Rural Illinois Residents Protest Plan to Power Data Centers With Natural Gas Plus Carbon Capture

# What happened Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) plans to expand carbon capture and storage operations at its Decatur campus by adding a natural gas–fired power plant built by Broadwing Energy in partnership with Google. The plant's energy would help power Google's data centers across the Midwest while using carbon capture to meet corporate emissions goals. The expansion would add several new injection wells and could raise sequestration volumes to as much as 2 million tons of CO2 per year.

# Why residents are protesting Longstanding local opposition centers on a 2024 disclosure that ADM's carbon capture monitoring wells had experienced leaks. E&E News reported the leaks, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later found the CCS project had violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. Those events spurred distrust in Decatur and prompted community organizing by Illinois People's Action (IPA).

Residents who live inside the federally mandated Area of Review — the zone around ADM's sequestration wells where impacts must be evaluated — say the company did not provide timely, clear information after the leaks. They worry that expanding injection operations and adding wells could increase the chance of further unintended fluid movement underground, which they fear could reach Lake Decatur, the community's primary source of drinking water.

# Who is organizing locally

# What regulators and ADM have done Following the 2024 revelations, ADM addressed engineering issues and repaired the leaking monitoring wells in August 2025. The EPA had placed scrutiny on the project after the leaks and the Safe Drinking Water Act finding. The company's fixes came after that regulatory review, but community members say fixes do not remove concerns about future expansion or about whether monitoring and reporting will be sufficient.

# Scope of the proposed expansion The planned expansion would include five new wells under consideration for permits and would more than quadruple the current rate of sequestration in Decatur. The increased injection would be part of the arrangement supplying captured CO2 to storage while the new natural gas plant would generate electricity to feed the regional grid and data center demand.

# Community priorities and questions Local residents emphasize three priorities: clear public disclosure of any problems with CCS operations, independent verification that storage is secure over the long term, and protection of Lake Decatur. Organizers express skepticism that corporate commitments and technical fixes are sufficient without stronger oversight and community involvement in decision-making.

# Bottom line The Decatur proposal sits at the intersection of corporate tech demand for reliable power, a company's interest in expanding CCS operations, and local skepticism rooted in past equipment failures and regulatory findings. ADM repaired earlier leaks, but the proposed scale-up and the presence of a major tech customer have intensified community organizing and calls for transparency and stronger safeguards.