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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Environmental Geosciences (DEG)

Abstract

Environmental Geosciences, V. 13, No. 1 (March 2006), P. 43-53.

Copyright copy2006. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists/Division of Environmental Geosciences. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.306/eg.11160404037

Incubation with moist top soils enhances solubilization of radium and other components from oil-field scale and sludge: Environmental concerns from Mississippi

John C. Matthews,1 Shuanglian Li,2 Charles T. Swann,3 Rick L. Ericksen4

1Department of Pharmacology and Division of Environmental Health Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677; [email protected]
2Department of Pharmacology and Division of Environmental Health Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677
3Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi 38677
4Mississippi State Board of Registered Professional Geologists, P.O. Box 22742, Jackson, Mississippi 39225-2742

AUTHORS

John C. Matthews is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Mississippi, School of Pharmacy. His areas of research interest include environmental toxicology and the function of toxicants in aging-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Shuanglian Li was a master's degree student in Matthews' laboratory when she worked on this project in partial fulfillment of the requirements for her master's degree. She is presently employed as a research scientist in the area of gene toxicity by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, California. She will reenter graduate school in the near future to pursue her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science.

Charles T. Swann is a staff geologist with the Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute based on the campus of the University of Mississippi. His research interests include environmental aspects of hydrocarbon-production geology, tertiary stratigraphy, geotechnical characteristics of clays, and molluskan paleontology.

Rick L. Ericksen is the executive director of the Mississippi State Board of Registered Professional Geologists based in Jackson, Mississippi. Formerly a geologist with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, he has a long-standing interest in research and regulatory issues associated with NORM from hydrocarbon production.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This manuscript was prepared with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Nos. DE-FC26-02NT15227 and DE-FG26-97BC15035; any findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Energy.

The authors acknowledge the encouragement and support of the project manager, John Ford of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Petroleum Technology Office. The authors thank Charlie Cooper at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and Sedimentation Research Laboratory in Oxford, Mississippi, for assistance with Previous HitsoilNext Hit selection for the project and for assistance in obtaining the Previous HitsoilNext Hit samples. Because this work involved brines produced from oil and gas wells, we are, of course, greatly indebted to the independent oil and gas producers in Mississippi for providing access to their production facilities.

ABSTRACT

Large quantities of brines are coproduced with hydrocarbons from oil and gas wells. Dissolved solutes from these brines precipitate, forming scale in and on production equipment and sludge in storage tanks. The most abundant component of these scales and sludges is barite. Radium is one of the solutes that may be incorporated into these precipitates, rendering them radioactive. One method for the disposal of scale and sludge is land spreading, in which the material is mixed into the top few centimeters of the Previous HitsoilNext Hit and then covered with a layer of clean Previous HitsoilNext Hit, such that the radioactivity is below governmental action levels. An assumption associated with this disposal method is that the inorganic components are highly insoluble, relatively immobile in the environment, and low in biological availability. To test this assumption, (1) radioactive scale and sludge samples were evaluated for leachability; then (2) leachability was evaluated after mixing scale and sludge samples with top soils and incubating them under moist conditions similar to what may be expected using land spreading; (3) Previous HitsoilNext Hit-scale mixtures were also incubated wet or dry, followed by differential density separation of the scale and Previous HitsoilNext Hit.

Incubating the samples under moist conditions with top soils increased the Ra that was extractable from them by several fold. This finding is remarkable in that Previous HitsoilNext Hit retains most of the soluble Ra added to it and soils mixed with scale or sludge retain even greater proportions of the soluble Ra added to them. The implication is that although the retained, solubilized Ra is difficult to extract from the Previous HitsoilTop, it will be much more biologically available and mobile in the environment than in its original, highly insoluble form. This conclusion is of particular concern in warm and humid climates such as those typical of Mississippi and the southeastern United States.

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