Impact of oil production fluid releases at the USGS' OSPER 'B' site, Osage County, OK, USA

摘要

About 20 scientists are investigating the transport, fate, and natural attenuation of salts and organic compounds present in produced water, and their impacts on surface and ground water and ecosystems at research sites located in Osage County in northeastern Oklahoma. At the "B" site, tanks and pits have been a source of releases since 1939. Salt scars extend from the location of three tank batteries down to the Lake Skiatook shoreline. The active production tank battery and adjacent pit have a 60-m-long scar underlain by 1.3 to 1.5 m of saline clayey fill and colluvium. Ground water is a varying mix of sodium-chloride brine from the pit and local magnesium-calcium-sulfate ground water modified by interaction with the sediment. Free and dissolved hydrocarbons move downslope from the pit, but it is uncertain whether free hydrocarbons in wells at the lake's edge are derived from the upslope pit or flooded pits offshore.