Datapages, Inc.Print this page

A Promising Method for Documenting and Monitoring Fresh Water Aquifers potentially impacted by underlying Hydraulic Fracturing and/or Oil and Gas Extraction Work

Val O. Kofoed, P.E, Mike L. Jessop, and Michael J. Wallace
Willowstick Technologies, Draper, UT, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Willowstick Technologies has developed a unique technology that is highly promising in documenting pre-existing conditions with regard to overlying groundwater systems before drilling, fracturing and/or extraction work is initiated. The technology can also be used to monitor overlying aqueous systems during and after drilling and fracturing operations to avoid potential impacts. The technology works rapidly with minimal disruptions to the environment and/or subsurface operations. It is a viable aid for engineers and geologists who design subsurface workings as well as those charged with monitoring.

Groundwater systems have been notoriously difficult to adequately map and monitor with high degrees of accuracy. Traditional methods often prove costly in terms of time, money and environmental trauma. This presentation will consider a high-speed, minimally invasive mapping and monitoring technology called the Willowstick methodology which evolved from Magnetometric Resistivity. The Method has been specifically designed for mapping and monitoring zones of high and low transport porosity in any given confined or unconfined aquifer of interest.

The presentation will review the Methodology briefly and then detail how the technology can be applied to oil and gas sites to help characterize, document and monitor overlying aqueous systems. In addition to how the technology works and is applied, a physical modeling experiment and case study will be presented to show the results of what one can expect from the Methodology.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90154©2012 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, 22-26 September 2012