The military helps give out water bottles to the Wichita Red Cross for tornado victims in Moore, Okla. | Wikimedia/Senior Airman Katrina Brisbin
The military helps give out water bottles to the Wichita Red Cross for tornado victims in Moore, Okla. | Wikimedia/Senior Airman Katrina Brisbin
Attorney General Kwame Raoul gave a consent order with The Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company (Peoples Gas) natural gas leaked from a Peoples Gas underground storage facility near Fisher, Ill.
“General Raoul’s version of justice is nothing more than playing paddy cake with Peoples Gas,” Senator Chapin Rose said to the Decatur Tribune. “Meanwhile, my constituents still can’t drink water out of their tap.”
In a release on Raoul’s website, the Mahomet Aquifer and the private wells of nearby homes had leaked natural gas.
The consent order was issued on June 29, 2022.
“This consent order will ensure that Peoples Gas is held accountable for cleaning up the gas release and required to provide residents access to safe drinking water,” Raoul said. “My office will continue to work diligently to protect Illinois residents from contamination that threatens public health and the environment.”
Constellation wrote that leaked natural gas in a home could cause fires.
“This consent order will ensure that Peoples Gas is held accountable for cleaning up the gas release and required to provide residents access to safe drinking water,” Raoul said in the release.
The leak in question occurred in 2016. It occurred at Peoples Gas’ Manlove Field underground storage facility near Fisher. The leak reached the Mahomet Aquifer, the largest freshwater source in Illinois, and nearby residents’ private wells.
Since then, the community has been stuck to drinking clean water from bottles.
An affected resident spoke to the Decatur Tribune as well: “This is a slap in the face to all of us who have been affected by this, and is nothing more than political theatre,” said Jodi Eisenmann, a Mahomet resident whose well was contaminated.
“The Attorney General’s job is to protect the people of Illinois but having clean drinking water is not a high priority for him. We are still in the same spot we were five years ago, drinking from bottled water, and Peoples Gas has still not been held accountable. This issue is not resolved for all of us who have been affected.”
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