I Subsurface Waste Disposal By Means of Wells A Selective Annotated Bibliography By DONALD R. RIMA, EDITH B. CHASE, and BEVERLY M. MYERS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER 2020 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1971 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ROGERS G. B. MORTON, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY W. A. Radlinski, Acting Director Library of Congress catalog-card No. 77-179486 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.50 (paper cover) Stock Number 2401-1229 FOREWORD Subsurface waste disposal or injection is looked upon by many waste managers as an economically attractive alternative to providing the sometimes costly surface treatment that would otherwise be required by modern pollution-control law. The impetus for subsurface injection is the apparent success of the petroleum industry over the past several decades in the use of injection wells to dispose of large quantities of oil-field brines. This experience coupled with the oversimplification and glowing generalities with which the injection capabilities of the subsurface have been described in the technical and commercial literature have led to a growing acceptance of deep wells as a means of "getting rid of" the ever-increasing quantities of wastes. As the volume and diversity of wastes entering the subsurface continues to grow, the risk of serious damage to the environment is certain to increase. Admittedly, injecting liquid wastes deep beneath the land surface is a potential means for alleviating some forms of surface pollution. But in view of the wide range in the character and concentrations of wastes from our industrialized society and the equally diverse geologic and hydrologic con­ ditions to be found in the subsurface, injection cannot be accepted as a universal panacea to resolve all variants of the waste-disposal problem. There is a compelling need to examine critically the compatibility of specific wastes with specific injection zones and to discriminate the capability of potential injection zones to receive and retain waste waters. In essence, there is an urgent need to prove the feasibility as well as the absolute safety of injection before the use of any injection well can be undertaken with any degree of certainty of the results. Proper decisionmaking on subsurface injection of wastes must begin with an adequate understanding of the underground and its response to waste injection. To this end, the U.S. Geological Survey has launched an inves­ tigative program to develop an adequate scientific and technological basis for predicting the environmental consequences of discharging wastes into the subsurface. This bibliography is the first step in that it summarizes the technological experience and information now available on this critical subject. E. L. HENDRICKS, Chief Hydrologist in CONTENTS Page Foreword................................................................................................................. HI Introduction............................................................................................................ 1 Bibliography............................................................................................................ 5 Indexes.................................................................................................................... 263 Geographic index................................................................................................. 263 Subject index....................................................................................................... 273 SUBSURFACE WASTE DISPOSAL BY MEANS OF WELLS- A SELECTIVE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY By DONALD R. RIMA, EDITH B. CHASE, and BEVERLYM. MYERS INTRODUCTION Subsurface waste disposal by means of wells is the practice of using drilled wells to inject unwanted substances into underground rock formations. The use of wells for this purpose is not a new idea. As long ago as the end of the last century, it was common practice to drill wells for the express purpose of draining swamps and small lakes to reclaim the land for agricultural purposes. A few decades later in the 1920's and 1930's many oil companies began using injection wells to dispose of oil-field brines and to repressurize oil reservoirs. During World War II, the Atomic Energy Commission began using injection wells to dispose of certain types of radioactive wastes. More recently, injection wells have been drilled to dispose of a variety of byproducts of industrial processes. The number of such wells has increased rapidly since Congress passed the Clean Streams Act of 1966, which restricted the discharge of waste into surface waters. Many scientists and public officials question the propriety of using the term "disposal" when referring to the underground injection of wastes. Their reasons are that underground injection is not, as many advocates claim, "a complete and final answer" to the waste-disposal problem. Rather, it is merely a process wherein the injected wastes are committed to the subsurface with uncertainty as to their ultimate fate or limits of confinement. In effect, the wastes, undiminished and unchanged, are removed from the custody of man and placed in the custody of nature. Although the concept of waste-injection wells is relatively simple, the effects of waste injection can be very complex, particularly when dealing with the exotic and complex components of some industrial wastes. Besides the physical forces of injection, there are many varied interactions between the injected wastes and the materials within the injection zone. Because these changes occur out of sight in the subsurface, they are difficult to assess and 2 SUBSURFACE WASTE DISPOSAL BY MEANS OF WELLS not generally understood. In addition, the various aspects of the problem involve a wide spectrum of science and engineering. Hence, articles published on the subject are widely dispersed in the technical and scientific literature. Because of the current national and worldwide interest in waste-disposal problems, the increasing use of injection wells, and the need to understand the long-term effects of injecting wastes into underground rock formations, this bibliography was prepared to gather significant references into a single publication that would be a reference source for both scientific and waste-management needs. The bibliography, which contains 692 abstracts, was compiled from a selective review through 1969 of the following source materials: Bibliography of North American Geology and Abstracts of North American Geology: U.S. Geological Survey Geophysical Abstracts: U.S. Geological Survey Bibliography of Hydrology and Sedimentation: Federal Water Resources Council Selected Water Resources Abstracts: Water Resources Scientific Information Center (WRSIQ, Office of Water Resources Research, U.S. Department of the Interior Nuclear Science Abstracts: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Water Resources Abstracts: American Water Resources Association, Urbana, 111. Annotated Bibliography of Oil-Field Brine Disposal Wells, by S. J. Martinez, Tulsa University, Information Services Department, Tulsa, Okla. (Prepared under contract for the U.S. Geological Survey) Annotated Bibliography on Artificial Recharge of Ground Water, 1955-67, by D. C. Signor, D. J. Growitz, and William Kam: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1990 Bibliography on Artificial Recharge of Ground Water, by Arnon Arad: U.S. Geological Survey open-file report References listed in recently published reports on this subject (See Galley, John E. 0039, 0454, 0605; Ives, R. E. 0212; Piper, A. M. 0468; and Warner, D. L. 0416) About one-third of the abstracts included here pertain to the disposal of oil-field brines. These abstracts were selected because they deal mainly with the engineering problems of injection wells. The subjects covered include the design construction, operation, and maintenance of disposal or injection facilities. In effect, these abstracts summarize the technology that has been gained by the oil industry in nearly half a century of collecting, handling, treating, and injecting waste waters into the subsurface. An additional third of the abstracts pertain to the research that has been done to find satisfactory methods for the disposal of radioactive wastes. The major emphasis of this research is on the interaction of radioactive materials with the natural environment. It deals chiefly with the natural processes and mechanisms of transport, retention, and dispersal of radioactive materials in the subsurface. Hence, this work has direct application to the problems of predicting and monitoring the post-injection movement of waste waters. Most of the remaining abstracts describe actual case histories of various industries that are using one or more injection wells. In general, these INTRODUCTION 3 references are based on activities that have been considered successful in terms of well operation. The abstracts are arranged alphabetically by author name (by senior-author name if a publication has multiple authorship). The names of all junior authors also are listed alphabetically, with cross reference to the senior-author entry. Where more than one entry appears under an author's name, the arrangement is by accession number. (Each paper was assigned an accession number as it was received; but as all papers received were not included in this bibliography, some papers have an accession number that is higher than the total number of abstracts.) Within