EJC is partnering with residents to protect them from risky carbon capture and storage projects (CCS)
Access maps of Illinois Class VI wells here.

Why? Carbon capture, transport by pipeline, and sequestration is risky, ineffective, and wasteful:

• Carbon capture requires 13-44% more energy, increasing electricity costs by 25-50%.
• CCS increases water use for carbon capture. Much of this is used for cooling:
  • 46% more water for an integrated gas combined cycle power plant.
  • 87% more water for a supercritical pulverized coal plant.
• CO2 is a toxic asphyxiant. A pipeline rupture can spread a lethal plume of CO2 over two miles, displacing oxygen, making it difficult for people to escape or be rescued.
• CO2 can escape along injection or monitoring wells, abandoned wells, or move through cracks and fissures in the caprock. There is no guarantee that CO2 can be permanently sequestered for hundreds of years without it leaking. If it leaks, CO2 can contaminate drinking water with health-harming heavy metals that can cause:
  • Cancers.
  • Brain damage, memory loss.
  • Cardiovascular disease.
  • Kidney failure. 
  • Birth defects.
  • Skin lesions.

Yet, project developers are proceeding with 13 carbon capture and sequestration projects in Illinois. Of these, nine are being reviewed by the U.S. EPA. The others have not yet submitted applications to the EPA. The status of these projects is presented in the table below. This table also shows the name of the project, its location, the number of injection wells proposed, and the total volume of CO2 that is proposed to permanently sequestered.

View Class VI projects currently under review at EPA (filter for Illinois)
Class VI Permit Applications in Region 5

What you can do and why it is important
Experts have been hired to review the technical aspects of each permit. Eco-Justice Collaborative, along with its partners who are part of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines, is using this information to:

• Help residents understand the risks associated with carbon storage planned in their county.
• Organize residents and local officials to provide meaningful comments to the U.S. EPA as part of the required public hearing process for Class VI wells.

The U.S. EPA issued the first draft permit for Marquis Energy's Class VI well permit in September 2025. Comments provided by Dr. Lindsey Gulden, PhD, independent data scientist; the Illinois EPA; the Eco-Justice Collaborative; and residents and landowners who live near the storage site can be read here. Their review calls into question the U.S. EPA's decision to issue a Class VI well permit without considering:

• The impacts of increased pressure on an existing hazardous waste well and its associated plume, just 1.3 miles west of the proposed CO2 injection site.
• The seismicity of the area, which has a history of earthquakes and a geologic structure that is thought to have been reactivated.

Be sure to read comments by Dr. Gulden, the Illinois EPA, EJC and our partner organizations.

This first project underscores the importance of our review. Region 5 of the U.S. EPA's review of the first Class VI well permit application in Illinois since ADM Decatur's projects was both faulty and incomplete. U.S. EPA was expected to issue a final permit for this project on February 2, 2026. To date, that permit has not been finalized.

The table below provides timelines for each Class VI Well Project. We are beginning to review documents for One Earth Energy's proposed storage area. If you are interested in this work or affected by one of the nine projects, email Pam.