LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Who Bears the Risk from Navigator's Heartland Greenway Project?

Taylorville Daily News
Posted May 12, 2022

Dear Editor:

Area farmers and landowners have been talking about the Heartland Greenway project for the storage of CO2 in Christian County for several months now. It’s time all county residents get an understanding of what this means to all of us.  The proposed project involves the construction of a 1300-mile-long pipeline to bring industrial waste, in the form of highly pressurized CO2, from ethanol plants in 5 states and pump it under the productive farm ground of Christian County, just north of Taylorville.

Heartland Greenway advertises that they are working hard locally to provide a project that “leads to a prosperous future for Christian County.”  However, there is really nothing in this project to prosper Christian County.  However, there are multiple short-term and long-term risks.  Risks to water, risks to the productivity of farm ground and most importantly, risks to the health and lives of people near this pipeline and storage area.  The county will collect some fees but the project doesn’t pay taxes that would benefit the county.  The project doesn’t provide jobs or products that we need.  It’s not really even a solution to climate concerns as the carbon emissions involved in building and using the pipeline largely offset that which is being stored.

The bottom line is this: the Heartland Greenway CO2 sequestration project is a grab for federal tax dollars (which, of course, come out of your and my pocket) while leaving the residents of Christian County to deal with the risks for years and years to come.

Sincerely,

Karen Brockelsby
Edinburg, IL  62531