Survey of models to predict the effect of geothermal power development on domestic water supplies and to design pollution monitoring networks

Conference · Wed Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:7089139

Pimentel, K D

The Imperial Valley is a 2,000-km/sup 2/ agricultural region in Southern California with annual crop values of more than $500 million. Geothermal reserves estimated at 130 GWe-yrs were found beneath this Valley. Development of that geothermal energy should occur in the next 10 to 20 years. To ensure that development is carried out in an environmentally sound manner, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is engaged in a 3-yr study of the environmental effects that development of geothermal power production may have on the Imperial Valley. Preliminary work is described for a computer-modeling study to determine effects of such activity in one region of the Valley upon water quality in domestic artesian water wells in an area downstream from geothermal wells. Various models are considered to estimate contaminant concentration and transport dynamics and to design optimal monitoring systems for pollution surveillance of those domestic water wells.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 7089139
• Report Number(s): UCRL-79977; CONF-770854-1
• Resource Relation: Conference: Conference on modeling and simulation of land, air and water resources systems, Ghent, Belgium, 30 Aug 1977
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AQUIFERS
WATER POLLUTION
GEOTHERMAL WELLS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
WELLS
AGRICULTURE
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
ECONOMICS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
GROUND WATER
IMPERIAL VALLEY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MONITORING
TRANSPORT
WATER QUALITY
CALIFORNIA
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
ITERATIVE METHODS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
USA
WATER
Geothermal Legacy