A look at the 6 FutureGen contenders

Nov 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jake Russell Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Ill.

Proposals rife with geological information and community support letters were submitted to the FutureGen Alliance Nov. 15, putting six communities in the competition for the coveted FutureGen underground carbon dioxide storage hub.

The project, FutureGen 2.0, is a public and private partnership to produce near-zero emissions by retrofitting a power plant in Meredosia to use a new coal-burning technique and then pipe the emissions to an underground storage facility.

The six communities include Morgan County; Willow Grove Carbon Solutions, Fayette County and the city of Vandalia; Douglas County, the city of Tuscola and other partners; Pike County; the city of Quincy; and Christian County Generation and Christian County.

Morgan County

With the help of key players like Allen Oertel, a geologist with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly Inc., and Morgan County Regional Planner Dusty Douglas, a Morgan County committee was able to provide geological details on three sites in the Alexander area where the land matches the criteria. The committee procured almost 100 letters of support, a number that could've likely been larger had it not been for time constraints, said Terry Denison, president of the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation.

Rick Kluge, Jacksonville Fire Department fire chief, submitted a letter when he spoke out about it at a city council meeting.

"I thought if I'm in this position here, it'd be nice to show the fire department is behind it," Kluge said. "If it's something that can bring money and jobs to Morgan County, it'll be a plus."

While Pike County's proposed site is close to Chambersburg and the closest in proximity to the Meredosia power plant, the three locations proposed by Morgan County are a close second. Denison said he believes this is advantageous as the pipeline could cost between $50 million and $300 million depending on location and the Morgan County proposal would save money.

If Morgan County continues to be a contender, people from the FutureGen Alliance will come into the community to hold a public hearing, answer questions, and hear comments and concerns about the project, Denison said. A team will also be sent into the community to talk to people who sent in letters of support and who may or may not identify themselves at area hot spots in an attempt to get a feel for the community's support. The alliance also indicated that it will look at blogs and other media outlets.

"I imagine that they will be here in the community very shortly," Denison said.

Fayette County

When Willow Grove Carbon Solutions, Fayette County and the city of Vandalia submitted a 500-page application, many other contenders were puzzled how somebody could put together such a massive document in such a short time.

The application was led by Willow Grove Carbon Solutions who had been looking at the township site for quite some time, said JoAnn Sasse Givens, director of Economic Development and Tourism for the city of Vandalia.

Sasse Givens began working with the company in June before the FutureGen component was even made available. A geologist studied the land then, collecting data and materials on the site.

The company approaches the process of carbon injection by working with landowners to obtain easements and then providing royalty payments down the line based on the easements secured.

Almost 23,000 acres of land was proposed -- land referred to as the Loudon anticline in the northeastern part of Fayette County that has a history of oil drilling. The anticline, which has an upside-down bowl shape, goes down to 7,000 feet before touching the Mount Simon sandstone formation and the formation itself has a dense layer of shale over it.

The county is the furthest south of any of the others that applied, which may be to its advantage as its distance to the Meredosia power plant is equidistant to many of the coal-fired power plants in central Illinois, Sasse Givens said.

Douglas County

Tuscola likes to think of itself as second place to Mattoon when it comes to the original FutureGen project, said Brian Moody, executive director of Tuscola Economic Development Inc.

Tuscola's involvement with the FutureGen project dates back to 2006 when the Mount Simon formation beat out two proposed sites in Texas through a competitive process. The county retained a significant amount of data, including environmental analysis, cultural impact, biological and terrestrial impact.

Today, the site is "dig-ready," Moody said, because the environmental analysis has been completed and all the legalities for land acquisition have been handled.

The community has retained its spirit of community support from the original project, which had an impressive and successful 1-1/2-year community engagement process, Moody said.

"Our community has been incredibly knowledgeable about carbon capture and storage and some of these projects," Moody said. "We've really tried to distinguish the fact that we've been very comfortable with our relationships over these years and we have great respect for their work and effort."

Moody described the approach to the project as cautious engagement, in which the county seeks to help the FutureGen Alliance determine the truly best location.

"The fact about public support is it's a very gradual thing," Moody said. "You have to reach out to a lot of people and explain the potential risks and the positives. If people haven't had a long enough period of time to really get their facts or really come to an understanding, it's hard for them to be able to make decisions."

Pike County

There is a presence of sandstone in the northeast corner of Pike County but it is, according to the frequently asked questions on the FutureGen Alliance website, a Precambrian layer, which is still part of the Mount Simon formation in Pike County, but thin.

"We may be a little deficient on the depth of sandstone, but we thought it wouldn't hurt us to put something in there," said Shawn Rennecker, city administrator for Barry. "These guys are flexible on this and there are a number of factors that play into this aside from sandstone. We thought we'd try to put our best foot forward."

Quincy

Nobody has ever drilled on the site proposed by Quincy so the colors on the Illinois State Geological Survey map indicating the depth of the Mount Simon formation are what scientists believe they should be, Mayor John Spring said.

"In our application, we knew this and told the alliance right up front that we don't know the geological formations under our proposed site," said Jeff Steinkamp, the city engineer of Quincy. "Our response was, until there is exploratory testing done, we really don't know what is under there."

No test drilling has been done at this point, Steinkamp said. If the alliance requests for the city to drill, it will consider being cooperative depending on cost factors.

The site is more than 1,000 acres on the same property as the Quincy Regional Airport, making it the only site on city property, at least for the injection well.

The 39-page proposal was the shortest of all the proposals submitted but answered all the questions, Steinkamp said.

"I'd love to see it stay in this part of Illinois," Spring said. "Pike County, Morgan County and us are all great locations. It's a regional area and our market area is 125,000 people within about 25 miles so what's good for Jacksonville is good for Quincy and vice versa I would hope."

Christian County

Christian County was working on the Taylorville Energy Center before the sequestration site of FutureGen 2.0 opened up, so it had the geological survey completed for three possible injection sites north of Taylorville township, Christian County Board Chairman John Curtin said.

The Taylorville Energy Center is a $3.5 billion project for a coal gassification plant that would produce natural gas, quality gas or electricity. The county has been working on the project for years and is waiting on approval through the legislature.

"We thought we'd be in a good position to be competitive so we put an application in," Curtin said.

At this point, the county doesn't have any specific support as things have not been publicized to a great extent, Curtin said.

"We have enormous support for the Taylorville Energy Center so I'm sure we'd have support for this too," Curtin said.