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ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF GEOPRESSURED WATERS AND THEIR PROJECTED USES
Citation:
Wilson, J., J. Hamilton, J. Manning, AND P. Muehlberg. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF GEOPRESSURED WATERS AND THEIR PROJECTED USES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-77/039.
Description:
A possible source of alternate energy for the nation is believed to exist in the deep geopressured reservoirs found in the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast sedimentary basins. This report considers the potential uses of the geopressured geothermal resource and the environmental aspects of those uses. Economics of power production are estimated as an aid to assignment of priority research and development in the area. Principal environmental impacts of any of the proposed uses will result from the waste fluid streams and from possible subsidence of the wellfield. In most instances, disposal of this large volume of saline fluid will require reinjection, canaling to a saline water body, or some more imaginative method. The area is one of natural subsidence which may be accelerated by deep fluid withdrawal. This report describes the resource, the possible uses, the projected resulting emissions, other impacts upon the land, the present stage of development, and projections of future developmental plans.