CO2 Storage Hub Seeks 80,000 Acres Across PA, OH and WV
Underground, that carbon dioxide would spread out across some 80,000 acres, a storage field capable of hosting 5 million tons of CO2 a year for 30 years.
Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska is developing a Tri-State CCS Hub. CCS stands for carbon capture and sequestration, but Tenaska’s role will be in the second category. Its vision involves collecting carbon dioxide captured by industrial plants and injecting it into 20 to 30 wells across the three states, with three wells to be sited in Washington County. Underground, that carbon dioxide would spread out across some 80,000 acres, a storage field capable of hosting 5 million tons of CO2 a year for 30 years.
That would be roughly the equivalent of the carbon dioxide emitted from U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works and Shell’s petrochemical complex.
Capturing the carbon will be left to the facilities that produce it, like steel mills, power plants, or cement kilns.
Last fall, Tenaska submitted a proposal to Washington County to option a few surface acres for a well and 1,377 acres under Cross Creek County Park for carbon storage. According to a document submitted to the county’s planning commission, Tenaska was offering a bonus payment of $50 per acre for the option of CO2 storage which, if exercised, would then yield another bonus of $350 per acre for pore rights.
The offer also included an annual payment per acre, starting at $50 the first year and increasing by 3% each year for the next 30. The company’s calculations showed Washington County would receive $3.9 million over the next three decades.
Cross Creek County Park is already peppered by shale gas wells drilled by Range Resources Corp., a point noted by the staff of the planning commission, which briefly discussed the proposal at its Oct. 4 meeting. The commissioners decided to table the proposal while its staff researches potential impact to the environment and public safety, logistical issues and bonding and benefits, according to the meeting minutes.