From the “MTBE is perfectly safe department” and Duke University:
Leaking underground CO2 storage could contaminate drinking water
DURHAM, N.C. — Leaks from carbon dioxide injected deep underground to help fight climate change could bubble up into drinking water aquifers near the surface, driving up levels of contaminants in the water tenfold or more in some places, according to a study by Duke University scientists.
Based on a year-long analysis of core samples from four drinking water aquifers, “We found the potential for contamination is real, but there are ways to avoid or reduce the risk,” says Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change and professor of biology at Duke.
“Geologic criteria that we identified in the study can help identify locations around the country that should be monitored or avoided,” he says. “By no means would all sites be susceptible to problems of water quality.”
The study appears in the online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es102235w.
Storing carbon dioxide deep below Earth’s surface, a process known as geosequestration, is part of a suite of new carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies being developed by governments and industries worldwide to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering Earth’s atmosphere. The still-evolving technologies are designed to capture and compress CO2, emissions at their source – typically power plants and other industrial facilities – and transport the CO2 to locations where it can be injected far below the Earth’s surface for long-term storage. The U.S. Department of Energy, working with industry and academia, has begun the planning for at least seven regional CCS projects.
“The fear of drinking water contamination from CO2 leaks is one of several sticking points about CCS and has contributed to local opposition to it,” says Jackson, who directs Duke’s Center on Global Change. “We examined the idea that if CO2 leaked out slowly from deep formations, where might it negatively impact freshwater aquifers near the surface, and why.”
Jackson and his postdoctoral fellow Mark G. Little collected core samples from four freshwater aquifers around the nation that overlie potential CCS sites and incubated the samples in their lab at Duke for a year, with CO2 bubbling through them.
After a year’s exposure to the CO2, analysis of the samples showed that “there are a number of potential sites where CO2 leaks drive contaminants up tenfold or more, in some cases to levels above the maximum contaminant loads set by the EPA for potable water,” Jackson says. Three key factors – solid-phase metal mobility, carbonate buffering capacity and electron exchanges in the overlying freshwater aquifer – were found to influence the risk of drinking water contamination from underground carbon leaks.
The study also identified four markers that scientists can use to test for early warnings of potential carbon dioxide leaks. “Along with changes in carbonate concentration and acidity of the water, concentrations of manganese, iron and calcium could all be used as geochemical markers of a leak, as their concentration increase within two weeks of exposure to CO2,” Jackson says.
OT
David Axelrod addresses BO as “Potus”. This is how he addressed the President in an email reported on broadcast TV.
Do they believe themselves to be royalty? It would appear so.
We need to revisit how we feel about titles of royalty in our country.
Garry says:
November 11, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Simply and aptly put…
This all reminds me of the futurists from the 70s, with nary a prophecy of theirs coming to pass. They are as good as Dick Tracy in the 50s, floating around in magnetic cars that looked like cherry-picker platforms, and the proclamation of B.O. Plenty as he soars over the city, “He who controls magnetism controls the universe.”
These geoengineering dudes are thus similar to golden age cartoon characters, and should be taken at least as seriously.
By the way
Jeff L says: wrote.
November 11, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Thanks for that. Keeping things in perspective.
Well look at the source this is from. DUKE. Nothing else left to say.
Re my post : ‘If they really want to sequester CO2 then the best way would be to dissolve it in the oceans.’
Thinking about it – pumping CO2 directly in to the ocean would concentrate it too much in one area and would use a lot of resources and energy to achieve. What is required is a way to distribute CO2 over a large body of water to ensure even distribution. The greenest way is to utilise natural methods : if the CO2 is pumped directly in to the air then the atmosphere will ensure the maximum distribution over the oceans, sequestering the CO2 more evenly without using precious resources.
OT
A great leader would begin to prepare the nation for hard times ahead.
CO2?
1) Sequester it in beer.
2) Drink the beer and sequester the released CO2 in more beer
Go back to 1).
In order to sequester CO2 has anyone considered the Charnal Solution?
If the bones from the many millions of animals butchered each year were dumped in the oceans then this would sequester CO2 in the form of calcium carbonate. The hagfish would remove any scraps of flesh and so reduce methane production. Other burrowing fish would recover any useful minerals from the bones. This would also lead to a growth in deep sea animals which would also effectively sequester more CO2.
I would hope that it would not lead to vegetarianism being made illegal, or the compulsory burial of human corpses at sea, but to save the world any sacrifice must be considered.
I thought Al Gore was a CO2 geezer
Do you really think the billionaire tax cuts should remain in place?
That means the billionaires don’t have to die before December 31, 2010 when the estate tax goes from 0% to 55% thereafter.
[snip]
OT
I think everyone is starting to accept the Ron Paul end time scenario for the economy.
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Military manufacturing grew by 125% in our country since 9/11.
At the same time, consumer goods manufacturing declined by approximately 40%.
Michael says:
November 11, 2010 at 8:12 pm
POTUS is not a title. It is an acronym that stands for President Of The United States. I see it used by U.S. military and veterans when referring to the office.
Now back on topic, they should just sell the CO2. IIRC there are a lot of commercial and industrial applications for CO2.
The old fables come to mind. The Emperor with no clothes, Rumpilstilskin. Chicken Little, Robin Hood. Especially Robin Hood.
Couldn’t we pump the CO2 into oil wells to get more oil out at the same time?
Carbon Sequestering Simplified
Sean at 3:50 PM presented a good observation when he noted, “The oceans quite naturally sequester vast amounts of CO2 already. Find a way to speed up the process just a little, and you might keep up with human combustion of fossile fuel.”
The same is true for shallow fresh water ponds with their prolific algal growth in the summer. I see a huge potential for a green, sustainable (not to mention utopian) lifestyle growing up around coal fired power plants. Infrastucture costs to establish such communities are minimal. All that is required is that fresh water pools be installed with piped in CO2 for plant growth and waste heat from the power plant to maintain a constant warm temperature during the colder months.
Seed the water with the most prolific and nutritious algae species. For floral diversity and as a human habitat construction resource, plant willows around the shore. Within two years you will have a Garden of Eden.
Willows are easily woven so could be used to make both the rafts and paddles to be used by the inhabitants for recreation, exercise and food gathering. The first two of those activities will have to become an essential element of the culture of the inhabitants since agitation of the water is needed to accelerate algal growth. Willows will also be used to make the structural skeletons of the wattle and daub dwellings for the inhabitants. Young willow shoots can also be woven into baskets and sandals.
The staple food for the inhabitants will be the algae collected from the pond. It can easily be gathered and set out in mats to dry in the sun. The dried mats would be cut up into convenient sized biscuits for later consumption. Thus, the use of fire for food preparation is not needed. The use of fire to provide personal warmth is also not needed since there is the immediate availability of the warm pond as a refuge in the cold winter months just as the Japanese Macaque monkeys have learned to do.
The builder of each pond community should grant half acre or acre homesteads to the pioneers who come to live there. This will imbue a pride of ownership in the inhabitants and encourage them to be good custodians of the environment in which they live.
For those who are of a spiritual bent, a single oak or cypress tree could be planted in each community to provide a focal point for worship and social events. To prevent backsliding or succumbing to the temptations of the material world, each community should have an enclave set aside and inhabited by a cadre of spiritual leaders. The minimum qualifications for such leaders is that they be bona fide AGW proponents, having published at least one peer reviewed paper on the subject. Subaltern ranks of the spiritual leader class could be filled by environmental reporters who have kept the faith and been martyred by skeptics.
Immigration into the communities should be limited to those who are young and idealistic and can be expected to have children to sustain the community in coming generations. Aging hippies should be discouraged from homesteading in the community – they are the class of people most likely to introduce mind altering plants and animals to a clear headed population. The community could not survive with half the population licking cane toads and soaking in the warm pool. It needs a vibrant young population out on the pond paddling around, agitating the algae and gathering the fruits of the earth.
By the turn of the century such communities would be in their third or fourth generation and have developed such diverse and quaint customs that they would necessarily attract a considerable tourist trade. The associated power company could profit from the tourist trade and as a consequence provide electricity to their customers at a reduced price. This is a win-win solution for all concerned with the issue. The first coal fired powerplant in California in many years would surely be quickly permitted if such a plan were proposed. If necessary, we may have to compromise and not exclude the aging hippies and cane toads.
There is stupidity, gross stupidity, sublime stupidity, mind boggling stupidity and then there is climate ‘science’ stupidity.
Whoever thought that pumping a harmless trace gas that we drink by the millions of tons every year in the form of CO2 infused drinks into a hole in the ground was a great idea?
I just cannot get my head around how intelligent people can lose their critical faculties/marbles in order to come up with whacky crazy schemes like this, it just does not compute.
Even if you believe that a harmless trace gas essential to life on earth is somehow harmful how on earth does the extra energy required to sequester this gas make sense in an energy conservation equation?
There is a kind of madness in the air affecting humanity, it is sapping reason and sound judgement and reinforcing an unthinking unreasoning emotional response that is somehow bypassing the higher human intellect.
Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad? The quality control of cold logic and Rational common sense is evaporating replaced by a form of incoherent mystical mumbo jumbo. Is there nobody in the chain of planning policy creation who stood up and tried to inject some common sense when some bright spark stood up and said ‘yeah I know lets dig a hole and pour CO2 down it and damn the cost’?
I dont know about CCS(carbon capture and storage) but it seems that a new scheme of CSCS(common sense capture and storage) has been developed and is working very effectively indeed.
Another deadly sign of CO2, how many are there so far…CO2 must be the most dangerous thing in the universe.
CO2 pollutes water? Has this guy never drunk Perrier? Or a beer?
CCS, Carbon Capture and Storage, is e2xtremely costly and unnecessary.
GREAT! We won’t have to buy our carbonated water now!
That reminded me…. no one has yet said carbonated soda drinks are a threat to global warming, yet. I’m waiting.
Jeff L says:
November 11, 2010 at 7:24 pm
“We in the oil industry have been injecting CO2 into rocks for decades to enhance oil recovery – with no problems at all.”
We know all about that, thank you, but I assume that:
(a) at the point in time when the enhanced recovery process is producing very little oil , i.e. the reservoir is emptied of oil by the injected CO2, you permanently seal the riser through which the oil has been recovered, and
(b) you then stop pumping CO2 into the reservoir.
This is not the same thing as what the CCS lunatics want to do.
They want to help the oil industry with their enhanced recovery process, but having done that they want the oil man to cap the well and then they keep on pumping CO2 into the reservoir for their sequestration lark.
Do you agree that your analogy is faulty?
A major risk involved with CSS is based on the process to capture Co2 from the exhaust fumes of power plants. It is based on the reaction of Co2 with amines. When NOx is present in the exhaust fumes, it will also react with the amines, forming nitrosamines, which are highly toxic and carcinogenic. They can escape into the air, or also being trapped in the CO2 that goes underground.
http://www.carboncapturejournal.com/displaynews.php?NewsID=668
A pilot plant in Mongstad, Norway is facing serious delays due to this unresolved issue.
CSS is not a mature technology.