http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071501654.html

Today the EPA released its first plans regulating how carbon dioxide should be sequestered in geologic formations to avoid contaminating drinking water pursuant to the 1974 Safe Water Drinking Act. Many interested in carbon capture and sequestration (also known as carbon capture and storage) are concerned with the long-term environmental hazards to injected rocks, old mines and old wells with copious amounts of CO2. In addition, the legal liability framework for CCS has yet to be established. However, with the announcement of this rule and last week's Congressional hearing on creating a $10 billion fund to advance CCS technologies, it appears the coal industry will have some protection against potential cap-and-trade legislation.

The proposal upgrades the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act to include a new category of injection wells solely for carbon dioxide storage, and creates extensive siting, testing and monitoring requirements to prevent leaks. The EPA already regulates injection wells used to boost oil production and dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. 

While carbon dioxide in water itself isn't a problem - think Perrier or Diet Coke - too much of the benign bubbles can turn water slightly acidic, and leach toxic heavy metals and other contaminants out of the surrounding rock and into water supplies, according to scientists. Injecting carbon dioxide underground can also push other pollutants, such as saltwater, into underground aquifers.

The United States has the capacity to store 3,900 gigatons of carbon dioxide at 230 different underground storage sites, according to Energy Department estimates. The U.S. emits a total of about seven gigatons of carbon dioxide every year.

To date, the bulk of carbon dioxide being injected underground has been done to enhance oil production. But if coal-fired power plants, as expected, start to embrace carbon sequestration technology, more of the carbon dioxide belched out of smokestacks is expected to be entombed in microscopic spaces in underground rock.

Washington Post; July 16, 2008

Submitted by B.Shapiro