County committee to weigh replacing carbon-storage moratorium with permit rules that protect the Mahomet Aquifer
The proposal would bar carbon dioxide storage over or under the aquifer and keep injection wells at least a half mile from homes and businesses.
URBANA - A Champaign County Board committee on Thursday will consider ending the county's moratorium on carbon sequestration and instead allowing carbon dioxide storage facilities only with a County Board special use permit, according to the committee's agenda.
Zoning Case 212-AT-26 would bar any carbon dioxide sequestration facility from sitting over, drilling through or storing carbon dioxide under the Mahomet Aquifer as mapped by the Prairie Research Institute. Injection wells would have to be at least 2,640 feet, a half mile, from the nearest home or business and 2,000 feet from a public street, according to the proposed amendment.
The Zoning Board of Appeals voted 5-0 on Aug. 13 to recommend approval. The Environment and Land Use Committee held the case over from September to allow public comment; a staff memo says none had been received.
The committee meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Shields-Carter Meeting Room of the Bennett Administrative Center, 102 E. Main St., Urbana.
Source: Champaign County Environment and Land Use Committee agenda and packet, Oct. 8, 2026.