TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County Commissioners got an earful Tuesday morning from opponents of Wabash Valley Resources’ plans to construct two deep underground injection wells for carbon dioxide in West Terre Haute and Vermillion County.
The focus of those addressing the commissioners was the Community Benefits Agreement that WVR has proposed.
The document explaining the CBA, which the commissioners shared Monday afternoon, can be found at bit.ly/3LaFIRv or downloaded from this story at www.tribstar.com.
The meeting at moments grew testy and emotional, although discourse was largely civil.
Speakers during the meeting’s public comments section were unmoved that WVR’s proposal to endow the Wabash Valley Community Foundation with a fund that grew from an initial $1 million in an earlier draft of the CBA to $3 million currently.
They were more concerned with the perception that commissioners have not been seriously paying attention to their complaints.
Whitney Boyce was the first to speak. She decried “the façade of community input, without opportunities for dialogue,” referring to Monday’s private meeting between WVR and the individual commissioners, while most residents have only been extended an email address for comments.
Moreover, Boyce said commissioners established a deadline of noon Monday for comments. Given that the July 4th holiday is coming up, that only gave people three business days to respond, she said.
Boyce also noted that the United States Geological Survey shares residents’ concerns and that it was not invited to monitor the injection wells for seismic activity. Both of her concerns were voiced by a number of those who spoke.
Flo Evinger began her comments with what she called a joke: “How do you define deregulation? I get to poison you as long as it’s possible.” She opined that commissioners were allowing just a few days to respond on something so important to residents yet something “so vague and unclear.”
She closed with a quote from a popular crime novelist’s book lambasting politicians.
Clinkenbeard said the commissioners were there to listen to residents’ concerns, not to be insulted, adding, “We are taking the brunt of this anger aimed at state legislators.”
Matt Larimer told the commissioners that those assembled “want you to be mad at these state legislators” and manifest that dissatisfaction more assertively.
John Ford — no relation to former state Sen. Jon Ford — said to the commissioners, “We’re attacking this attack on us. … It feels like you’re selling us out.”
Commissioner Mike Morris said, “If the community does not take this money, that does not stop the [Wabash Valley Resources] plan. The plan will go ahead.”
Clinkenbeard agreed, saying after the meeting, “WVR has told us that this project is moving forward regardless of this CBA.”
A couple of speakers said accepting the money was not worth the potential fallout.
Amy MacLennan grew emotional as she spoke. “I don’t want to give this company any leverage even if it costs millions of dollars.”
Brendan Kearns, former commissioner and now executive director of Vigo County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, offered his thoughts on the CBA.
He recalled that he walked out of the first meeting with WVR regarding the deep underground injection wells. Today, he told Clinkenbeard sympathetically, “It’s a no-win deal.”
Kearns said that after listening to experts brought in to assess the impact of carbon sequestration, “I’m OK with that.” He also expressed hope that environmental groups will benefit from money earmarked in the CBA.
“Don’t pass on the money,” he advised.
After the meeting, Boyce spoke with Morris and Vigo County Commissioners attorney Terry Modesitt.
“If we could get together as stakeholders and have a conversation — not yelling, not any of that — just working together to figure out what is the best for those people out there,” Boyce said. “I really think that’s necessary and we can’t do that by [July] 8th. We absolutely would come to stakeholder meetings. We were at Fayette [Elementary School] en masse, but that’s the only one we’ve been given.”
Modesitt told her, “We’ll try to get the deadline extended.”
Clinkenbeard said he was in favor of getting the USGS involved.
“We will certainly talk to WVR about the third party monitoring and speaking for myself, I would be in favor of this,” he said.
“We are looking at extending the comment period for a few days, but not weeks. Our attorney, Terry Modessitt met with a couple folks afterwards and we have asked for the group to make a list of their requests and we will schedule a meeting with them,” said Clinkenbeard.
WVR Vice President of External Affairs Gregory Zoeller, however, said he doesn’t believe adding USGS’s direct involvement would be helpful.
“Our EPA Class VI permit requires that we use the current USGS monitoring which is publicly available,” Zoeller, who was not in attendance but emailed the Tribune-Star later.
“If there are significant seismic events [unassociated with our project] in the region we need to check our wells to determine whether there was any impact,” Zoeller said. “So, the USGS monitoring for seismic activity is already a part of our regulatory safety framework.”
He added, “I’m not sure how WVR could provide their current monitoring as part of our community benefits.”
After the meeting, Janet Strole Cianteo was ready for another one, with WVR present.
“We have to have an open meeting with all of the community directly affected by Wabash Valley Resources and it has to be where everyone is making a comment freely,” said Cianteo. “It has to be done before August 1. And no deadlines on this agreement, because that is unfair to those who do not have access to the internet, emails and newspaper.”
Boyce also noted that another option exists beyond meetings — arguing before a court.
“We are in talks with attorneys in Vigo County and we’ve been in talks with people at various levels — the state legislature, attorneys for the state, and they are concerned about the possibility of litigation for this,” she said.
“Litigation is not our goal, but if that’s what it takes to get the protections in place for our community, that’s what’s going to have to happen.”
Commissioner Chris Switzer was not in attendance at the meeting.
Also on Tuesday morning, Vermillion County’s Commissioners tabled their community benefits agreement, reported Susan Strole-Kos, who attended the Vermillion County meeting.
She said Vermillion County Commissioners felt the community should be involved and should have more input.
“They are going to put something out to inform people,” Strole-Kos said.
In 2023, Senate Bill 451 authorized WVR allowing carbon sequestration in West Terre Haute and Vermillion Counties, paving the way for the deep underground injection wells.
Since then, citizens have publicly expressed anger that WVR was able to embark on such a project without more input from local leaders and citizens.
