The IMPACT OF Geosequestration on WATER SUPPLIES

April 17, 2009

America's Climate Choices
The National Academies
500 5th St. NW, W603
Washington, DC 20001

RE: Summary of Submission to the Panel on Limiting the Magnitude of Future
Climate Change

Dear Committee Members:

The American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Association of Metropolitan
Water Agencies (AMWA) and the Water Research Foundation (Foundation) are
submitting these joint comments to the America's Climate Choices Panel on Limiting the
Magnitude of Future Climate Change. AMWA and AWWA together represent drinking
water utilities of all sizes that serve more than 90% of the U.S. population. The
Foundation sponsors research to enable water utilities to provide safe and affordable
drinking water to consumers. In 2008 the Foundation established the Climate Change
Strategic Initiative – a research program focused on impacts of climate change on water
supplies.

AWWA, AMWA and the Foundation are very concerned with the effects of climate
change on water resources as many of the most critical impacts of global climate
change will manifest themselves through the hydrologic system. Because the exact
effects of climate change on water resources are uncertain and will vary by region, the
drinking water, wastewater, flood management, and stormwater utilities responsible for
managing water resources for local communities face daunting challenges. These
water utilities are already preparing to mitigate, adapt and plan for climate change in the
midst of the uncertainties about the potential ranges of climate change impacts.

This joint letter summarizes the three documents we are submitting for consideration
during the study process. The documents include:
 Comments on the Sub-Questions: We have reviewed the final four key
questions to be addressed by the Committee and provided responses to each.
The responses include suggested short and long-term actions and technological
advances that can help the water sector address its needs related to the impacts
of climate change on water resources. We submit these suggestions for the
Committee to consider as recommended future actions.

The Authoritative Resource on Safe WaterSM
 Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States: This article, which was
recently published in Environment Science and Technology, addresses the
continually increasing amount of water used during the production of bioethanol
in the United States. The energy sector and the water sector are becoming more
and more interdependent, and the implementation of new climate change
mitigation technologies could have significant impacts on the availability of our
water resources. We submit this article for consideration during the discussion of
limiting the magnitude of climate change.

 Comments developed for EPA on Geologic Carbon Sequestration: In 2008,
AWWA and AMWA developed comments on the Environmental Protection
Agency’s proposed rule on geologic carbon sequestration injection under the
Underground Injection Control Program. These comments are submitted for
consideration because they provide more detail on our specific concerns
regarding the use of carbon sequestration as a large-scale greenhouse gas
mitigation technology.

AWWA, AMWA and the Foundation are also submitting detailed joint comments to each
of the other three panels within the America's Climate Choices Study and to the
Committee on America’s Climate Choices.

Sincerely,
q
Diane VanDe Hei Tom Curtis
Executive Director, AMWA Deputy Executive Director, AWWA
Robert C. Renner
Executive Director, Water Research Foundation

Read the full article with attachments here

So Thirsty: Corn Ethanol Uses Up to 300% More Water than Previously Thought

The CO2 for the proposed Battelle-lead large-scale CO2 project in Darke County, Ohio will come from TAME (The Andersons Marathon Ethanol plant) - not only do we face all the risks that go with Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration, now that farmers are planting more corn for the ethanol factory, our most precious resource, our water is at risk......

already wells in our area have gone dry, new wells have been dug ..... as we use tons of corn for ethanol production .......

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/study-corn-ethanol-300-percent-more-water.php

Reasons Why Corn Ethanol is Bad for the Environment!

Reasons Why Corn Ethanol is Bad for the Environment!

Another reason why Corn Ethanol is bad for the community = attracted Battelle-lead large-scale MRCSP CO2 sequestration EXPERIMENT to our community - our community does NOT want or support this risky experiment - we are NOT GUINEA PIGS!

IF YOU HAVE AN ETHANOL PLANT CONSIDERING YOUR COMMUNITY -
BE AWARE OF WHAT ELSE MIGHT COME YOUR WAY!

http://chemicallygreen.com/corn-ethanol-biofuel/

Vulnerability Evaluation Framework for Geologic Sequestration of CO2

• Identifies and evaluates vulnerabilities that could
result in adverse impacts to human health and the
environment

Is not a probabilistic risk assessment
• Focuses on geologic sequestration (does not include
capture, transport)

• May inform but does not include well construction
and operation

• Attempts to provide flexibility by identifying multiple
options to reduce vulnerability

Get the complete link here

What's a Life Worth?

Click here to read it on the Washington Post site

Ever wonder how corporations and governments assess risks to our health, safety and lives?

It's all based on the dollar.... click on the link above to read what a life is worth. Often it is less expensive to pay for damages, wrongful deaths, etc than it is to be proactive with our best interest in mind.

CCS - Not safe for urban areas ?

Excerpts on this page come from the report below.
To read the entire abstract please click on the link below -

The Role of Social Factors in Shaping Public Perceptions of CCS: Results of
Multi-State Focus Group Interviews in the U.S.

Judith Bradbury1* Isha Ray2 Tarla Peterson3 Sarah Wade4 Gabrielle Wong-Parodi2
Andrea Feldpausch

"Over the last decade, many of the experts and advocates working in climate change have recommended further research into whether carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration (CCS) may be a viable and important technological response to climate change. However, all new technologies face challenges with respect to social acceptability, especially those that may involve new risks, large-scale infrastructure, and significant government involvement—all features of CCS. Some of the most critical challenges to social acceptability may come from theperceptions and preferences of communities near whom CCS infrastructure may be located. Thus, it is important to evaluate what might explain and influence the views of communities that may be directly impacted by the siting of this technology."

"Public acceptability is recognized as an important aspect of the program; outreach activities and research into public perceptions of the technology are a funded component. This paper reports on a collaborative social research effort among three partnerships—the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, (WESTCARB), Southwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SWP), and the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP).
Researchers from these three partnerships conducted a series of focus groups in the states of California, Ohio, Texas, New Mexico and a test interview in Washington, D.C. The results were considered for their insights into particular concerns within each region, and they were also compared to see if common themes emerged from the multi-state effort."

"In all cases, social factors, such as existing low socioeconomic status, desire for compensation, benefits to the community and past experience with government were of greater concern than concern about the risks of the technology itself."

"MRCSP selected a community that would be unlikely to host a sequestration project because of population and urban density but was located in a state with significant sequestration potential and historically dependent on coal for electrical power generation. MRCSP conducted two focus groups in Columbus, Ohio."

"The focus group communities differed in demographic characteristics. The WESTCARB and SWP communities were rural; MRCSP’s was urban".

It should be noted that MRCSP's study was done in a urban area with well-educated individuals- a "community that would be unlikely to host a sequestration project because of population and urban density", I question how these individuals could speak for, or reflect,the values of acommunity that must deal with the reality of a CCS project as these projects are clearly put in community's that are rural and have a much different demographic composition.

Additionally, as one who lives in a community that has been selected for a Phase III, large-scale CO2 sequestration experiment, I find it very offensive to suggest that an urban area would be an unlikely host because of "population and urban density" - suggesting their lives, health, safety, environment and economy should have a higher priority than those of us who live in the communities in which these risky experiments are conducted!

Read the entire article here

Over 1,000 Darke County Residents Protest Proposed Large-Scale CO2 Sequestration DEMONSTRATION (EXPERIMENT)

CALL TO ACTION MEETING - 1,000+ Residents Oppose CO2 Sequestration

Thank you for answering our call to action!

The photos speak louder than words!

The Residents of Darke County, OH DO NOT WANT THIS IN THEIR COMMUNITY!

Darke County is the proposed bulleye for one of the 7 large-scale CO2 Sequestration "demonstrations" -
1 MILLION tons of Supercritical CO2 is scheduled to be injected into this agriculturally strong farming community 32 miles NW of Dayton, OH. The residents are fighting back, showing their opposition.

We agree with the Sierra Club's coal initiative - Companies and governments that impact the environment should NOT allowed in communities without the vote by the people who live in that community.

It brings MANY POTENTIAL RISKS - NO REWARDS
and MAYBE 2 or 3 jobs!

As Julie Monnin said, "Folks, if this were a good thing, Greenville would NOT be getting it."

Carbon Capture & Sequestration is an UNPROVEN technology with risky consequences that endanger our lives, health, safety, environment, & economy.

One of the potential consequences -
man-made earthquakes
NOT COVERED
by most homeowners insurances


Thank You to our Speakers:
Kerwin Olsen, Indiana Citizens Action

Kathleen Boutis - Green Environmental Coalition

Jim Surber - Darke County Civil Engineer

Judge Julie Monnin - Municipal Court

Representative Jim Zehringer

Nachy Kanfer, Sierra Club

& our own, Anne Vehre!

Risk Assessment for Future CO 2 Sequestration Projects

The link to this information is here

"This paper is the first of a series that attempts to assess the possible health and safety risks associated with large scale CO2 sequestration in deep brine reservoirs. The approach is based on analysis of available data on the operational track record from CO2 transportation and injection associated with enhanced oil recovery (CO2 -EOR) in the US.

Some of these risks are based on the oil and gas industry and enhanced oil recovery - which is not the same thing as Carbon Capture and Sequestration for geologic storage. According to Stephen

Connolly, (Health and Safety Executive) “There is relatively little experience worldwide in managing the risks associated with CO2, compared with oil and gas.”

This information comes from -

Risk assessment for future CO2 Sequestration Projects

Based CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery in the U.S

presented at the

9th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies

(GHGT-9), Washington, D.C., November 16-20, 2008

Ian J. Duncan, Jean-Philippe Nicot, Jong-Won Choi

"This paper is particularly concerned with identification of the main business risks facing a company engaged in geological sequestration. Such risks include: (1) the operational risks of capturing, compressing, transporting and injecting CO2 ; (2) the risk of blowouts or very rapid CO2 release from wells; (3) the risk that CO2 put into long term geologic storage will leak into shallow aquifers and contaminate potable water by lowering pH and increasing dissolved metals and other components; and (4) the risk that sequestered CO2 (and possibly associated methane gas) will leak into the atmosphere reversing the climate change benefits of sequestration and perhaps requiring repayment of CO2 sequestration credits."

“On the Free State pipeline, two leak incidents occurred soon after pressurizing the line and were caused by manufacturing imperfections in welds. Both these leaks were too small to be detected by the flow measurement imbalance. A landowner called the toll-free number on the pipeline signage to alert the control room of unusual white smog emerging from the ground where the pipeline was located on his property, triggering a response from Denbury’s Operations group. The third incident on the Tinsley 8” line, occurred when an excavator accidentally cut the line. Company personnel were onsite for immediate dispatch to isolate the system. On the Barksdale 6-3 #1 flowline incident (cement lined pipe rupture due to inadequate weld pre-heating), automatic shut-downs and alarms worked as designed. In the fifth incident at a pump station was minimal and observed by on-scene personnel. On the Free State pipeline, each leak caused minimal release but a controlled release of 75 MMCF (each) was required to depressurize the pipeline segment for repair.”

CO2well blowouts

The blowout of a well occurs when the operator of the well loses control of the pressure in the well resulting in fluid flow out of the well. Damen et al. [10] have suggested that the largest risk associated with CO2 injection for sequestration in deep brine reservoirs is well failure. Such failures result from a failure to adequately control pressures in the injection system. This is typically due to mechanical failure of a component or an external event directly affecting the well. This results in temporary loss of control of the process and the pressure of the reservoir drives CO2 and other entrained fluids upwards out of the well.

In most cases blowouts are caused by mechanical failures beyond human control, for example the failure of a back-flow preventer. This loss of containment immediately results in the pressure release vaporizing the supercritical CO2.In this context a blowout is driven by the high expansibility of the released gas resulting in a vigorous eruption of the vapor up the well bore (with the likely entrainment of particles of solid debris). If this occurs during drilling into a CO2 reservoir the rapidity of this phenomenon may make it a challenge to activate manual Blowout Prevention devices (BOPs) in time to prevent a blowout. Adiabatic cooling of CO2 during this rapid expansion leads to the gas being cooled below the freezing point (the triple point for CO2 being at -63°F and 76 psi). This results in the nucleation of dry ice and/or solid ice-like CO2-hydrates. These solids

can result in a blowout becoming a spray of solid particles. Such icy particles could damage pipes and other infrastructure in the path of the spraying particles. Whether this phenomenon is less risky than the CO2 irrupting as a fountain of dense CO2remains to be determined. If much of the CO2in a large blowout is in a frozen form then the risks posed by the initial blowout to the local are probably lowered.

Blowouts of oil production wells within CO2-EOR reservoirs are a known hazard (Lynch et al. [11]; Skinner [13]). In 2003,Skinner in a paper in “World Oil” focusing on blowouts in the CO2-EOR industry in the US suggested that there had been an “increased frequency of CO2 blowouts in injection projects.”

Read the full article - http://www.beg.utexas.edu/gccc/bookshelf/2008/GHGT9/08-03i-Final.pdf

SOME, not all of the potential leakage routes and remediation techniques for CO2 injected into saline formations

Click below to see 7 ways CO2 can leak from a saline formation... and it doesn't even include leaking around the injection point, well blow-out etc.

http://www.greenfacts.org/en/co2-capture-storage/figtableboxes/figure-8.htm

Health, Safety and Environmental Risks of Underground CO2 Sequestration

CO2 Sequestration poses many risks - this UNPROVEN technology is still experimental and the public has every right to be concerned and opposed to being part of such a risky experiment which includes such risks as man-made earthquakes, contamination of freshwater aquifer, asphyxiation.....and it goes on and on.


Currently, large-scale "demonstration" projects are being implemented in communities with the opportunity to no vote - educate yourself and your community on the risks and lack of rewards... take a stand! Fight back to protect your community!

I believe it was the Dutch who said, "After you put it under Manhattan you can put it here"

In the U.S. these projects are financed largely with taxpayer money - money that could have been spent on renewable energy.

This essay addresses health, Safety, and environmental risks that need further research.
tp://manhaz.cyf.gov.pl/manhaz/links/COAL_BASED_NEW_TECHNOLOGIES/e2003-30.pdf