--> ABSTRACT: Opening New Frontiers to Deep Well Injection of Liquid Industrial and Petroleum Wastes: An Approach, by Garth H. Ladle; #91020 (1995).

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Opening New Frontiers to Deep Well Injection of Liquid Industrial and Petroleum Wastes: An Approach

Garth H. Ladle

Recent multinational and pending global trade agreements are expected to shift a significant portion of the industrial and manufacturing complexes from highly environmentally regulated nations to emerging nations that have minimal regulatory safeguards. As production begins, large quantities of solid and liquid waste streams will quickly overwhelm existing disposal facilities. The "quick dollars" solution is to dump the waste down the drain, the ditch, or river. This solution is not a real dollar solution, nor is it environmentally or politically correct. The cents "sense" answer is to approach waste stream management in a cost effective, technically and environmentally correct manner, such as deep well injection.

This paper suggests an environmentally correct and, in the long run, dollar-wise approach for those companies which will move facilities to emerging nations.

This approach requires an assessment of available local and regional geological, geotechnical, ground water geohydrology reports, papers, completion reports, and well files as available, and needs to address the following items:

-- Evaluate and determine whether sufficient information and technical data are available to assess the subsurface hydrogeology.

-- Determine the depth limit or base of underground sources of drinking water (USDWs), which in the U.S. is set at less than 10,000 mg/l of total dissolved solids (TDS).

-- Evaluate geologic, hydrologic, and reservoir data to evaluate the risk associated with operation of a deep well injection project.

-- Evaluate the chemical reactivity of the waste stream with connate waters, framework grains, and matrix components in the proposed injection intervals.

-- Develop a preliminary design for drilling, well completion, and construction of surface facilities to handle and safely manage the waste stream effluents.

In summary, environmentally correct and dollar-wise guidelines should be developed for companies which are now, or which anticipate, operating in neighboring or emerging nations. Prompt initiation of plans to manage the waste streams will encourage these governments to be more receptive to deep well injection.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995