Carbon storage landmen expected to visit county residents

By Thomas Clapper
CCM Reporter
Commissioner Robert Wirkner reported at the Oct. 19 commissioners meeting he met with representatives from Tenaska, Inc. to discuss carbon storage in the county.
“Mandated CO2 compliance regulations are about to be implemented and they will require CO2 to be recaptured when used,” said Wirkner. “This will affect the commissioners and landowners. Emitters of CO2 will be forced to properly mitigate the CO2.”
Wirkner said a big emitter for Carroll County is the power plant. Tenaska’s proposal to mitigate CO2 once captured is to store it underground. Storage will be handled like pooled units for oil wells.
“A well is drilled but instead of taking a product out, the CO2 is put in,” Wirkner said.
The pool unit is expected to be 10,000 to 15,000 acres. Landmen should begin contacting property owners soon. Wirkner said the CO2 is transported by pipeline, not by truck so there shouldn’t be additional traffic. Commissioner Wirkner advised that as long as a pooled unit has CO2 stored, landowners in the unit will receive an annual payment.
“If somebody knocks on your door regarding carbon sequestering this is what it is about,” said Wirkner.
Tenaska representatives made a presentation to the Carroll County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) in September 2022. At that time, the company was looking to drill test wells in the area to determine if the geographic makeup of the soil was suitable.
During that session, Monte Ten Kley, project manager, explained the process.
“Industrial processes emit CO2, which is considered a greenhouse gas. The idea is to capture it and inject it into the ground for storage. Over a period of years, the carbon becomes part of the rock structure. Many industries which utilize CO2 in their manufacturing process consider injection wells as a tool and are looking to build facilities in the area where injection wells are located,” he said.
He noted there is a market to sell C02 and the pressure it is injected at is very low, so there is little danger of earthquakes.
He also noted wells can be above or below the shale layer in which oil and gas are located and injection does not affect the layers like fracking does.