It’s a GAS in Oklahoma, and damn that MO dam…
December 16th, 2005
Things that go boom — and things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm…
There’s natural gas geysering up in Oklahoma.
A dam gave way in Missouri.
But first a little history…
Hutchinson gas geyser near trailer park explosion site
Nancy Prehn, my client in Waseca, the one who Sen. Dick Day says is “the most viscious woman I’ve met in 29 years in office,” the one who lives on top of the dome, on top of 7 billion c.f. of natural gas, has wondered about the safety of underground natural gas storage. She found that not too long ago, downtown Hutchinson, Kansas blew up, lit up, when gas came up through abandoned wells downtown and in a trailer park. See the Kansas Geological Survey site for details.
Explosion and fire in downtown Hutchinson
A housing development was proposed above gas storage in Playa del Ray, California, and in a press release experts warned against combining the two:
In their recently published book titled, “Gas Migration” (Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers), George V. Chilingar, PhD, (Professor of Petroleum and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California), John O. Robertson, Jr., PhD (Registered Petroleum Engineer), and Bernard Endres, PhD, (Oil and Gas Environmental Consultant), warn that housing should never be built over these high-pressure sites because of the problem of uncontrolled gas migration through the geological substrata.
So what’s happening now???
OKLAHOMA GAS ERUPTION
Digging around in my research on CO2 sequestration, I learned about this week’s Oklahoma gas eruption. Seems gas is coming up along a river, and it’s not far from a natural gas drilling site, DUH:
Mysterious Kingfisher-area gas geysers leave officials puzzled
Drilling company works to stop eruption of natural gas in area
Officials analyzing composition of gas geysers
MISSOURI DAM BURSTS
In Missouri, the Upper Taum Sauk Lake Dam gave way, flooding the area. It’s the upper storage part of a pumped hydro electrical generation facility.
Reservoir fails in Ozarks, three injured
Here’s a good overview from the Oil Drum about the dam break and the hydro generation.
Another overview of Taum Sauk
Now, check out these links and the earthquake scenario!
As we say in transmission, “it’s all connected!” Hmmmmmmmmmm…
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