From The "Just In Time" Dept. - EPA Will Formulate Rules For Carbon Storage - ENN

[hatrack]

And they'll be ready in 2008. Yay.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it will develop new rules governing how coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities sock away heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas in underground reservoirs.

Burying CO2 in underground reservoirs is not commercially available yet, but has emerged as one possible way to slow global warming's potentially catastrophic results including flooding, heat waves and severe storms.

The EPA said in a statement it will propose regulations next summer to "ensure there is a consistent and effective permit system under the Safe Drinking Water Act for commercial-scale geologic sequestration programs to help reduce the effects of climate change."

The gas could be captured at power plants that burn fossil fuels, including coal, the heaviest carbon dioxide emitter. About a third of U.S. CO2 emissions come from power plants and other large industrial sources.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/23808

[kestrel91316]

1. What guarantee do we have that buried CO2 will stay put????

If it's in underground atmosphere, it's still in the atmosphere.

I'm thinking seepage.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. None.

CO2 seepage in the vicinity of volcanic fields has been known to kill plants, animals, and people.

http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/CO2/index.html

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Emissions/Publications/OFR95-85/OFR95-85.html

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1997/of97-262/of97-262.html

" A very serious hazard can occur under certain conditions from volcanic emissions of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and can collect in low and poorly ventilated places. Nearly two thousand people have died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation near volcanoes in the past two decades, most of them in Cameroon, Africa, and in Indonesia. Recently, there have been cases of near asphyxiation from carbon dioxide emissions at Mammoth Mountain, a young volcano on the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California.

Volcanic gases can also severely damage vegetation. Direct exposure to concentrated volcanic gas or long-term exposure to dilute volcanic gas is lethal to most types of foliage. Since 1990, areas of dying forest around Mammoth Mountain have grown in size and number because of high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the soils and now occupy more than 100 acres."

If the seepage should occur underwater, there is a possibility of creating new exploding lakes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_lake

[XemaSab]

4. Those are volcanic vents. not sedimentary deposits

Totally different types of formations.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. True. But I was only drawing a parrallel ...

between natural reservoirs of subterranean CO2 and man-made ones, not expecting it to be perfect.

If there are cracks or pores, there will be seepage. If there aren't cracks now, who can say there won't be in another decade, or two, or three?

It's worth bearing in mind that the first oil fields explored were often discovered because of small oil seeps at the surface. And people who have water wells near gas fields often have to burn off or vent the gas regularly to prevent their water pipes from filling with gas. So if we pump CO2 down those same wells ... how long before it comes back?

[XemaSab]

6. They probably won't put the CO2 into old oil wells

because the wells aren't designed to withstand internal pressure.

That being said, interstitial space doesn't have a lot of gas flow within it if it's not under pressure. In that case it might even be better to have a formation with a vent to equalize the pressure. Gas can sit in those pores for aeons.

[XemaSab]

3. Geologic formations are pretty solid for the most part

Seepage is possible, but large scale release is highly unlikely. :shrug: