Injection wells are our go-to solution to handle oilfield and other industrial by-product water.
The water leaves the oil field or manufacturing plant and it’s pretty much ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Heck, we even say that we have disposed of the by-product water.
But not really. We just moved it. Kicked the problem down the road a little bit.
We think we know a lot about these injection wells. But after decades of use, no one can truly answer these 5 questions:
1. Where Does the Water Go?
Yes, it goes down the hole, we get that. But then where? By-product water doesn’t always obey the rules and seeps and moves through crevices (it is injected under pressure after all…) and has been known to find its way into our groundwater.
So, we put in monitoring wells around the injection wells, but the naughty by-product water doesn’t always obey and show up on the monitor. Where the heck is it? There’s no one that can give a definitive answer – good guesses, sure.
We really don’t know.
2. What’s Going On Down There?
For the injection well, we have very nice 3D animation to show what’s going on. We have technical papers from very smart people with Dr. in front of their names that explain what the water is doing underground. But really it only explains the plan. Not the reality. In running a business, budgets are good to know – actuals are even better. Where’s the actuals for by-product water?
If we are so sure we know what’s going on underneath our feet, why does the same E&P that is injecting water — confident they know what’s going on under the surface — sometimes drill a dry oil well? We thought they knew what was going on down there.
We really don’t know.
3. What’s the Makeup of That Water, Really?
There’s a lot of reports about this by-product water and it’s questionable chemical makeup. The producer of this by-product water could help squash those voices by giving us information. If the water’s okay, why are we not told what’s in it? Why the secrecy – is the water being trucked to Area 51 or something?
We really don’t know.
4. How Much Water is Down There?
We can’t find an actual report on the amount of industrial by-product water that has been injected into the ground. It would have to be in the trillions of gallons for the last few years. Maybe we just haven’t discovered this report and it’s something that we do know. If anyone knows, email us at: director@beneficialusewateralliance.com
But from where we sit, we really don’t know.
5. When Will We Be Out of Room?
We keep putting the by-product water down the injection well. When is there no more room? Or worse – when will there be consequences of so much by-product, uncleaned water that we just can’t foresee?
We really don’t know.
BUT HERE’S WHAT WE DO KNOW
The Beneficial-Use Water Alliance, in association with Encore Green, has a way to turn this by-product water into beneficial-use water for ag and conservation. Today. Right now. In fact, Encore Green has already done it.
Let’s rally around what we do know and not what we don’t! Because we’re smarter than to keep doing something when we really don’t know.