Public, fire chief, share concerns about RICO proposed battery-storage site

People gathered in Milan on Tuesday night to voice their opposition to a proposed lithium-ion battery storage site. Concerns lie in a potential major fire hazard for an unprotected area south of Milan.

“How can you in good conscience put this through and endanger the safety of the residents, the firefighters, the livestock, the ground, the water?” one man asked at the meeting.

The Milan Christian Church was packed with people, some spilling out into another room,
most of them adamant that such a facility does not belong in a rural area. The New Leaf Energy company is proposing the facility.

Among the people who expressed concerns was Blackhawk Fire Protection District Chief Greg Marty, who said there’s a risk of breathing in poison from fires started by lithium-ion batteries.

“In the case of a major fire, we would have a plume of smoke with highly toxic and corrosive gas, moving toward inhabited areas. And we currently lack the ability to monitor that gas,” Marty said.

These are the same batteries common in electric cars. Marty says the department doesn’t have the employees or equipment to deal with any fires that start there.

“There’s a condition called thermal runaway, which basically means that a failure has happened within the battery, heat’s being generated,” said Marty. “It’s what they call an exothermic reaction and when that starts, it can’t be stopped. One single Tesla on fire can shut down an interstate for six hours.”

The project would store energy collected by nearby producers and supply it during peak energy hours. A study presented to the county by the Illinois Association of County Zoning Administrators projected that the state could have issues supplying enough energy starting in 2029.

“The state is looking at alternative energy options that are cleaner than coal, and they’ve identified wind, solar and these battery projects as ways to fill that gap that coal is going to leave,” said Greg Thorpe, Rock Island County zoning and building safety director.

Marty says if a fire started at the site, it would be almost impossible to extinguish.

“Most people do not work in the small towns anymore. People drive into bigger towns so, especially in the daytime, there’s very few volunteers in these rural areas to handle a fire of this nature,” said Marty. “The other problem is the massive amounts of water and specialized equipment that would be needed. Even if you could get the people there, that kind of equipment is not available.”

County officials say a vote to move the proposal to the Rock Island County Board of Supervisors has been postponed, and likely won’t be on an agenda until October.

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