A Thursday presentation by BP on a proposed Indiana carbon dioxide capture and sequestration project in Indiana elicited a skeptical response from those in attendance.
During the event, held at the Hammond Sportsplex & Community Center, BP staff explained a plan that they said could keep millions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere over the next two decades. The Lake County event was the latest in a series of presentations given in Indiana counties that would be affected by the project.
BP plans to capture carbon dioxide emitted by industrial sites before piping it in a liquid state to injection sites for underground storage. The company envisions trapping the greenhouse gas from both its own sites and those of other carbon-intensive industries in Indiana, such as steel mills, by preventing the substance from entering the atmosphere and contributing to man-made climate change.
Project manager Ed Shahady told the Post-Tribune that BP is targeting 40 million tons of carbon emitted annually by industrial sites in Northwest Indiana.
“I don’t think we’ll get all of it,” he acknowledged. “It would be great if we could from the decarbonization standpoint but I think it would be hard for some industries to put in the proper equipment to actually get that capture to be a reality.”
Federal support for private carbon storage projects forms part of the Biden administration’s climate agenda. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) included $6.5 billion in funding for new carbon management projects over five years, including direct air capture and storage of carbon dioxide. BP has entered into a partnership with the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, a collection of over 60 public and private entities seeking IIJA funds for a regional “hydrogen hub.” BP has plans to construct a hydrogen facility near its oil refinery in Whiting and capture carbon produced through the hydrogen production process.
Not all areas have conditions suitable for carbon sequestration. The process requires rock deposits that are porous enough to allow carbon dioxide to spread out from the injection site and deep enough to prevent it from seeping upwards into the groundwater supply. The rock deposits under Lake County don’t meet the criteria, BP representatives said, so carbon dioxide produced by industrial sites in the area would need to be piped south to more suitable injection sites in other Indiana counties.
To get the project off the ground, BP needs the approval of federal, state, and county officials as well as the landowners under whose properties the carbon dioxide will be stored. The company said it has plans for cash payments to counties affected by the project, to be delivered both at the project’s outset and at certain project milestones, as well as to landowners, though no specific dollar amounts were included the company’s presentation. A company spokesperson said that some agreements with landowners have already been signed, though he did not say how many.
While BP said that it aims to secure 100% participation from affected landowners, it does not need to do so in order to proceed. House Enrolled Act 1209, passed by the Indiana State Legislature in 2022, allows the state to issue an order compelling holdout landowners to accept carbon sequestration if a company can secure the cooperation of the owners of at least 70% of the land overlying a proposed carbon storage space.
Much of the concern over carbon capture stems from a February 2020 carbon dioxide pipeline explosion that occurred in Satartia, Mississippi, a village of around 50 people. The pipeline, owned by the Texas-based Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines, failed after heavy rains caused a hillside underneath it to give way. Because carbon dioxide gas is heavier than air, it stays close to the ground, where it can asphyxiate humans and cause car engines to stall by displacing oxygen. The incident required the evacuation of 200 people the area and 45 people were hospitalized. There were no fatalities.
Dotty Warrick, a resident of Morocco in Newton County, showed up to the Thursday meeting armed with an array of signs calling attention to the Mississippi disaster and urging the rejection of BP’s plan. What happened in Satartia, she fears, could happen in Indiana.
“Why poison ourselves?” she said.
BP staff acknowledged the Satartia explosion in their presentation. Pipeline expert Tim Smith said that the company has reviewed the U.S. Department of Transportation’s report on the incident, which underscored, among other takeaways, “the importance of engagement with local first responders.”
In May of 2022, the department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced its intention to update and strengthen regulations on carbon dioxide pipelines as well as to seek civil penalties amounting to just over $3.8 million from Denbury.
“We support the change,” Smith said. “We’ve managed the change in regulations over the years. We constantly monitor regulations.”
Ashley Williams, executive director of the environmental advocacy organization Just Transition Northwest Indiana, was not convinced.
“That infrastructure is going to rupture,” she said “It’s only a matter of how and when. We have what feels like a jelly donut or a ticking time bomb right under our communities.”
Ray Anderson, a resident of Monon in White County who works in Hammond, told the Post-Tribune that he is concerned about the possible impact of carbon dioxide storage on the well water that he relies on.
“I raise animals on the side,” he said. “I can’t water my my pigs if I don’t have water that’s clean. If it’s not safe for me to drink, it’s not safe for them to do.”
BP staffers told attendees that computer simulations have shown the likelihood of a leak at an injection site to be small, and that a leak could be remediated if it does occur. Anderson, who attended the company’s presentations in both Newton and Lake Counties, isn’t inclined to trust safety claims made by the London-based petroleum giant.
“It’s not like BP has the best track record as a company with making sure they don’t have accidents” he said.
In May, the United States Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with BP Products North America, the BP subsidiary that operates the company’s Whiting Refinery, mandating that the company install $197 million in pollution-prevention improvements and pay a $40 million fine. The settlement concluded litigation brought by the federal government and the state of Indiana over claims that the refinery violated provisions in the Clean Air Act limiting permitted quantities of carcinogenic benzene in refinery wastewater streams and other pollutants in facility emissions.
In June, a partial power outage at the refinery caused by severe weather led to an unplanned flaring of gasses that spread the potentially harmful chemicals sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide across the region, resulting in an acrid smell noted by residents of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties. The company said that the chemicals were not released in a high enough concentrations to pose a health risk and facility operations were stabilized shortly afterwards.
Not all of the Thursday event’s attendees were skeptical. Whiting resident Dave Matura lauded the project as a step in the fight against climate change.
“It benefits society as a whole,” he said. “If one guy doesn’t want you to drive on his farm, well, four million others may perish.”
BP is still in the planning phase of what would be a decades-long project. Before drilling begins, the company must first conduct seismic surveying — using surface vibrations to discern the composition of underground rock deposits — and test samples of rock to ensure that carbon dioxide will remain trapped within it. BP will be required to pay into a trust fund that will go towards the maintenance of the injection sites after the process concludes in the 2040s.
As for Warrick and Anderson, both landowners, they said that they plan to refuse any offers from BP to use their land for injection sites.
“What’s clean drinking water worth?” Anderson said. “That’s kind of priceless.”
Asked if there is a level of public opposition that would be enough to scuttle the proposed carbon storage project, Project Manager Shahady replied that “it’s too early to say.”
adalton@chicagotribune.com
