Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and nutrients and an increase in the relative health of soil resources. Some manage-
ment practices, however, could involve the use of hazardous materials such as herbi-
cides to kill a cover crop before planting the terrestrial sequestration crop.
POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GEOLOGIC SEQUESTRATION
The potential impacts of geologic sequestration, including the transportation of car-
bon, are discussed in this section. For this discussion, it is assumed that carbon cap-
ture would likely occur at a single power generating station. Because captured carbon
may have to be transported for some distance away from the power station, transport,
in general, has been evaluated. The significance of the impacts depends upon factors
such as the number and size of transport pipelines and injection wells, the amount of
land disturbed by drilling and transport activities, the amount of land occupied by
facilities over the life of the sequestration project, the project's location with respect
to other resources (e.g., wildlife use, distance to surface water bodies), and so forth.
G
eoloGic
S
equeStration
e
xploration
i
mpactS
Activities during the exploration phase (including seismic surveys, testing, and
exploratory drilling) are temporary and are conducted at a smaller scale than those at
the drilling/construction, sequestration, and decommissioning/reclamation phases.
The impacts described for each resource would result from typical exploration activ-
ities, such as localized ground clearing, vehicular traffic, seismic testing, positioning
of equipment, and exploratory drilling. Most impacts during the exploration phase
would be associated with the development of access roads and exploratory wells.
Impacts on resources would be similar in character, but lesser in magnitude, to those
for the drilling phase. Potential impacts from these activities are presented below, by
the type of affected resource.
Air Quality
Impacts on air quality during exploration activities would include emissions and dust
from earth-moving equipment, vehicles, seismic surveys, well completion and test-
ing, and drill rig exhaust. Pollutants would include particulates, oxides of nitrogen,
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Nitrogen
oxides and VOCs may combine to form ground-level ozone. Impacts would depend
on the amount, duration, location, and characteristics of the emission and the meteo-
rological conditions (e.g., wind speed and direction, precipitation, relative humidity).
Emissions during this phase would not have a measurable impact on climate change.
Cultural Resources
During the exploration phase, soil surface and subsurface disturbance is minimal.
Cultural resources buried below the surface are unlikely to be affected; however,
material present on the surface could be disturbed by vehicular traffic, ground
clearing, and pedestrian activity (including collection of artifacts). Exploration
activities could affect areas of interest to Native Americans, depending on the
placement of equipment and level of visual intrusion. Surveys conducted during
