Environmental Report Calls Water Reinjection Feasible for Powder River Basin Gas: Greewire

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Greenwire Friday, September 3, 2004 COALBED METHANE Page 1 of 3 Enviro report calls water reinjection feasible for Powder River Basin gas Ben Geman, Greenwire reporter A new study by Montana environmentalists claims reinjection of groundwater withdrawn during extraction of Powder River Basin coalbed methane (CBM) is economically feasible, but some regulators and gas industry sources say the area's geology will generally prevent the practice. Management of "produced" water has emerged as a major issue amid planned expansion of CBM development in the basin that straddles Wyoming and Montana, an area the Bush administration and industry are targeting for thousands of new wells to help increase domestic energy production. Environmentalists plan to seek legislation in Montana that would require the reinjection of the water into aquifers or injection at another suitable site when feasible. Advanced treatment of the water is also affordable when reinjection is not possible and would be required under the bill in this case, they say. Another bill requiring reinjection of the water -- which is brought to the surface in high volumes to obtain CBM -- failed to gain traction in 2001, according to a source with the Northern Plains Resource Council, who hopes the group's new at udv will bolster the planned legislation in the upcoming 2005 state legislative session. The study by the Northern Plains Resource Council finds that "it is both technologically and economically feasible to address most impacts associated with CBM - produced water management by re- injecting methane wastewater into CBM - depleted aquifers, injecting it into other suitable aquifers, or treating it prior to discharge where reinjection or injection is not feasible." The group says producers could afford injection or advanced treatment even if prices tumbled to $2.50 per thousand cubic feet. Current natural gas prices, which have recently fallen on news of higher than average storage levels and moderate temperatures, averaged an estimated $5.60 per thousand cubic feet in July 2004, according to Energy Information Administration data released this week. Requiring injection of the water would prompt significant changes to current and planned CBM development sites in the basin. State regulators, industry sources and environmentalists say the practice is extremely rare at CBM sites in the Powder River Basin, although it is more common in other natural gas producing areas. A source with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality says that at least on the Montana side of the basin, locating areas to re- inject the massive volumes of groundwater extracted in order to depressurize gas seams would be very difficult. "It has been tried experimentally without success," the source says. "You need a fairly continuous uninterrupted geological structure to pump the water into." http: / /www.eenews. net / Greenwire /Backissues /090304/09030407.htm 9/3/2004