ain’t helium or that mountain would start floating!
Well, there are plenty of places in the country where people live near huge natural gas tank farms. Is an industrial (or sabotage) incident more likely there or in this one-of-a-kind reservoir? I don’t know.
Putting a pressurized and suffocating gas under a city is ok...because nothing could ever go wrong.
Installing an oil pipeline in Nebraska is not ok, because everything could go wrong.
Lib Logic.
Sandstone formation, eh? Several years ago Kansas Gas and electric said they were going to have to jack up gas rates. Shortly after some mobile homes in Hutchinson, Kansas went up in gas explosions from the ground. Investigators found that the gas has leaked from large underground sandstone/limestone storage pockets (results of washing out salt or somesuch) near Yagy, KS. Wonder how this might playout with CO2. I know nothing of geology, but i do know exceeding pressures in vessels not meant to handle them can be a bad thing. Oh and the raised rates? when it was discovered that there was a huge surplus of Nat gas in these resevoirs, KG&E walked back the rate hike talk and gave everyone a 5%+ discount on their bills for a couple of months IIRC.
If the goal is to take CO2 out of the atmosphere, why store it as a gas, which will eventually just leak back out, despite our best efforts?
Here’s an idea, scientists: when you give CO2 to plants, they convert it into solid matter for you, free of charge. Heck, they will even convert it into fuel for you.
Better yet, it might flip over like Guam!
Another question, did all that CO2 come from the breathing of the so-called scientists? Or, did it come from the other end? A Canadian study determined that the average adult human being emits roughly 3 liters of gas a day.
There are 7 billion humans on the face of the earth, perhaps a little math is needed.
Besides, CO2 is only .035% of the atmosphere we breathe.
When this boondoggle scheme blows Decatur to bits the town will then be known as De Crater.
The state should be heavily fined for having that much CO2 in its possession. It has the potential to be released upon us... If it were a company that had that much, they would pay pay pay..
Next they will try diverting the path of the Mississippi River, using spoons.
... if carbon is truly the problem, lets stop recycling paper and plastic. Landfills are a perfect place for ‘carbon sequestration’.
I would love to some rabid environmentalist’s head explode as he weighs out the merits of recycling vs. ‘carbon sequestration’ in landfills. Would love to some tree hugger with bumper stickers of
STOP GLOBAL WARMING!!!
and
STOP RECYCLING NOW!!!
Set the Carbon Free Pinglist!!!!!!please pm me.
Just wait till it leaks back out or erups.
they could put a pipe into it and launch the next space satellite!
Believe me. There are those who are hoping for a catastrophic release from this idiotic boondoggle. When 10 or 20 thousand people suffocate from a catastrophic release... CO2 will be vilified in a way that we have never imagined. This is probably the plan.
Your tax money is hard at work, as always.
If CO2 is such a problem then why are they allowing Big Cola to PUT IT INTO SOFT DRINKS!
This stuff is so deadly and yet they let them make carbonated beverages?
Why is this allowed? (Answer: they are big libs)
If cola companies were big donors to the GOP party they would be suffering the same fate as the tobacco companies
If tobacco companies were big Dem donors we would all be hearing about the healthful effects of “bathing your lungs in cleansing smoke”
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