Careers In Energy Northeast Pennsylvania Valley View High School

Valley View High School Careers in Energy Day

Keystone Clean Water Team participated in this event.  There appeared to be over 100 students that learned about energy related careers.  Our presentation was related to all forms of energy with a focus on renewable energy, conservation, waste reduction, and the need for a National Energy Policy and Plan.  We also discussed career planning and how best to take the first step to make a positive change.  A pdf of the presentation , Careers in Energy Northeast Pennsylvania, can be found here.  In addition, the students turned in a number of old cell phones.  Great Students and Future Leaders !

 

Regional Training Courses or Programs

Featured:
Sustainability Training and Energy Production Distribution
Training in Energy Audits

Everything we do began with an idea.

We have offered “Free” Assistance to this effort, but if you are a private well owner that needs assistance we are happy to help.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !

For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.  Follow us on Twitter 

Keystone Clean Water Team is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.    Unsolicited donations are appreciated (Helps us complete our mission), but we also do local educational workshops and local cellphone/small electronic recycling programs. If you would like to set up a program to help recycle cellphones at an event, business, or other organization.  Through our program we can recycle  cell phones, iPods, game systems, and small digital cameras.  If your interested, please contact us.

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization). Water Science Basics!

Hydraulic Fracturing Defined Fracking Words Matter Debate on Energy, Environmental, Humans

The word fracking – First, I personally and professionally dislike the word for a number of reasons. First it is jargon and second it is industry slang.  The word lends itself to redefinition and misuse.

Definitions – We are defining slang terms?

1) frack·ing, noun \ˈfra-kiŋ\ the injection of fluid into shale beds at high pressure in order to free up petroleum resources (such as oil or natural gas)  (Source: http://grist.org/news/the-dictionary-finally-admits-fracking-is-here-to-stay/)

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My comments – not a bad definition – but the process is called hydraulic fracturing – they miss the issue of the use of chemicals to change the characteristics of water to reduce friction loss and prevent bacterial growth.  Also – there  is no Freeing up of a resource – the process creates an artificial pathway that causes the fuel to escape through the pipe or borehole rather than taking millions of years to migrate up through the rock strata.  Also – does not indicate that the process is regulate under the EPA UIC Program under special cases.

2) Fracking is the process by which the oil and gas industry undermines the public right to safe drinking water, clean air and healthy communities by using toxic chemicals and large volumes of water to extract unsustainable fossil fuels from the earth for profit.(Source: Food & Water Watch – http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/fracking-shows-its-viral-nature)

*****
This is a great example of the lack of fact, but more about environmental spin doctors.  Now – this is not only an approach used by certain organizations.  Definition is more about a philsophical point than an actual definition that explains the process, but presents the potential things could happen.  The only part that is correct is “toxic chemicals are used”, “large volumes of water are used (but more is used to produce other sources of electricity), “extract fossil fuels”, “fossil fuels are not infinitely sustainable (but neither is any building or structure we build or even our cities), it does happen on earth, and it is done for a profit.  (Profit is not bad – non-profit organizations make a profit – they do not call it profit and this is a Capitalist society).   This definition tells you more about the Organization than the process.

3) Fracking – A slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracking refers to the procedure of creating fractures in rocks and rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open. The larger fissures allow more oil and gas to flow out of the formation and into the wellbore, from where it can be extracted. (Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fracking.asp)
****
Misses the mark related to the nature of the chemicals that are used and the use of a propent to hold the fractures open so the gas and oil can migrate out of the formation into the borehole or pipeline, i.e., the artificial low pressure point, and not up through thousands of feet of rock.  I do like they indicate it is a slang term and the proper term is hydraulic fracturing.  It is a procedure – it is part of a process – NOT the whole process.

4) Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.The process is carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer. The process can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels. (Source; http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401)

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It is a process Yes – no mention of the slang nature of the work and the correct term – hydraulic fracturing.  It is NOT a Drilling Process – this is JUST Wrong.  Yes – Water, sand and chemicals are injected.  Chemicals are toxic    The sentence starting – “the process …..”  Is Just Wrong !

5) Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. Fracking makes it possible to produce natural gas extraction in shale plays that were once unreachable with conventional technologies. Recent advancements in drilling technology have led to new man-made hydraulic fractures in shale plays that were once not available for exploration. In fact, three dimensional imaging helps scientists determine the precise locations for drilling. (Source: http://www.what-is-fracking.com/)

*****
No mention it is a slang term- statement is true, but does it create a definition?  I do like the mention of the word recent.  Because it is the recent improvements in the process that makes this feasible.

6) Hydraulic Fracturing – a method of mining in which cracks are created in a type of rock called shale in order to obtain gas, oil, or other substances that are inside it (Source: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/fracking)

*****
Used the correct work – definition is clearly wrong.  The definition makes it sound like the old water mining techniques that were used in the 1800s to mine for gold by eroding mountains with high pressure water.

7)  fracking, fracking also spelled fracing or fraccing, also called hydrofracking, in full hydraulic fracturing,  in natural gas and petroleum production, the injection of a fluid at high pressure into an underground rock formation in order to open fissures and allow trapped gas or crude oil to flow through a pipe to a wellhead at the surface. Employed in combination with improved techniques for drilling horizontally through selected rock layers, hydraulic fracturing has opened up vast natural gas deposits in the United States. At the same time, the rapid rise of the practice, frequently in regions with no history of intensive oil and gas drilling, has raised concerns over its economic and environmental consequences.

******
Not a bad definition – lacks clarity on the nature of the fluid, but then goes on to add the “positive spin” of the Industry.  I do like the closing sentence – “The Rapid Rise” of the practice in areas with “no historic knowledge of the process” has created concerns that are economic and environmental.

If you are going to allow a definition to present a point – then – it would be appropriate to add to this “definition” at the end. These same individuals or communities did not care or were not concerned when these activities that produced fossil fuels for their consumption occurred in other communities or countries and these same communities were happy to develop in a manner that made them dependent on other communities to sustain themselves, i.e., NIMBY.

8. hydraulic fracturing – Also referred to as hydrofracking, hydrofracturing, and fracking, is a well development process that involves injecting water under high pressure into a bedrock formation via the well. This is intended to increase the size and extent of existing bedrock fractures.  (Thanks USGS- http://energy.usgs.gov/GeneralInfo/HelpfulResources/EnergyGlossary.aspx#h)

******
Not a great definition and the second sentence is misleading.

I do not like the term.  This term was the slang word used in the Batttlestar Galatica series as the “F” word – “Frac”.  This series was about an epic battle between man and machine.  NOW – it possible to view this change in energy production as a battle between big oil and humans- this is not the battle.  The battle is with us – We are the users, consumers, and wasters of this valuable resource that has been developed on this Earth over millions of years.  It is not renewable, but a high energy source that has powered the improvement of our health, safety, and welfare.  As our technology grows – we will develop new and more “renewable energy sources”, but we have to do our part to conserve energy and use it wisely.

My definition

1. Use the word – hydraulic fracturing and is one phase of an overall process.  The phases include drilling, installing protective casing, cementing, hydraulic fracturing, developing, and production.

2. Process that uses a slick water solution – This chemical solution is dangerous to handle and not suitable for consumption or direct contact without proper training and personal protective equipment.  The chemical solution is made up of 99.5 % water  that has been modified through the use of chemicals and other agents that prevent bacterial growth (i.e., biocide), dissolve carbonate scales (acids- HCL and citric acid), friction reduces (change the density of water – can be toxic- mineral oil, polyacrylamide (used in agriculture and soil stabilization potential health issue), corrosion inhibitors (n,n-dimethylformamide,  glycols (toxic)), surfactants (soaps/isopropanal),  gelling agents (gums/cellulose), crosslinkers (borate salts), breakers (ammonia persulfate), salts (KCL)  and propant (sand /ceramics)- Nice Image and Other Pdf.

An aside: The issue is not the chemicals used – but the potential for exposure – the primary exposure potential would be related to chemicals and releases in the environment during transport or surface storage and use.  The main defense would be controlling the movement of the chemicals into and through the community and the use of multiple containment systems for surface storage.  When the target formation is 3000 + feet below grade, the vertical migration of the fluid up to freshwater zones has an extremely low probability of occurrence.  Is it zero – NO, but the other pathways are more likely.

3. The fluid is injected under high pressure to overcome the weight of the material over the target formation.  Since the target formation is a shale, the shale has natural bedding plane fractures (looks like a book from the side), near vertical stress fractures, and curvilinear fractures associated with internal gas stress.  These fractures are not interconnected.  The hydraulic process aids in the parting of existing fractures, removing carbonate scales or coatings along bedding planes/fractures, and parting the formation enough to push sand or other proppant into this location to hold the fractures apart.  This stabilized pathway permits the gas and/or oil to escape at the lowest point of pressure, i.e., the casing and borehole that were constructed during the drilling phase.

This is a work in progress.  We would suggest viewing the following websites:

Private Well Owners Guide – http://www.private-well-owner.org
Links to presentations on water quality issues, movies/videos on well drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and gas production.   Movies and information about problems- Methane gas migration, loose of circulation, chemical changes, spills, and the need for changes in oil and gas law.

Volunteer

We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving the Keystone Clean Water Team (CCGG Program), enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.  We look for people that can forward solid articles, help coordinate local education efforts, and more.  Become part of the Keystone Clean Water Team!.

Everything we do began with an idea.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !   Get educated on Drinking Water Quality in Pennsylvania.

For more information, please go to KCWT’s About Page, Brochure,  or contact us.

Keystone Clean Water Team /Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.  The IRS Officially Approved Name change to the Keystone Clean Water Team by the IRS.  Unsolicited donations are appreciated (Helps us complete our mission).

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization).

 

 

 

 

Carbon Sequestration Project Illinois – Ethanol Plant?

U.S. EPA Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Permit for Carbon Sequestration Injection Well in Decatur, Illinois

Release Date: 04/16/2014
Contact Information: Peter Cassell, 312-886-6234, cassell.peter@epa.gov

CHICAGO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting public comment on a proposed permit that would allow Archer Daniels Midland to inject carbon dioxide deep underground at a facility in Decatur, Illinois. This process – known as “carbon sequestration” – is a means of storing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The public comment period opens today and closes May 30, 2014; a public hearing will be held on May 21, 2014.

ADM plans to capture carbon dioxide emitted during the production of ethanol at the company’s Decatur facility and to inject the carbon dioxide deep underground in the proposed well. ADM’s goal is to capture and inject 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Sequestering 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year is the equivalent of eliminating carbon emissions from 232,000 cars.

The public hearing on the proposed permit will begin at 7 p.m. on May 21 at the Decatur Public Library, 130 North Franklin Street. Oral and written comments will be accepted at the hearing. Two question-and-answer sessions will be held at the library before the public hearing: from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Draft documents and information about the public hearing are available at the Decatur Public Library and on EPA’s website atwww.epa.gov/region5/water/uic/adm. Comments can be submitted online atwww.epa.gov/region5/water/uic/adm or mailed to Allan Batka, U.S. EPA (WU-16J), 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604-3590. For additional information contact EPA’s toll-free line at 800-621-8431, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (weekdays).

Grant Summary
Motivation/Economics:
Total cost $208 million. DOE share $141.5 million (68%).
The project is to test the storage potential of the Mount Simon Sandstone and the integrity of the overlying sealant rocks. 

Phase 1: DOE awarded $66.7 million of the $84.3 million needed for the project. The DOE announced on June 2010 that Decatur was one of 3 projects to receive up to $612 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – matched by $368 million in private funding – to demonstrate large-scale carbon capture and storage from industrial sources.

Comment
1. Investing in a corn based ethanol facility ?  (I thought this was a huge water hog and barely efficient).
2. Would not it be better to make this investment in a coal application?

Courses
Underground Gas Storage
Sustainability, Green Design, and more

[amazon_link asins=’1937327035′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’webdespro-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9dc54696-e36a-11e8-aee2-17666821835c’]

Watershed Energy Conservation – Maintaining the Balance in Pennsylvania

Community Connections to Our Watershed –  Pennsylvania DCNR Program – “Working as a Community” presentation by Mr. Brian Oram, Professional Geologist, owner of B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. and manager of the Keystone Clean Water Team.

The program brings “Real world experiences bridge the gap between classroom “knowing” and community “doing””. PA Land Choices has been developed to provide participants with a basic understanding of community government and the powerful role of citizens who work toward common goals. The engaging activities in the manual provide opportunities to work collectively in teams, gaining knowledge and skills that will be useful for a lifetime. Workshops involve professional planners and other experts to help participants create, sustain and protect the special character or their neighborhoods. It is a lesson on citizenship and the democratic process practiced at one of the most important levels…right in your home town.  At this presentation, we had teachers and students from  Crestwood, Meyers, GAR, Coughlin, Lake Lehman, Hazleton HS, Hazleton STEM School, Hazleton Career Center, Northwest.

The Keystone Clean Water Team (that is correct) – The name change is official with the IRS– was happy to assist this program with an education and outreach program related to energy use, types of energy sources, need for a national energy policy and community approach, and the facts about Marcellus Shale Development.  We talked about baseline testing, pre-existing problems, how wells can be impacted, how to understand and manage risk, ALL Energy Sources, WORKING as a Community and much more – All Fact Based.   After the education program, the students toured a natural gas drilling site.  The tour guide was Mr. Bill Desrosier from Cabot Oil and Gas.

Volunteer

We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.  We look for people that can forward solid articles, help coordinate local education efforts, and more.  Become part of the Keystone Clean Water Team!.

Everything we do began with an idea.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !

For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.  Waiting on Official Name change to the Keystone Clean Water Team by the IRS.  Unsolicited donations are appreciated (Helps us complete our mission).

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization).

Press Release: Role of Geosciences Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell

Contact: Maureen Moses (mmoses@agiweb.org)

For Immediate Release

EARTH: Interview with Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell

Alexandria, VA – EARTH Magazine sits down with Secretary of the Interior Sally
Jewell to discuss the role of geoscience at the Department of the Interior,
which includes the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees the offshore development of
both renewable and conventional energy resources.

Secretary Jewell, who began her career as a petroleum engineer, discusses the
role of science in reconciling conflicts in the management of federal lands, and
shares how her transition from the private sector, where she was chief executive
officer of Recreation Equipment, Inc., has provided insight into the management
of DOI’s 70,000 federal employees, and the new 21st Century Conservation Corps
initiative (http://21csc.org/)

Read more online and in the April issue of EARTH Magazine: (http://bit.ly/1dP2DI0)

###

Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news
with EARTH magazine online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the
American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the
headlines.

###

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of 50 geoscientific
and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists,
geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides
information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in
the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and
strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in
society’s use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with
the environment.

Environmental Protection Agency Dramatically Lowered Methane Loss During Drilling

“PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is “kind of an earthquake” in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. “This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks.”

For the whole story

For Methane Issues in Pennsylvania
For Fact Based Dimock

Tree Risk Assessment for community trees webinar scheduled

www.tnonline.com/2012/nov/28/tree-risk-assessment-community-trees-webinar-scheduled
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tree Risk Assessment for Community Trees webinar, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 12-1 p.m. ET. Participation in the web seminar does not require any special software. To view live and previously recorded seminars all you need is a high-speed Internet connection and sound. To take part in the live seminar, visit https://meeting.psu.edu/pacommunityforestry. Login in by registering as a guest (type your name). To view previously recorded webinars, please visit: http://www.pacommunityforests.com/webinar/index.htm.

Hope remains for future of coal-to-liquid fuels project

Questions about the financing and a murky national energy policy are clouding the future of a proposed $1 billion coal-to-liquid fuels project.

Yet John W. Rich Jr. remains optimistic his plan can help break the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

“There’s not any threat of a war over coal, but there sure is a threat of war over oil,” Rich said in an interview Thursday. “We’re continuing to pursue this whole effort. We’ve been at it for a long time. We certainly got tripped up at the federal level. … This is where the future is – making liquid transportation fuels.”

The project – planned for Mahanoy Township – has been in development for two decades. For much of that time, Rich had been counting on $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to help fund the project, which would convert waste coal to usable diesel fuel.

However, the federal government pulled that money from the project without explanation during the last days of the Bush administration. Read more

U.S. House Battles Over U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Regulations

WASHINGTON, DC, February 9, 2011 (ENS) – The Republicans and Democrats massed their forces today in the House of Representatives in a fight over the ability of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases.
A different House from the Democratic-led body that passed a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade bill in June 2009, this Republican-led body is considering a bill that would prevent the U.S. EPA from regulating the emission of greenhouse gases from stationary sources such as power plants and refineries.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee today held its first hearings on the draft discussion bill from the new chairman, Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan.

The bill, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, states its purpose as: “To amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas due to concerns regarding possible climate change, and for other purposes.”

Upton said today that his bill is designed to “to protect jobs and preserve the intent of the Clean Air Act.”

The bill would overturn the EPA’s December 2009 finding that the emission of greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare.

Along with a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases are pollutants and the EPA has the duty to regulate them, this endangerment determination is the basis for EPA regulation of greenhouse gases.

Far from being an invention of the Obama administration’s EPA, the Bush-era EPA administrator also supported a positive greenhouse gas endangerment finding.

The committee’s top Democrat, Congressman Henry Waxman of California, Tuesday released a private letter that former EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson wrote to President George W. Bush on January 31, 2008.

“It addresses the same issue as your legislation: whether carbon emissions endanger the public,” Waxman wrote Friday in his own letter to Upton, in which he shares the contents of Johnson’s private letter to President Bush.

“Administrator Johnson wrote: ‘the latest science of climate change requires the Agency to propose a positive endangerment finding, as was agreed to at the Cabinet-level meeting in November.'”

“The latest climate change science does not permit a negative finding, nor does it permit a credible finding that we need to wait for more research,” Johnson wrote.

“Administrator Johnson also wrote: ‘A robust interagency policy process involving principal meetings over the past eight months has enabled me to formulate a plan that is prudent and cautious yet forward thinking. … [I]t … creates a framework for responsible, cost-effective and practical actions.'”

“He added that actions to reduce carbon emissions ‘should spur both private sector investment in developing new, cost-effective technologies and private sector deployment of these technologies at a large scale.'”

Administrator Johnson released an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in July 2008, which solicited public comment on an endangerment finding. The final endangerment finding was made by the Obama admininstration’s EPA head Lisa Jackson in December 2009.

Jackson testified today before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Chairman Upton’s draft bill to eliminate portions of the Clean Air Act.

“The bill appears to be part of a broader effort in this Congress to delay, weaken, or eliminate Clean Air Act protections of the American public,” Jackson said. “I respectfully ask the members of this Committee to keep in mind that EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act saves millions of American children and adults from the debilitating and expensive illnesses that occur when smokestacks and tailpipes release unrestricted amounts of harmful pollution into the air we breathe.”

“Last year alone, EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act saved more than 160,000 American lives; avoided more than 100,000 hospital visits; prevented millions of cases of respiratory illness, including bronchitis and asthma; enhanced American productivity by preventing millions of lost workdays; and kept American kids healthy and in school,” Jackson told the committee.

Jackson emphasized that the Clean Air Act itself creates jobs, particularly in the growing U.S. environmental technologies industry. “In 2008, that industry generated nearly 300 billion dollars in revenues and 44 billion dollars in exports,” she said.

“Yesterday,” said Jackson, “the University of Massachusetts and Ceres released an analysis finding that two of the updated Clean Air Act standards EPA is preparing to establish for mercury, soot, smog, and other harmful air pollutants from power plants will create nearly 1.5 million jobs over the next five years.”

Chairman Upton said his bill, “allows states to continue setting climate policy as they please, but prevents those actions from being imposed or enforced nationally.”

The bill leaves in place the tailpipe standards for cars and light trucks from model years 2012 through 2016, and allows National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to continue to regulate fuel economy after 2016.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2011/2011-02-09-01.html

Study Charts How Underground CO2 Can Leach Metals into Water

http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20101207/study-charts-how-underground-co2-can-leach-metals-water

Study Charts How Underground CO2 Can Leach Metals into Water

Study is the first to observe, for at least a year, the effects of a CO2 leak on groundwater

by Catherine M. Cooney
Dec 7, 2010

It’s not a common for a solution to carbon emissions to also pose a contamination danger for drinking water supplies, but new research indicates that if CO2 stored deep underground were to leak in even small amounts, it could cause metals to be released in shallow groundwater aquifers at concentrations that would pose a health risk.

In a study published in Environmental Science & Technology, authors Mark Little and Robert B. Jackson studied samples of sand and rock taken from four freshwater aquifers located around the country that overlie potential carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) sites.

The scientists found that tiny amounts of CO2 drove up levels of metals including manganese, cobalt, nickel, and iron in the water tenfold or more in some places. Some of these metals moved into the water quickly, within one week or two. They also observed potentially dangerous uranium and barium steadily moving into the water over the entire year-long experiment.

“We did the study to try and build a framework to help predict where problems with groundwater might arise if CO2 leaked,” Jackson told SolveClimate News. “The chemistry of the water provides us with an early warning of the potential leaks before the leaks occur, and that by itself if a very useful tool,” Jackson added.

The technology for capturing and storing CO2 emissions from coal plants and industrial facilities is not yet commercially available. Still, the Obama Administration and other governments consider capturing carbon dioxide and sequestering it underground a vital technology that will allow the world to continue using coal as fuel while reducing the impacts of climate change. This new study sheds further light on how fresh water contamination from the technology could potentially occur.

Similar to Ocean Acidification

When the CO2 buried deep underground escapes into groundwater, it forms carbonic acid, a chemical reaction very similar to the process that occurs when the oceans absorb CO2. But the problems created by the carbonic acid in groundwater are quite different from the reactions that occur in the ocean, Little said.

Scientists have already observed that atmospheric CO2 is causing ocean acidification that is harming corals, shellfish, lobsters, and other marine animals at the bottom of the sea. The increased acidity caused by CO2 dissolved in water underground can cause metals to leach out of surrounding sand and rock.

Borrowed from agencies such as the US Geological Survey, the sediment used in the study was from 17 locations within four project sites: Acquia and Virginia Beach in the Virginia and Maryland tidewater region; Mahoment in Illinois; and Ogallala in the southern high plains of Texas. The scientists dried the sediment samples and placed them in bottles, then piped a stream of 99.8% pure CO2 to each bottle for 320 to 344 days.

Jackson and Little used their observations of the leaking CO2 to develop selection criteria, based on the metal contamination seen in the water, to help owners and operators choose CCS sites that are less likely to contaminate nearby freshwater aquifers. They also identified four geochemical markers to help monitor sites and discover when CO2 has leaked and caused metals to move into the groundwater.

Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change at Duke University’s Center on Global Change (co-author Little was a postdoc fellow at the time of the study), said the research is unique because of its length: it is the first to observe, for at least a year, the effects of a CO2 leak on groundwater.

Scientists have already conducted short-term experiments of two-weeks to one month and found that CO2 in very small amounts can escape along rock faults and old petroleum wells into near-by groundwater and release harmful metals such as arsenic and uranium into the water.

Once CO2 reaches a freshwater aquifer, the quality of the drinking water is site specific, and depends on an array of factors including the size of the leak and the types of bacteria in the water, Little said. “By no means would all sites be susceptible to problems of water quality,” Jackson added.

Other researchers are trying to determine how a very large leak might affect the subsurface environment, while the Department of Energy (DOE) and private investors are beginning studies of potential groundwater contamination in the field, rather than in a lab as Jackson and Little did.

EPA’s Rule

The paper was published just as EPA finished a rule designed to protect potential drinking water sources from contamination following a CO2 leak. Announced on November 22, the rule is written for the owners and operators of potential CCS wells. It’s designed to ensure that the wells are appropriately sited, constructed, tested, monitored, and closed, according to EPA.

Sally Benson, director of the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, said EPA’s rule should protect groundwater because it will make it difficult to inject CO2 too close to a possible drinking water source. She also said the new study doesn’t present any surprises and is not likely to put an obstacle in the way of those CCS projects in the planning stages.

“Really, it gets down to making sure projects are designed carefully and that the project has monitoring so that one has early warning of any CO2 movements,” Benson added.

But drinking water utilities aren’t convinced that EPA’s rule will protect water sources from metal contamination resulting from the bubbling up of CO2, which is sure to occur in small amounts at least.

Cynthia Lane with the American Water Works Association (AWWA), a nonprofit research and advocacy organization representing researchers and water utilities, said this rule doesn’t include specific site selection criteria. Rather, the rule leaves many of the decisions about site selection and permit approval up to each state.

“It is not as protective as we might like,” said Lane. “We are concerned about the quality of drinking water. There is a definite shift in certain parts of country to use saline or more brackish water for drinking.”

Groundwater protections should be in place for areas in the southwest, such as Las Vegas, where utilities are having a difficult time finding water sources, Lane said. “They are using anything that is wet no matter what the saline content is,” Lane added.

After observing the CO2 percolating through aquifer sand and sediment for a year, Jackson said the study strongly suggests to him that long-term monitoring for CO2 leakage into freshwater aquifers should be part of every CCS project.

The CO2 caused concentrations of manganese, cobalt, nickel, and iron to increase by more than 100 times the original levels (or 2 orders of magnitude), and potentially dangerous uranium and barium increased throughout the entire experiment in some samples. In general, they found that iron and manganese concentrations increased within 100 days. The response of other potentially harmful metals was more varied.

“We don’t want a private homeowner with a well that is not regularly monitored by the local utility to suddenly have elements in their groundwater that they don’t even know about.”

The two researchers are now collecting data on sites that are under consideration by DOE and private consortiums.

“Our next step is to do incubations under a variety of conditions,” said Jackson. “I think we could contribute to a list that indicates why certain sites are better than other sites.”