MUST READ - Educate yourself about the risks involved with CO2 Sequestration

I consider this a must read document -

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/VEF-Technical_Document_072408.pdf

Figuring out where to put the carbon

Figuring out where to put the carbon:


"Such estimates are complicated because there are several different mechanisms by which the CO2 can spread out from the point where it is released underground, and additional mechanisms that allow it to eventually become trapped. The spreading can occur by natural groundwater flows or by migration upward along a sloping aquifer, and the trapping can be caused by the CO2 dissolving in the water in deep aquifers, or by seeping through capillary action into cracks in the rock.

Juanes said his system accounts for all of the major known mechanisms by which carbon dioxide can get trapped in these underground formations. But for future research, he added, “The key uncertainty is the potential migration of CO2 vertically across geologic layers.” For instance, the pressure of the injected CO2 might produce faults and fractures in the rock, and this could create pathways to the surface and into the atmosphere. Juanes says his team is now working to better understand this potential mechanism."

Potential impacts of CCS to underground sources of drinking water

Water is our most precious resource - one we often take for granted.  Much of the United States is predicted to have a water shortage.... we need to take great measures to protect it.

CO2 sequestration is also known as "CCS"  or "GCS" - for geological carbon sequestration.

Risks to our drinking water -

The following quotes come the article linked at the end of this posting.

"There are several potential scenarios by which a USDW may be impacted by GCS activities. Potential pathways include upward migration, fractured cap rock, faults, trace contaminants included in the CO2 stream, a microannulus outside the final casing, and the mobilization of metals from native minerals."


"The success of GCS relies on the structural integrity of confining units, for trapping CO2 in underlying permeable formations. Injection of CO2 into the receiving aquifer has the potential to cause deformation, trigger seismicity, reactivate faults, and compromise seals in wells. Each of these processes could increase the risk of leakage jeopardizing containment and the protection of groundwater quality." 

"Risk is typically defined as the product of the probability of occurrence of an event and the negative consequence of the event. There are concerns that there is limited likelihood data concerning the consequences of GCS, which might result in either over or underestimation of chances of occurrence. Water purveyors take pride in meeting their mandate to protect the public health by providing safe clean drinking water.

While the probability of a USDW being significantly impacted may be low, the negative consequences of any such incident have the potential to be very high. The proposed rule requires operators of GCS facilities to provide financial assurances adequate for corrective actions, plugging and abandonment of wells, post injection site care and closure, and emergency response for failed injection wells. The question of how to structure liability for long-term risks to USDWs associated with the geologic sequestration of CO2 has not yet been resolved."

Read the full article here

Groundwater, Saline Aquifers, and Proposed CCS Project s

Darke County, Ohio is the proposed site of one of the large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage projects. (CCS - aka CO2 Sequestration) Greenville, OH has been selected as the site for the MRCSP's Phase III "Demonstration Project" in which they plan to bury 1 Millon Tons of CO2 in the Supercritical Form known as Supercritical CO2.

This area is a strong agricultural area and it sits on top of a sole source aquifer

Technology has advanced rapidly, whoever thought we'd have this technology in our lifetime?

I question why anyone would want to inject supercritical CO2 into our saline aquifer and destroy the possibility of it being used in the future. What potential mess are we leaving for future generations to clean up?




The quotes below are from the web site - http://www.pnl.gov/gtsp/publications/2008/papers/2008_davidson_impacts_future_demand.pdf

Assessing the impacts of future demand for saline groundwater on commercial deployment of CCS in the United States

Casie L Davidsona*, James J Dooleyb, Robert T Dahowskia
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Avenue, Richland, Washington 99354, USA
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 8400 Baltimore Avenue, Ste 201, College Park, MD 20740, USA

This is a very important article - it addresses the potential impact that CCS might have on the future demand for groundwater within the United States especially as these projects increase in number. A number of areas of the U.S. are very dependent upon their groundwater - many are over-utilized or depleted or moving towards depletion as demand grows.

This geological formation in the western Ohio area is known as the Mount Simon Sandstone and it is this same saline aquifer that is considered to be an ideal formation for CO2 waste pumped into the earth as the final deposit for CO2 sequestration projects. It is deposited in the geological formation forever, not stored to be retrieved at a later date.

Water is our most precious resource.

The bold areas in red are excerpts from the article referenced below. They have been enhanced in red for those who skim articles. The excerpts are from random paragraphs and may or may not be in order... please read the entire article.

Please be sure to read the entire article http://www.pnl.gov/gtsp/publications/2008/papers/2008_davidson_impacts_future_demand.pdf

"The need to meet future water demands may lead some parts of the nation to consider supplementing existing supplies with lower quality groundwater resources, including brackish waters that are currently not considered sources of drinking water but which could provide supplemental water via desalination. In some areas, these same deep saline-filled geologic formations also represent possible candidate carbon dioxide (CO2) storage reservoirs. The analysis presented here suggests that future constraints on CCS deployment – due to potential needs to supplement conventional water supplies by desalinating deeper and more brackish waters – are likely to be necessary only in limited regions across the country, particularly in areas that are already experiencing water stress."

(Please see map of Ohio on the above web site)

"As Figure 1 illustrates, some areas of the U.S. use very little groundwater to supply their populations with drinking water. In particular, Appalachia, the Northeast and certain areas in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest rely predominantly on surface waters to meet their public supply needs. In other areas, however – particularly the Southwest, Gulf Coast and Florida, and certain other parts of the Midwest – groundwater provides a large fraction of the total public water supply, well over 50 percent in many areas. It is also worth noting that the use of groundwater to supply public drinking water appears to be on the rise. In 1985, 379 counties in the U.S. supplied more than 80 percent of their population with groundwater; in 1995 there were 436, a 15 percent increase [9]."

"3.5. Ohio River Valley Aquifers
Because the most promising CO2 storage resource in the Ohio River Valley does not underlie a major drinking water aquifer system in many areas of interest for CO2 storage, there are unlikely to be significant conflicts regarding saline water use for CCS. However, the Mt. Simon Formation, one of the key CO2 storage targets in this region, shallows to the northwest, in northern Illinois, where formation waters are fresh and the aquifer is an important groundwater source."

(Note- Greenville, Ohio sits on a freshwater sole source aquifer)

"Adapting to growing populations, declining water levels within key aquifers, and changing precipitation patterns may further strain heavily used groundwater resources in areas already impacted by water supply issues. Within certain regions of the nation, water scarcity concerns may prompt further consideration for targeting nearby high salinity or brackish water in deep aquifers for treatment by desalination technologies to augment more conventional supplies. Deep geologic formations that could be used as a permanent repository for anthropogenic CO2 in climate change mitigation efforts via CCS contain highly brackish waters that in select regions might represent potential targets for future waters supplies (particularly if they are below the salinity of seawater, approximately 35,000 mg/L TDS). This possibility might present a competing use for these deep geologic formations, and should be examined to estimate the potential probability, location, and magnitude, of such impacts."

"The likelihood that deep, saline groundwaters exceeding the USDW salinity threshold may be demanded as future sources of drinking or irrigation water increases in areas where groundwater currently supplies a significant portion of the region’s water supply; in areas with already constrained water supplies, such as the High Plains / Ogallala region; in areas where significant population growth is expected to overburden current surface and groundwater resources within the near- to mid-term, such as in parts of the Southwestern U.S. and areas of Texas; and in areas where there are limited other sources of saline waters (i.e., seawater) nearby."

' In areas that meet one or more of these criteria and also have a significant potential demand for deep geologic CO2 storage, there exists the possibility for differences of opinion regarding the best use of the saline groundwater underlying these regions. In such cases, permitting or garnering public acceptance for proposed CCS projects will require regulators and potential CCS operators to strike a balance between the future needs for high quality drinking and agricultural water, and the use of CCS in a given area as a climate change mitigation strategy."

Will carbon capture ruin groundwater supplies?

Regarding CCS- injecting liquefied CO2 underground - read the entire article here

"But, as we’ve pointed out before, there is another school of thought that this as yet unproven method might just do more harm than good to the environment.

Now the Amercian Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF) is to undertake a project to assess the potential impact underground carbon storage has on the quality of groundwater supplies..........

Engineering consultancy MWH has been chosen to to work with the AWWARF on the project and MWH’s Dr John Norton says:

“This technology is not without risks - there is concern that the carbon dioxide will slowly leach out of the underlying formations and degrade water quality by changing the aquifer’s geochemical characteristics. The water agencies are concerned that by addressing one environmental problem, another huge problem will be generated.”

An example of the unintended consequences of new environmental technology cited is the Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether petrol additive used to reduce air emissions, which resulted in groundwater problems due to its solubility.

At this stage the CCS research will still be theoretical, based on a review of both published and unpublished “grey” literature to produce a preliminary report identifying the potential impacts of CCS on groundwater supplies."