Environmental Impacts Associated with Disposal of Saline Water Produced During Petroleum Production - Osage-Skiatook Petroleum Environmental Research Project [Completed]

Pumping oil and gas out of the ground also produces large volumes of water with undesirable quality known as produced water. Produced water commonly contains large amounts of dissolved salts, hydrocarbons, trace metals, and radionuclides. The United States produces 20 to 30 billion barrels of produced water every year. Much of the produced water is recycled by injecting it into the subsurface to maintain the pressure of oil reservoirs, which enhances oil recovery. An estimated 35 percent of produced water requires disposal because it cannot be recycled.

Map showing locations of study sites A and B

To address these concerns the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a multidisciplinary investigation to determine the fate and effects of the disposal of produced water on the near-surface environment. The investigation was a joint project of the USGS's Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and the Energy Resources Program, along with their partners. Field studies were conducted at Skiatook Lake in the southeastern part of the Osage Indian Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Results from the investigation helped provide some of the information environmental officials, land managers, petroleum companies, and land owners need to assess human and ecosystem impacts and to develop risk-based corrective actions to clean up contamination from produced water.

More Information

• Project Description
• Project Photo Gallery
• Project Bibliography
• Download Google Maps KML file of study sites A and B
• Geochemistry of Water in Fine Grained Sediments
• USGS Energy Resources Program
• Produced Waters Studies
• Produced Waters Database (The database includes geochemical data from Osage County, OK)
• Naturally Occurring Radioactive Minerals (NORM) in Produced Water and Oil-Field Equipment -- An Issue for the Energy Industry, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 0142-99
• USGS Research on Saline Waters Co-Produced With Energy Resources, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-003-97
• National Energy Technology Laboratory Projects (a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory)
• Field Validation of Toxicity Tests to Evaluate the Potential for Beneficial Use of Produced Water (DE-FC26-04NT15544)
• Remote Sensing for Environmental Baseline and Monitoring (FEW-FEAC320) -- final report (pdf)

Related Science Feature Articles

• USGS Science Featured in a Special Issue of Applied Geochemistry on Contamination from Oil Production
• Special Edition of "Environmental Geosciences" Explores Impacts of Oil and Gas Production on the Environment
• USGS Scientists Contribute to the Landmark "Treatise on Geochemistry"
• Improving Cleanup of Contamination from Oil and Gas Production

Partners and Collaborators

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