AIPG Illinois-Indiana Section Spring Meeting 2008 (April 9, 2008)

AIPG Fall 2007 Meeting

E. Spande, CPG-09904

The fall 2007 meeting of the Illinois-Indiana Section of the AIPG was held in the evening at the Morton Arboretum on October 25, 2007. Our spring meeting was also held at the arboretum and we were so pleased with the facilities, spectacular views at the Visitor Center, and the hospitality we’ve received that we’ll certainly be coming back. There is also an advantage in having a centrally located and easy to get to venue in the Chicago area. Moreover, if we stay in this location it will be easy for past attendees to find us again – which is always a plus. As an added bonus the fall colors were in their full glory, although we didn’t have much time to appreciate it before it got dark before our evening meeting.

The theme of the fall meeting was technology. Our keynote speaker was Robert Finley from the Illinois State Geological Survey. He presented the work-to-date the FutureGen project, which is a US government effort to build a near zero emission coal power plant to produce hydrogen and electricity while using carbon capturing (sequestration) technologies. FutureGen will be a 275-megawatt power plant and is currently in the development stage with construction to begin in 2009. If all goes as planned the plant will be online in 2012. The almost $1 billion dollar cost will be shared by the Department of Energy and a large consortium of coal mining and power industry companies. When completed it will be the world cleanest and most advanced coal power plant in the world and will be operated as a research and development facility.

Two of the four finalists for the FutureGen project are in Illinois (Mattoon and Tuscola) and two are in Texas (Odessa and Jewett). As Mr. Finley explained, the Illinois Basin is almost uniquely suited to carbon sequestration due to its size and geology, and the two Illinois sites have the further advantage that the Texas site finalists are dotted with hundreds of poorly abandoned (or likely open!) oil wells – obvious avenues for the carbon to escape back into the atmosphere. Moreover, Illinois has a rich supply of coal in southern Illinois, a strong transportation infrastructure, has some of the world leading research centers, and has the further potential advantage of using captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil and methane recovery.

The second element of our technology-themed fall meeting was technology demonstration, which we accomplished by inviting vendors to attend, set up displays and interact with meeting attendees. Each of the vendors set up a display around the meeting area, made a presentation to the audience and was asked to be available for questions and comments during the long breaks we had in our program. We had seven vendors representing analytical laboratory, soil testing, drilling, geotechnical, and waste management companies. Each of the vendors was warmly received. The modest fee we requested from the vendors helped offset costs for the meeting and allowed us once again to offer the evening meeting free of charge to anyone that wanted to attend.

We got an update on the 2007 AIPG annual meeting in Traverse City, Michigan from our Section treasurer Ramona Cornea. She detailed her presentation to other section and national AIPG members on our efforts to enhance Section activities and reach out to young people. She also noted that Dr. Robert Corbett - Professor at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, - received the Martin Van Couvering Memorial Award for his outstanding dedication to AIPG at both a state and national level. Dr. Corbett is one of the founding members and long-time President of the Illinois-Indiana Section of AIPG and well deserves this honor. On a similar note, our Section presented a plaque to the 2006 AIPG Section president Martin Hamper for past and ongoing service to AIPG and geologists in Illinois. Unfortunately Marty was not able to attend our fall meeting due to business scheduling conflicts, but we’ll make sure that he receives the plaque as a token of our appreciation.

After each meeting the Illinois-Indiana Section AIPG officers discuss lessons learned so we can continually improve our meetings and demonstrate the value of AIPG membership. First, we have made sure our venue (Morton Arboretum) and date for the next meeting (April 9^th, 2008) were announced so each attendee could put it on their busy calendars. Second, the theme of our spring meeting will be regulatory issues and Greg Dunn of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has tentatively agreed to be our featured speaker. Our spring 2007 meeting that featured Mr. Dunn had a record turnout so there is evidently significant interest in Illinois regulatory developments. Getting the word out on such hot topics as soon as possible is always an advantage. Third, keeping the meeting in the evening and free of charge lowers the barrier that potential attendees may have to attend our AIPG section meeting. All of us are busy and it is easier to allot an evening than a whole day. And of course ‘free’ is always good, especially when a light dinner is provided. Lastly, we need to continue to improve our ability to contact AIPG members and likely interested parties since – simply put – if they don’t know of what we offer then they won’t come. We use established tools like targeted e-mail lists and mailing lists but also personal phone calls to colleagues, friends, and associates to create an informal notification network.

Morton Arboretum Facilities

Vendors on Display

Morton Arboretum Visitor Center

Robert Finley - featured speaker on the FutureGen project

Illinois-Indiana Section Officers