CRBSCP - Meeker Dome Unit - Title II
General
Meeker Dome, the site of several abandoned oil and gas exploratory wells, is a local anticlinal uplift in northwestern Colorado, 3 miles east of the town of Meeker and on the right bank of the White River. The Meeker Well, originally drilled for oil exploration purposes and abandoned in the 1920`s, was identified as a significant point source of salinity in the Colorado River System. The well was flowing at a rate of about 3 cubic feet per second, and its highly saline water (19,200 mg/L) was increasing the salt load of the Colorado River by about 57,000 tons per year. Reclamation plugged these wells during planning studies conducted between 1968 and 1980. The Meeker Well was plugged to a depth below 550 feet in 1968. In February 1969, two abandoned wells 2 miles north of the Meeker Well also were reported to be flowing saline water and were plugged 8 months later. Further seepage appeared in the same year in four areas within a mile radius of the plugged Meeker Well. These were plugged durin a 1980 planning study. A 1985 Planning Report Concluding the Meeker Dome Unit study concluded that plugging these abandoned oil wells significantly reduced the salt contribution from Meeker Dome, alleviating the need for further action.
Construction
Groundwater levels in observation wells and flows from saline springs have decreased significantly from the conditions existing at the time of the verification well plugging. This information appears to confirm the hypothesis that the wells acted as conduits for saline water. In September 1984, salt loading from the dome had decreased from the preplugging level of about 26,000 tons per year to about 7,000 tons per year. At the end of FY85, monitoring of seeps and wells was terminated. Water levels in the observation wells had stabilized, and springs and seeps remained dry or filled with standing water, indicating the well plugs remained intact. The Meeker Dome well plugging removes 48,000 tons of salt per year, for a total capital cost of $3,100,000 and no annual O&M costs--for a cost of $5 per ton. http://www.usbr.gov/dataweb/html/basinwidescp.html
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