ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING FOR GEOTHERMAL ENERGY RESOURCE EXPLORATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND UTILIZATION

The commercialization of geothermal energy resources consists of a sequence of exploration, development, and utilization activities. Each of these activities are beset by both generic and project specific technical, environmental, and institutional constraints which must be adequately resolved before geothermal operations can be conducted.; This report presents a summary of selected environmental activities conducted during the early planning stages of geothermal resource commercialization. Three representative activities are elaborated upon. These include preliminary environmental planning for geothermal energy development in the Medicine Lake Highlands of California; potential alternatives for non-electric use of the geothermal resource at East Mesa in Imperial County, California; and site specific studies of the impacts from using East Mesa geothermal fluids to irrigate selected crops and indigenous climax vegetation.; As a result of active communications between industry representatives and responsible agencies, federal geothermal leases are now being issued for lands within the Medicine Lake Highlands. Much of this land was earlier precluded from geothermal energy development because of its environmental sensitivity. This case study discusses methods used to familiarize responsible agency personnel with the anticipated impacts from typical geothermal operations and to demonstrate the potential compatability of geothermal energy development with the management of other sensitive resources.; The direct utilization of geothermal resources provides the opportunity to maximize the beneficial use of energy available from a developed geothermal resource by extracting heat from produced fluids which are at a temperature or pressure below that suitable for commercial electric power production. The warm water effluent from Republic Geothermal, Inc.'s proposed 48 Mw(e) East Mesa power plant was evaluated as a heat resource for an integrated geothermal/algae biofuel facility, a proteinaceous algacultural operation, and an ethanol production facility. Environmental, technical, and economic problems currently constrain each of these direct use alternatives.; The long term impacts on vegetation from an accidental release of geothermal fluids at East Mesa was evaluated in a site specific controlled investigation. A three-year study was conducted to observe the effects of irrigating climax vegetation with East Mesa geothermal fluids cooled to ambient temperature. Observations indicate that neither harmful nor beneficial long term impacts would result from a geothermal spill. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMI...