Testimony at last week’s hearing in Odessa about a proposed carbon dioxide injection site in Ector County included local leaders and executives promising cleaner air and more jobs and environmental activists warning of seismic activity and water contamination. About 15 people testified at the hearing Oct. 3 in Odessa conducted by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Occidental Petroleum’s proposed site that will pull 722,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year and store it 4,400 feet underground. Oxy must secure three injection permits; if approved, it would become the first in Texas to obtain federal approval for such a project. And it would be the largest direct air capture facility in the U.S.
The public comment period ended this week, and the EPA will take about 90 days to issue its decision.
An EPA official told Texas Tribune that Occidental has met every requirement in the Safe Drinking Water Act and that the risk of seismic activity due to the injections would be minimal. Environmental geochemist Katherine Romanak of University of Texas said carbon dioxide has been stored permanently without grave environmental impact. Oxy is a pioneer in the process of catching carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.