Community Corner Archive

November 7, 2011

Characterization Well Drilling Progress

Significant progress has been made in drilling the geologic characterization well in Morgan County. The well will not only benefit the FutureGen 2.0 project, but will also add to the scientific understanding of the Illinois geology. After completion and quality assurance, the results of the drilling effort will be shared with the Illinois State Geologic Survey and the public.

Drilling began on October 5. Initially, a 30-inch bit was used to drill down to the bedrock. At this depth a 24-inch steel casing was cemented into the hole. This initial casing isolates all drilling and testing from the surface geology, thereby protecting the surface geology and any shallow groundwater. Drilling then proceeded with a smaller bit to a depth of about 570 feet. At that point, a 16-inch steel casing was cemented into the hole. This second casing runs all the way to the surface and provides a second level of environmental protection and stabilized the wellbore.

The drill team is now using a 14-3/4 bit and as of November 1, at 7:00 AM, the drill bit reached 2,718 feet. Drilling speed varies, depending on the hardness of the rock formation at a particular depth. Currently, around 100 feet of rock is being drilled through each day. Intermittently, drilling pauses for various geologic tests, changing drill bits, or other engineering activities. The team predicts that the target geologic formation—the Mount Simon sandstone—will be reached in December. To date, the drilling rate has been right on schedule. The final borehole depth is estimated to be around 5,100 feet. A core sample of several of the formations will be extracted to verify the suitability of the rock to store CO2. No actual injection of CO2 will occur in this borehole as it is only for geologic characterization.

The team wants to confirm the physical properties, including the thicknesses and the porosity, of the different rock formations. It is important to the success of the project to have an impermeable rock layer—often a shale referred to as the caprock—above the target storage formation. This caprock is needed to ensure that the CO2, which is ultimately injected into sandstone called the Mount Simon, is retained in that formation. The cap rock—called the Eau Claire—will also be sampled. These properties, as well as a number of others, will be characterized as part of the drilling operation.

October 3, 2011

Drilling equipment mobilized following completion of characterization well pad

Construction of the characterization well pad at the FutureGen 2.0 storage site in Morgan County has been completed. Drilling equipment will be mobilized to the site the week of October 3 and drilling will begin shortly thereafter. The purpose of the well is to thoroughly characterize the full column of rock, including the Mount Simon sandstone, which is the target formation for CO2 storage. No CO2 will be injected in this well now or in the future.

During construction of the well pad by local union contractor UCM, steps were taken to ensure that the environment is protected. As built, the well pad is surrounded by a berm on three sides that has drainage and erosion controls to ensure that storm water is properly managed. These controls include covering the berms with topsoil and planting grass seed and placing erosion control blankets on slopes, berms, and ditches around the well pad. In addition, a reserve pit has been dug and lined with a rubber liner to contain any excess fluids generated during drilling. Alliance contractor, Patrick Engineering Inc. of Springfield, Ill, conducted testing and quality assurance. All construction activities were performed smoothly with no unforeseen difficulties.

When mobilization of the drilling rig begins, approximately twenty semi-truck loads will be required to move it to the site. Major drilling equipment components will include the drilling rig, a fuel tank, water tanks, pumps for circulating drilling mud, steel pits (tanks) for mud cleaning (i.e., solids settling) and mixing the drilling mud, pipe racks for holding drilling pipe, and a generator/light plant. In addition, two temporary office trailers will be installed at the site.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, has approved the Alliance’s permit for drilling. The characterization well will be approximately 5,100 feet deep and drilling is expected to take about 90 days, followed by approximately 3 to 4 weeks of additional on-site characterization activities. Once initiated, drilling will generally occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the site design, the berms and temporary trailers are arranged as noise barriers between the site and local residents to minimize potential noise impacts.

After drilling is completed, a wellhead will be installed and the equipment will be removed. The wellhead will allow access to the wellbore for future geologic monitoring. A portion of the gravel pad surrounding the characterization well and an access road will remain for long-term access. The remainder of the site will be restored to its original condition unless the landowners request certain improvements remain (e.g., drainage systems or portions of the gravel pad that might be suitable for hosting various farm facilities).

Part of ensuring public and worker safety is to control site access during drilling. For those interested in visiting the site, please send an email to cplowfield@futgen.org and a tour will be arranged on a case-by-case basis at a prescheduled time.

August 15, 2011

Work progressing on geologic characterization well pad

Union contractor, UCM is making quick progress in the construction of a drilling pad. The pad will be for the characterization well at the site in Morgan County. The drilling pad is made of compacted gravel and is 300 feet by 350 feet. The farm road leading to the site has been upgraded substantially to allow for safe truck travel. To construct the pad, an area was cleared by removing and reserving the top soil for ultimate site restoration. The reserved soil has been formed into a berm to decrease noise levels to the surrounding area during drilling. After drilling and installation of the wellhead and casing, the size of the pad will be reduced by removing some of the gravel and replacing the topsoil. In addition to serving as a geologic characterization well in the short-term, the well may serve as a monitoring well for decades to come.

The Alliance anticipates that site preparations will be completed the week of August 15. Immediately thereafter, a small drill owned by the Illinois State Geological Survey will be onsite for several days to drill a shallow characterization and groundwater monitoring well. Shortly thereafter, the larger drilling rig for the deep geologic characterization well will arrive onsite. The characterization well will extend to the full depth of the Mount Simon formation and about 150 below into the underlying granite. The total depth will be nearly a mile below the earth’s surface. The purpose of the characterization well is to thoroughly evaluate the full column of rock, including the caprock overlying the Mount Simon, to confirm that the area is an excellent match for CO2 storage. The geologic characterization well drilling and installation effort is expected to take about 3 months to complete. No CO2 will be injected into the well now or in the future. It is for characterization and monitoring only.

FutureGen Citizens’ Board meets to discuss ideas for visitor, research and training facilities

On August 9, the FutureGen Citizens’ Board met in Jacksonville. The focus was on identifying functional requirements for the visitor, research and training facilities.

The Alliance presented information on the budget, scope, and operating model of similar facilities in the region, the U.S., and the world to help stir the discussion. Board members provided excellent input on the potential functions of the planned facilities. They were asked to identify three to five functions that they would like considered in the final design of the facilities. For each suggested function, board members are identifying the audience that would benefit from the function, the partners needed to make sure the function can be successfully implemented, and the funding model for helping to cover operational costs.

If anyone in the community has ideas that they want to make sure are considered in the design of the facilities, please contact anyone on the board and share your thoughts so that they may be included or email the Alliance at info@futuregenalliance.org.

July 25, 2011

Construction work begins to prepare for drilling geologic characterization well

United Contractors Midwest (UCM) Inc. has begun road upgrades in the Beilschmidt Road area in preparation for drilling a geologic characterization well later this summer. These road upgrades will also benefit neighbors who live in the area. UCM won the contract in a competition between three construction firms located in Morgan and Sangamon counties. Consistent with the Alliance’s commitment to union labor, UCM will staff the construction project with union labor.

Construction work will include:

• Building pullouts on Beilschmidt Road so that vehicles can more safely pass each other;
• Upgrading a private farm road that will connect Beilschmidt Road to the characterization well site;
• Removing and storing top soil at the characterization well site, so that after drilling is complete and the drilling equipment is gone, much of the top soil can be replaced and the ground can be returned to productive farm land;
• Building a gravel pad at the characterization well site where the well will be drilled.

The Alliance also signed a repair and maintenance agreement with the Morgan County Road District. This assures that if any of the FutureGen’s heavy trucks damage any county roads in the area (e.g., inadvertently create potholes) the FutureGen project will pay to return them to equal or better condition.

The Alliance has also finalized a contract for the drilling work with Les Wilson, Inc., an Illinois drilling company, that won the competition to drill the well. Les Wilson is one of very few drillers in the region with the qualifications and equipment to drill the type of very deep well that is required. Drilling is expected to begin by mid-August. The well will be used to study the geology nearly a mile deep underground. It will only be used for scientific study and no CO2 will be injected into the well. Data collected from this well will increase our understanding of the underlying geology and help further validate that the proposed storage site is good for long-term storage of CO2.

July 11, 2011

Alliance Seeking Input on FutureGen 2.0 Visitor, Research and Training Facilities

The FutureGen Citizens’ Board will host a teleconference this week to start a discussion about functional requirements desired by the community for the visitor, research, and training facilities to be built by the Alliance in support of the FutureGen 2.0 project. In-person meetings with the Board and with other interested stakeholders will be scheduled for August. At these meetings, the Board will seek citizens’ views on what factors they want to see considered in the function and design. One of the big questions is whether the community would want new construction or rehabilitation of existing building(s). Above all, the Alliance wants to ensure that any facilities built are sustainable and that the mission/vision and operating principles of these facilities includes community input.

This is a long-term partnership that the Alliance will have in the community and it wants to have an open, upfront discussion as to the broad community’s vision and interests. Citizens who would like to have their ideas considered on this subject are asked to please contact the Alliance directly by sending an email to info@futuregenalliance.org or by contacting one of the members on the Citizens’ Board – the list of members is provided on this website. We will make sure that your ideas are considered.

June 20, 2011

DOE Scoping Meeting Turnout

On June 9th, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted its Morgan County scoping meeting associated with its environmental review of sites for FutureGen 2.0.

At an informal open house held between 5:00-7:00 p.m., DOE, Ameren, the FutureGen Alliance, and the Illinois State Geological Survey presented posters, videos, and hands-on displays to describe different aspects of the project and answered questions from the citizens who attended. The formal meeting began at 7:00 p.m. with presentations from the various entities representing the project. Alliance CEO Ken Humphreys stressed that the purpose of this first round of public meetings was to hear stakeholders’ issues and concerns because “we can’t address concerns unless they are raised.” Several citizens expressed their views regarding the project and raised issues that they felt need to be considered during the environmental review process.

DOE is compiling all of the comments and others that may be submitted during the public comment period which ends on June 22, 2011, and will place a report on their website in the next few weeks. DOE plans to host its next public meetings in the spring of 2012 following the release of its draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Environmental Educational Opportunities

The FutureGen Alliance is developing its Monitoring, Verification, and Accounting (MVA) plan, which will to include the activities and systems that will be used to study and monitor the injected CO2 for the life of the project. The plan will also include opportunities to engage local schools and colleges to participate in monitoring activities. Near-term monitoring activities planned by the Alliance will determine the existing environmental conditions. These include monitoring for:

1. Groundwater conditions
2. Ecological conditions – surveying wetlands, surface water, and natural vegetation
3. Atmospheric conditions
4. Soil gas and naturally produced CO2
5. Remote sensing – spectral analysis of forest canopy and crop density
6. Crop productivity

The Alliance plans to work through the FutureGen Citizens’ Board, on which several senior educators serve, to identify specific mechanisms to involve faculty and students in this work. Funding will be allocated for this effort. Depending on interest, faculty and students could be involved in the project on a long-term basis in helping to collect and analyze the environmental data.

June 6, 2011

Preliminary Groundwater and Geology Field Work Planned

In mid-July, the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) will drill a shallow groundwater well at the Morgan County Site off of Beilschmidt Road. The purpose of this well is to use it as a source of monitoring during the life of the project. The team wants to collect baseline information on the site before drilling the deep characterization well that will be put in place after the groundwater well. This shallow well will be drilled to about 150-200 feet. As the drilling occurs, continuous rock samples will be collected to characterize the shallow geology in detail. The chemistry and physical properties of the groundwater will be tested and used to develop an environmental baseline picture of the site.

In addition to drilling a new groundwater well for the project, the team is interested in knowing the quality of the groundwater at near-by wells. This information will also serve as a baseline. The ISGS will collect samples from private and domestic wells within a few miles of the site. A field inventory will be made of the source of water for each residence by either visual inspection of the property for the presence of a water well or interviewing the residents. The team will identify a subset of around ten wells and request permission from the landowners to sample them for water quality. This field work should occur between July 15 and August 30, 2011. A report documenting the results from these samples will be shared with the residents.

May 13, 2011

Alliance Board Visits Morgan County, Hosts Open House at Jacksonville Office

On May 3nd, the Alliance board was “met” in Meredosia and in Jacksonville with “Welcome FutureGen” signs and banners lining the streets. The board first toured the Ameren facility and saw the unit that is planned to be repowered using oxy-combustion and then traveled to Jacksonville to begin its meeting. That evening, the Alliance hosted a public reception at its new office and was pleased to have over 100 citizens attend. Numerous posters were displayed around the office to describe the project.  Morgan County Board Chairman Brad Zeller presented  Alliance CEO Ken Humphreys and Alliance Board Chairman Steve Winberg with a joint proclamation plaque declaring it FutureGen appreciation week. The community spirit left a lasting, positive impression on the board, and they carried that impression back home with them to many corners of the country and world—Morgan County is a positive place to do business and aspires to be a center for clean energy technology development.

Characterization Well Siting and Pipeline Corridor Planning

Engineering and legal work continues in support of the characterization well siting and pipeline corridor siting. Cultural resource surveys were completed on two potential sites for characterization wells in Morgan County. These surveys are designed to ensure that the project will not disturb any cultural resources (e.g., ancient Native American sites, historical sites, etc.).  No impacted resources were discovered in any areas proposed for surface disturbance activities, which is good news. The Alliance team continues to consult with its cultural resources subcontractor regarding available data on sensitive cultural resources within the pipeline corridors.

Wetland surveys were completed on the potential characterization well site in Morgan County. The survey confirmed that no wetlands were present on the proposed site. This is also good news. Other meetings have been held with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers, and US Fish & Wildlife.  These meetings are to ensure that all of the requirements for protecting the environment are followed carefully in planning FutureGen.

Water Main Extension Project Moving Forward

The Alliance and the North Morgan Water Coop (NMWC) will cooperate to fund and build a water main line along Beilschmidt Road to supply water for the characterization drilling and to several residents in the area. Originally, the extension project would have occurred at least 18 months in the future and the coop members would have had to bear the full cost of the project. Through the cooperation agreement, FutureGen will share 50% of the total cost, reducing the financial burden on the coop, and accelerating the project by 18 months. The Alliance is pleased that the NMWC has agreed to manage contracting and constructing the water main extension. The NMWC staff has been outstanding partners. It is estimated that the water main extension will be in service by June 1st.

Upcoming US Department of Energy Public Scoping Meetings

On June 7, 8, and 9th, the US Department of Energy (DOE) will be conducting public scoping meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to provide information to the public regarding the proposed project and to hear public comments on the scope of the environmental impact statement (EIS) that DOE is preparing for FutureGen 2.0. The EIS is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and must be completed prior to a final decision that would allow construction of the project. The EIS will help ensure that human health and safety are fully protected during the project.

The meetings will be held at the preferred and alternate sites in the following locations:

• June 7 – Taylorville, Illinois (Taylorville High School)
• June 8 – Tuscola, Illinois (Ironhorse Golf Club)
• June 9 – Jacksonville, Illinois (Jacksonville Elks Lodge)

For each of the meetings, DOE will hold an open house with posters and informational materials from about 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.; the formal part of the scoping meeting during which public comments will be taken will be held from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. These meetings will be publicized through various local media outlets. The Alliance will be present to answer questions during the open house part of the meeting.

 

May 3, 2011

Alliance Encourages Feedback on Planned Visitor, Research and Training Facilities

Numerous stakeholders from Morgan County, including representatives from MacMurray College and Illinois College, participated in meetings with the Alliance to discuss community ideas for the planned visitor, research and training facilities. The meetings were conducted by the Alliance’s Stakeholder Engagement Team lead by Gretchen Hund and Sallie Greenberg. Others are encouraged to join this discussion either by contacting a member of the FutureGen Citizens’ Board or through the website info@futuregenalliance.org.

Characterization Well Siting Underway

The Alliance is working to identify an appropriate location for the characterization well in Morgan County, and characterization well(s) as for the alternative sites in Douglas County and Christian County.  The data from these wells will increase our understanding of the underlying geology and help further validate that the proposed storage site(s) are good locations for long term storage of CO2.  None of these wells will be used to inject CO2; they will only be used for geologic study and monitoring. The Morgan County well will be located west of Route 123 and north of I-72. The precise location in being determined.

Environmental Review Provides Opportunity for Public Input

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is starting preparation of an environmental impact statement as required by The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA establishes policies and goals for protecting, maintaining, and enhancing the environment. It also establishes the process by which federal agencies must study the environmental effects of their actions so that those effects are considered during federal decision-making. As part of the NEPA process DOE will host a Scoping Meeting at each of the sites in the upcoming months. These meetings allow community members to ask questions and voice concerns and issues that will be taken into consideration as part of the analysis for the environmental impact statement. Once the date and location for these meetings are available they will be publicized through various local media outlets.

FutureGen Alliance Board of Directors Hosting Open House on May 3

The FutureGen Alliance Board of Directors will be visiting Morgan County, May 3-4, 2011. An open house will be held at the FutureGen Alliance Jacksonville Office, at 73 Central Park Plaza E on May 3rd from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  All community members are welcome to attend. This is opportunity for the Alliance to thank the community for its support and for the community to meet Alliance staff and directors in a casual setting. Additional formal Q&A sessions are planned for later a later date. For more information about the open house or to RSVP, please contact Carole Plowfield at cplowfield@futgen.org.