Pipelines that would store CO2 beneath Midwest states make some landowners nervous

Karen Brocklesby describes herself as a farm wife and a mother — but over the past several months, she’s also become somewhat of an activist.

Brocklesby lives in Christian County, Illinois. She’s one of many rural landowners there fighting to keep a company called Navigator Ventures LLC from injecting carbon dioxide beneath her farmland.

“This potential for damaging the water for the future – to me, it just is foolishness. Especially in areas that are good farming areas,” Brockelsby said.

Brockelsby has a list of concerns about carbon sequestration. But chief among them is the worry that sequestered carbon could contaminate the area’s water supply.

“It would be a danger to both our agriculture production and, even more importantly, to the drinking water for everybody who lives in this area,” she said.

Brocklesby isn’t alone. Christian County is awash in signs and billboards urging residents to protect the aquifer from pipeline projects.