Would you be willing to make a one-time donation to help us move forward, before CO2 pipeline developers re-apply to the ICC?  We estimate creating a model that is calibrated to the Satartia rupture will take six months. You can use the donate button, above, to submit your 501(c)(3) tax deductible donation electronically or send a check made payable to Save Our Illinois Land, and send to:

Make checks payable to:
Save Our Illinois Land
c/o Deni Matthews, President
218 N Oak Ave Bartlett, IL 60103-4074

Please give generously!  This is our opportunity to show the public and the ICC what the real risks of routing a CO2 pipeline through Illinois are to those who live along them - or nearby.

Why do we need our own modeling?
Safety concerns associated with CO2 pipelines and sequestration are legitimate.  The only way you can be safe from the rupture of a CO2 pipeline is to be far enough away from the rupture point so that the plume will dissipate to safe levels before it reaches you.  You can never depend on EMS to save you.

How far away do you have to be?  NO ONE KNOWS!  The pipeline builders don’t want to know because building a safe pipeline, through even a sparsely populated area, may be impossible.  They use computer models which they know produce setback distances that are manifestly unsafe.  The try their best to prevent us seeing the inputs they fed to the models or the details of the results.  They have never released the kind of information on distances, concentrations and durations that are essential to determine safe setbacks.

We know that better models exist that can match the evidence from real disasters like Satartia.  But the pipeline companies will not use them.

When we go to public hearings to educate people about the dangers of CO2 pipelines we are handicapped by not having access to proven models.  When we go before the ICC to oppose pipelines we do not have evidence from models to prove that the proposed pipeline routes are unsafe.

We have a plan to model pipeline ruptures, and a consultant ready to go
After a worldwide search for organizations that have the skills necessary to develop the kind of models we need, we have identified a couple of universities which are willing to work with us.  One of the proposals, which is fantastic, is too expensive for us to afford.  The proposal that we would like to accept is from Professor Gorman in Minnesota whose project we think we can afford and which will give us a good deal of the ability we need to model ruptures in locations along a proposed pipeline route.

What we need
We need $25,000 to undertake the project which will, in the words of Professor Gorman:

“...include a definitive answer as to what parameters cause worst-case distribution of CO2 from a pipe rupture and how bad that distribution would be (area, concentration and duration).”

We are asking for tax-deductible contributions to enable us to start the project, using the donate button below, or by sending a check, made payable to Save Our Illinois Land, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, to:

Save Our Illinois Land
c/o Deni Matthews, President
218 N Oak Ave Bartlett, IL 60103-4074