stone savage

Pardox, CO

I don’t know about you, but I’ve lived in earthquake-prone areas most of my life. I’ve never much been afraid of them, nor even thought about them much, until I was in a 6.9 earthquake - and felt every moment of it. All I’m going to say about that particular event is that I learned to not disregard earthquakes anymore.

So it is with extreme confusion and consternation that I read this article from the CNN website. The idea that a government sanctioned (thanks Nixon!) activity has the effect of causing “natural” disaster - and no one is blinking an eye!

[**Edit: The CNN article no longer exists - and I have no idea why. It also no longer exists on any of the news sites where I did my initial research for this article. You can read what it once said by visiting this site.**]

To be fair it seems the sizes of the quakes are rather insignificant - but the number caused by this little operation is in the thousands. Thousands. Am I the only person thinking “Hmmm… maybe that’s not such a good idea…"?

[More:]

I did a bit of research and found that the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) has documented the Paradox Valley operation and deemed it a “success". The goal, you see, is to desalinate fresh water as it travels through Paradox Valley, Colorado. Some 250 million years ago this little area of land (approximately 60 miles west of Grand Junction, CO) experienced a geological upheaval as mountains formed around it and caused the little valley to develop fissures and “breaks". Those breaks allowed the valley to eventually collapse, causing a salt anticline (a fold of rock layers that is convex upwards). The natural flow of the Dolores River begins brings fresh water into this anticline and picks up approximately 200,000 tons of salt, annually, on its way out of the valley.

Desalinating this water sounds like a good idea, I certainly wouldn’t argue against that… it’s the method of disposal that’s the problem. The relative salinity of the brine is eight times that of natural salt-water, and thankfully the ocean was not the target disposal location upon which this project settled. Unfortunately, the earth became the disposal location.

The salt anticline in Paradox Valley extends approximately 14,000 feet. The geniuses behind this project decided to dig a “well” extending nearly 16,000 feet. That’s where they dispose of the salt. What’s interesting is that if you look for the ideas behind this project they are relatively easy to find. The idea of the deep-well injections, as they’ve been termed, was dismissed because the brine production rate of the facilities was considered higher than geological formations surrounding the areas could absorb. Without a viable method for disposal the project was headed for the chopping block.

Luckily for the project a “private consulting firm” was brought in who miraculously found a way to conclude that the deep-well injections were “technically, economically, and environmentally feasible.” The first deep-well injection production environment began dumping 400 gallons per minute into the earth in 1997 and has maintained that rate of production ever since. If a pre-treatment facility can be put into place it is likely that rate of production will increase.

So let’s do the math… the facility has been in operation for 7 years and has caused thousands of earthquakes. CNN cites 1991 as the beginning of production, but the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program cites the beginning as 1997 - I think I’ll go with 1997. If we divide 1,000 earthquakes by 7 years, we come up with an average of 2 earthquakes per week. However many actual earthquakes make up the “thousands” cited by CNN, multiply that 2 per week by the appropriate factor.

Now getting back to what I was talking about earlier… I don’t know anyone who thinks the idea of living in an earthquake-prone area is something they enjoy. Most of us who do live in places where earthquakes are frequent, however, attribute such to the whims of nature - not the idiocy of man. As someone who lives in Southern California I think I can pretty safely say that if it were discovered that our government had a “hand” in dishing out some earthquakes to those of us who live here - we’d probably revolt.

But you know, I just really have to wonder whether or not the desalination effort is worth the guaranteed threat to the environment. The answer, despite what the USGS has to say - is that it is not. Roughly only one third of the salt is being removed - which leaves the groundwater leaving the Paradox Valley at still well over 50% more saline than ocean water.

It reminds of the “flood-control” efforts in South Mississippi… companies keep trying to win the public over to the idea of grading down their rivers and streams and use the term “flood-control” in their arguments. But when you question them on how much flooding the destruction of those environments would bring in an effort to spare human habitats and lives - the answer is “about 3 feet". When your house is under 15 feet of water (as does happen in flood-prone areas of Mississippi), that 3 feet doesn’t amount to much - and destroying the environment for a useless 3 feet of water isn’t something anyone is willing to see happen.

So how is it that we are drilling roughly 3 miles into the earth, depositing salt water that doesn’t belong there, lubricating earthquake fault lines, and are still leaving the water we were attempting to clean as toxic? Whose bright idea was this? How much did it cost, how much is it still costing - and when is the insanity going to stop?

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