Regulatory Gaps and Resistance: The Battle Over Fracking in Southern Illinois

History of Extraction in Illinois

Illinois has a long history of coal mining, with operations spread throughout the state. We are no strangers to the boom-and-bust cycles of extractive industries.

However, our state’s resource extraction history includes some darker, often-overlooked chapters. Before oil and coal mining, and even before corn and soybeans dominated agriculture, southern Illinois’ most lucrative industry was salt mining. Indigenous peoples taught French settlers how to extract salt from brine wells and boil it down to crystals, which were invaluable for preserving and curing food.

Illinois’ designation as a “free state” applied unequally. While the state constitution outlawed slavery, an exception was made for Gallatin County’s salt mines, allowing enslaved labor imported from other states. These enslaved workers endured brutal conditions, often worked to death, and were buried in mass graves—all to enrich a select few.

We have a long history with coal mining as well, and while the subject of this article is about high volume fracking, it is our belief that the lack of accountability and deregulation of the mining industry has left many rural areas in Southern IL destitute and impoverished. The scars of these sacrifice zones are spread across the state and we would refer you to Jeff Bigger’s Reckoning of Eagle Creek for more details.

Illinois’ involvement with oil and gas drilling began in 1853 when the first well was attempted near Champaign. The first commercial oil well was drilled in Montgomery County in 1889. By 1905, commercial oil drilling was underway. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the state currently has:

• 23,402 oil and gas production wells
• 1,078 gas storage wells
• Approximately 6,535 Class II injection wells
• Over 4000 production and injection wells listed in the Plugging and Restoration Fund. (Currently, the funding for this program is now at risk of being drastically reduced or completely revoked altogether by the current White House administration.)

There are an estimated four billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Illinois basin, which is equivalent to less than 200 days’ worth at current US consumption rates. IL has produced over 4 billion barrels of oil since 1886. The extensive drilling has left behind aging infrastructure, and the sheer number of wells poses significant risks, including depressurization. 

In addition to low and mid volume oil and gas drilling, Illinois also faces challenges from frac sand mining, which has a compounded impact on rural communities. The boom-bust nature of this industry mirrors that of other extractive practices, but it also leaves behind long-term environmental and health consequences. A 2016 FracTracker article explores the effects of silica sand mining on communities, agriculture, and ecosystems in great detail: 7 Sand Mining Communities, Part 1.

Map of Southern Illinois showing the density of oil and gas wells (green dots), injection wells (red dots), and enhanced oil recovery wells (orange dots). Data from Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The Effort to Prevent a Fracking Boom in Illinois

In 2012, landmen swept through southern Illinois, poring over county records and approaching landowners with lease agreements for oil drilling. At the time, images of tap water igniting in Pennsylvania circulated widely, contrasting sharply with stories of oil money revitalizing rural economies. Most southern Illinoisans, however, were already familiar with the destructive boom-and-bust cycle of extractive industries. Decades of coal mining had left behind devastated landscapes, toxic red ponds, and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded cleanup efforts. (Watch: Instagram Reel by Prairie Rivers Network)

In response to the rising threat of fracking, concerned citizens founded Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE). Many members had firsthand knowledge of the industry’s harms or came from families directly impacted. SAFE quickly became a hub for advocacy, organizing regular meetings, establishing a legal committee to help landowners facing intimidation from oil speculators, and building a well-informed, passionate coalition to protect southern Illinois’ forests, farmlands, and natural resources. SAFE even provided free water testing of freshwater wells in areas where fracking was a potential. 

SAFE held town hall meetings in any community willing to host, often bringing landowners from fracking-impacted states like Pennsylvania to share their stories. One such speaker, Terry Greenwood, recounted how fracking rigs had polluted his water wells, poisoned and killed his cattle, and ruined his farmland. Tragically, Terry later died from brain cancer. Was it linked to the contamination, or coincidence? Members of SAFE also visited fracking hotspots in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to better understand the industry’s impact.

The organization didn’t shy away from confrontation. They debated pro-industry advocates and individuals poised to profit from a fracking boom in Illinois. SAFE collaborated with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund to attempt passing local ordinances recognizing the rights of nature—a legal concept asserting that ecosystems have the right to exist, thrive, and regenerate, with citizens empowered to enforce these rights on nature’s behalf. 

Despite our best efforts, no counties passed these ordinances. A particularly disheartening battle occurred in Johnson County, where a proposed ordinance to oppose fracking was so poorly worded that voting “yes” effectively meant supporting fracking. The confusion led to the ordinance’s defeat, leaving community advocates exhausted and demoralized.

SAFE did succeed in passing anti-fracking resolutions in several towns, but most counties refused to consider them. Pope County initially adopted a resolution opposing fracking but later reversed its stance when the possibility of deep-well drilling at Hicks Dome arose. Speculation about extracting rare earth minerals to aid in the “green transition” from the Shawnee National Forest promised a financial windfall for the impoverished county, leading officials to reconsider.

Encounters with Opposition and Opportunities

While many advocates focused on fighting fracking at the local level, a dedicated few traveled to Springfield, Illinois, tirelessly lobbying for a statewide fracking ban. SAFE called for a moratorium on fracking, deeply skeptical that the state could effectively regulate the industry. Our doubts were grounded in lived experiences with coal mining, which had left behind environmental devastation and inadequate oversight.

We forged alliances with other organizations that recognized the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to leave fossil fuels in the ground to stay below the 1.5°C threshold for a livable climate. Among them were Friends of Bell Smith Springs, Food & Water Watch, Illinois People’s Action, 350 Kishwaukee, Rising Tide, Regional Area of Concerned Environmentalists, and Greater Highlands Area for Concerned Citizens, to name just a few.

However, we faced surprising opposition from organizations typically aligned with environmental advocacy. Several environmental groups believed fracking could be regulated safely. Often expressing the sentiment that a moratorium was unlikely and that tough regulations would protect us. They assured us with phrases like “these are the strongest regulations in the nation,” and worked to promulgate rules and create enforcement mechanisms—while far removed from the realities on the ground. Operating primarily out of their Chicago offices, they never faced the fear of their family’s water wells being contaminated with fracking chemicals, the noise and smell of oil well operations or infrastructure.

Regulatory Hurdles We Must Overcome

While Illinois may claim to have some of the strongest fracking rules in the nation, regulations are meaningless without proper enforcement. The state’s 2013 fracking law passed with no acknowledgment of the growing threat of climate change. Yet, Illinois’ constitutional right to a healthy environment, enshrined in Article XI, explicitly grants individuals the power to enforce this right against any party—be it private entities or the government. Our legislators are tasked with safeguarding the environment for both present and future generations, yet they often fall short of this responsibility.

One major issue is the disconnect between expertise and governance. Politicians are rarely scientists, and scientists seldom hold political office. This gap has allowed egotism and shortsighted decision-making to dominate, with devastating consequences for our environment and future generations.

A glaring example is the current risk to the Mahomet Aquifer in central Illinois. Greenwashed schemes like carbon sequestration propose drilling through and beneath this critical water source to inject carbon dioxide into deep bedrock for long-term storage. While marketed as a climate change solution, this approach perpetuates the cycle of oil and gas extraction, falsely assuming we can capture all this carbon pollution and pump it underground without consequences.

Meanwhile, oil and gas drilling continues unabated, reinforcing a system that prioritizes profit over sustainability. In reality, what we’ve captured isn’t a solution—it’s the very definition of insanity: repeating the same destructive behaviors while expecting a different result.

What Would Ideal Regulations Look Like?

In a perfect world, regulations wouldn’t serve as a rubber stamp for the industry to buy its way into—and out of—environmental disaster. Yet time and again, that’s exactly what happens. Oil companies will extract what they can, leave, and when the injection wells full of toxic waste inevitably fail, it’s our underground freshwater supplies that will pay the price. Illinois’ history with coal mining illustrates the issue perfectly: a glaring lack of accountability at all levels—local, state, and federal.

There’s no such thing as “safe, regulated fracking,” just as there’s no way to regulate the bomb cyclones pounding the Northwest coast, the wildfires tearing through the Northeast, or hurricanes leveling communities in places like Asheville, North Carolina. The consequences of climate chaos are beyond the reach of any regulation, and the same is true for the fracking industry.

The Illinois Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act (HFRA) provides a weak foundation, defining high-volume fracking as operations using over 300,000 gallons of fluid per well or 80,000 gallons per stage. This leaves a dangerous loophole: mid- and low-volume fracking, which operates outside this definition, continues quietly across Illinois. It may lack the dramatic headlines of flaming tap water, but its impacts are just as insidious. When you allow the fracking industry to write its own rules, you’ve handed the fox the keys to the henhouse.

We’ve long known that state agencies have a revolving door with fossil fuel industries and energy companies. Politicians on both sides of the aisle received generous campaign donations from oil, gas, and mining interests. The Oil and Gas Advisory board has statutory authority to review proposed IDNR rules, but it is made up of six oil industry people and one rep from the farming community, in other words, no scientist, no environmental protection advocate, and no citizen/community representative (beside farming). Some go further—securing positions within the Illinois Oil and Gas Association, with one even becoming director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). At the same time, national environmental groups that lobbied for fracking regulations were quietly accepting substantial payments from fossil fuel companies.

This is a textbook case of regulatory capture: when special interests dictate the rules at the expense of the public good. True reform must start with closing the revolving doors, exposing the conflicts of interest, and refusing to let industry write the very regulations it claims to follow. Anything less only perpetuates the cycle of destruction.

The Minutiae of Regulatory Capture

This corruption is not confined to federal agencies. It abounds on the state level as well. There was a time in Illinois when we had an Illinois Department of Conservation and an Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals (DMM). The former included staff biologists charged with monitoring, managing, conserving, and protecting the natural resources of the State. The latter was staffed with geologists and political appointees responsible for issuing permits for extractive industries such as drilling and mining. The two departments sometimes clashed, as when IDOC biologists issued assessments which were not always conducive to keeping the DMM’s industry permits flowing smoothly. So, politicians who were well-compensated by lobbyists arranged to merge these two state agencies with the Illinois Department of Energy and—voila!—problem solved: the newly formed Illinois Department of Natural Resources rarely saw an industry permit application which they did not see fit to approve. This once-proud agency is now a de facto arm of the industries which they are supposed to regulate.

Another State bureaucracy, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, has the ostensible mission of safeguarding environmental quality in Illinois. A few years ago, it came to light that one of their inspectors lost his job for falsifying reports regarding a local landfill. This public employee’s collusion with industry reportedly went on for years before it was discovered. It is not unusual that when such colluders are caught or retire, they then conveniently and lucratively get employed by the very industry which they were previously supposed to regulate. At least they recycle… staff. 

Just recently public relations experts in the IEPA announced that it would be a fine idea to pump millions of gallons per day from the Pond Creek underground coal mine into the Big Muddy River. Anyone who thinks there was no collusion between agency and industry in this instance has a weak grasp on reality. This regulatory capture is not confined to government agencies. It is facilitated by legislators in the pocket of industry. Our local State Representative a few years ago who sponsored fracking legislation in Illinois received tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-state contributions from the fracking and other extractive industries, according to OpenSecret.org. He shouted until he was hoarse to get that Illinois Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act passed. Then it was up to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to spell out the rules for enforcing the law. No one was surprised when the rules they proposed watered down the legislation to even further favor industry. The foxes are truly guarding the henhouse—-for other foxes. More than ten years later Tabitha, Sam, and others are still in a lawsuit to overturn the harms of that legislation.

Regulatory capture has been elevated to an art form; but there is still hope for participatory democracy. The key is participation. Once a citizen exhausts the administrative procedures of a particular regulatory agency, then he or she can seek judicial review and force the agency to obey the law. This takes time, but can still work, even in the current political climate.

Our Sense of Place and the Threat of Fracking

Southern Illinois is often defined by Interstate 64, which runs east to west through towns like Mt. Vernon. But geographically, it’s a crossroads of unique and diverse ecosystems. The eastern temperate forests here represent the westernmost reach of the Appalachian foothills, the eastern edge of the ancient Ozark Mountains, the northern boundary of the Gulf Coast’s cypress bayous, and the southernmost tip of the rolling prairies.

Around 125,000 years ago, glaciers pushed a layer of disintegrated and decomposed rock fragments into this region, creating rugged rocky outcroppings. Unlike much of Illinois, this driftless land proved unsuitable for large-scale farming, leaving its natural beauty largely intact. Here, amidst these forests, swamps, and rocky ridges, we’ve built our homes, raised our families, and passed down a deep connection to the land for generations.

While low and mid volume fracking and directional drilling have been occurring in IL for decades, the problems we currently have in the oil fields will be greatly exacerbated. If fracking were to gain a toehold in this fragile and remarkable landscape, it would jeopardize everything we hold dear. The industry’s footprint—both visible and invisible—would scar the land, contaminate water sources, and disrupt ecosystems that have sustained life here for millennia. The place we know and cherish as Southern Illinois would be irrevocably altered, losing the natural heritage that has defined it for generations.

Frac sand mine in Wedron, Illinois. Photo by Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance, 2018.

What Would We Lose if Fracking Gains a Foothold?

Fact: Under each of the three most recent presidencies—Republican and Democratic alike—U.S. oil and gas production increased, ending each administration’s term at higher levels than it began.

So, when asked what we expect from the next administration, the answer is simple: more of the same is the minimum of what we should expect, and likely, worse. But what concerns us most is that the guardrails are gone. If current trends continue, the EPA—if it still exists—will have no meaningful power to enforce even the weakest regulations. The Bureau of Land Management will face no restraints. Any lingering hope of keeping global warming under 2°C will be dashed, taking the possibility of a livable planet with it.

What we stand to lose grows exponentially:

• The Night Sky
  Fracking pads bring light pollution, heavy traffic, and constant noise, destroying the stillness of night and obscuring the stars. This isn’t just an aesthetic loss—wildlife suffers too. Light and noise pollution disrupt ecosystems, interfere with mating and migration patterns, and increase predator mortality rates.
• Our Underground Water Supplies
  Fracking consumes massive volumes of water, and my confidence in Illinois’s Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to enforce water management plans is near zero. Poorly regulated injection wells, like those I’ve observed in White County, fail with alarming regularity, leaching toxic chemicals into freshwater aquifers.
• Quiet Roads
  Fracking brings a surge of semi-truck traffic to small, rural roads ill-equipped for heavy loads. This leads to accidents, road degradation, closures, and soaring repair costs. During my visit to the Bakken oil fields, I was warned to stay vigilant while driving; fracking truck drivers are often overworked, under the influence, or simply reckless. Hit-and-run incidents were tragically common, with devastating consequences for local families.
• Influx of Out-of-State Workers and “Man Camps”*
  While many workers follow the money to support their families, they don’t contribute to our communities—they come for the paycheck and leave. Temporary housing, often little more than fields of RVs and modular buildings, becomes hubs of instability. During my tour of the Bakken, I heard horrific stories, including one where a woman’s cousin was drugged, raped, and murdered in a man camp.
  
• Radioactive Waste
  Southern Illinois has naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) safely buried deep underground. Fracking would bring this material to the surface, leaving radioactive drilling mud and cuttings in fields where we grow crops. The potential health risks—higher cancer rates, respiratory illnesses, and more—are staggering.
• Earthquakes
  Science has established a link between fracking and increased seismic activity. While regulations claim to mitigate this risk, they offer little comfort to those living near the New Madrid Fault Zone, home to the largest and most destructive earthquake in U.S. history. The 1811 quake caused the Mississippi River to flow backward for three days, and the region’s sandy, clay-rich soils remain vulnerable to liquefaction during seismic events.
• Our Rural Resources
  Fracking would overwhelm already stretched county resources. The promised economic benefits would disappear once the rigs move on, leaving behind polluted water, ruined roads, radioactive dust, and broken infrastructure. What good is a golden carrot if it poisons the land in its wake.

*Editor’s Note: The influx of temporary, often male-dominated workforces associated with resource extraction projects, such as fracking, has led to the establishment of “man camps” in and around Indigenous communities. These camps can contribute to a rise in social instability, substance abuse, and violence. Tragically, research and reports indicate a correlation between the presence of these camps and an increase in violence against Indigenous women, girls, and persons, who are already disproportionately vulnerable to such crimes. For more information on this issue, please visit Native Hope.

Reasons This has Failed Ecologically Elsewhere

From North Dakota to West Texas, the environmental impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are becoming increasingly clear. The following sections detail the ecological consequences witnessed in two major shale plays, the Bakken and Permian Basins, highlighting a concerning trend: despite promises of cleaner energy, the intense extraction of oil and gas is inflicting severe and lasting damage on ecosystems, water resources, air quality, and communities.

Bakken Boom and Bust

The Bakken Shale play has become an ecological cautionary tale. Despite being marketed as a clean “transition” energy source, natural gas (NG) has proven to be a potent greenhouse gas, with significant contributions to climate change and air quality issues. Methane leaks from wellheads exacerbate the problem, making the Bakken a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Key ecological failures in the Bakken include:

• Noise and Light Pollution: Constant noise and artificial lighting from fracking sites disturb both humans and wildlife. Nocturnal animal populations and bird species have declined as a result.
• Water Contamination: Fracking fluid spills and produced water runoff continue to pollute rivers, streams, and agricultural lands. Additionally, the enormous water demands for fracking have strained local resources.
• Ecosystem Destruction: Prairie ecosystems have been devastated by drilling, road construction, and pipeline installation. Habitat fragmentation disrupts wildlife migration and access to food and water. Oil spills and pipeline leaks have rendered land infertile, complicating crop growth and causing severe erosion.
• Orphaned Wells: Abandoned wells are a growing issue, with taxpayers often bearing the cost of plugging them. Inadequate financial assurances (bonding) fail to cover cleanup costs, leaving toxic substances and methane leaks unaddressed. We have our abandoned and orphaned wells issues in IL, along with an inability to fund plugging those old wells.
• Weak Regulation: Underfunded and understaffed regulatory agencies have struggled to enforce laws. Companies prioritize profit over compliance, evading environmental responsibilities.
• Locked-In Fossil Fuel Economy: Local governments’ heavy investment in fossil fuel infrastructure has tied communities to carbon-intensive economies, making the shift to renewable energy more challenging.
• Cultural and Ecological Harm: High-volume fracking has damaged sacred Indigenous water sources like Lake Sakakawea. Pipelines have cut through burial sites and other culturally significant areas, inflicting lasting harm.

Permian Basin Water Issues

In West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, the Permian Basin faces unique environmental challenges exacerbated by high-volume fracking. Water scarcity is a critical issue, with fracking operations consuming vast quantities of this precious resource.

• Water Depletion and Pollution: Freshwater resources are already scarce, but fracking exacerbates this scarcity. On average, fracking requires nine barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced. This unsustainable demand strains local supplies and leaves behind long-term pollution challenges.
• Air Quality Concerns: Ground-level ozone from drilling activities poses serious cardiovascular and respiratory health risks to local populations.
• Land Use and Waste: Each drill pad consumes substantial surface area, producing large quantities of waste, including drill tailings and processed brine water. Regulatory enforcement is lax, leading to spills and improper waste disposal that render the land unusable due to high salinity and toxicity.
• Drought and Climate Impact: Water shortages in the Permian Basin serve as a warning. Rising global temperatures and intensifying droughts are becoming the norm, threatening ecosystems and communities. Without significant intervention and a shift away from fossil fuels, these issues will only worsen.

As Illinois-born poet and 16th Attorney General Robert Ingersoll once said, “In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are only consequences.” The consequences of our continued reliance on fossil fuels are evident in these regions—and they should serve as a stark warning of what lies ahead.

Conclusion

In 2017, Woolsey Oil Company applied for a permit to drill a high-volume well north of Enfield, Illinois. While the company cited regulatory burdens as the reason for withdrawing their permit, many citizens of Southern Illinois believe the decision was more likely influenced by our vigilant watchdog efforts.

One major setback for Woolsey was the failure of the Class II injection well intended to dispose of produced wastewater. Images we obtained revealed the extent of the failure: oilfield waste gushing into a nearby ephemeral stream, creating a significant environmental disaster that required extensive cleanup. With that injection well compromised, Woolsey would have been forced to drill a new one specifically for their operations, significantly increasing costs. Ultimately, the expense of drilling both a production well and an injection well proved prohibitive, and the company abandoned its plans.

For now, the oil industry’s advance has been held at bay, and the high volume hydraulic fracking oilfield workers remain out of Illinois, but we are still reeling from more than a hundred and fifty years of oil extraction and the residual impacts. 

However, the threat is far from over. In the eight years since, oil drilling activity has continued to ebb and flow with global market demands. As long as the world’s appetite for oil and gas persists, Illinois will remain at risk of renewed drilling efforts. The fight to protect our environment and communities must remain vigilant, as the stakes are too high to become complacent.