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FUTUREGEN
New Geophysical Data Confirms FutureGen Site
"Excellent" for Underground Storage of
Greenhouse Gases
Contacts:
Rob Finley, Director, ISGS
Center for Energy and Earth Resources
217-649-1744
Sallie Greenberg, ISGS
Sequestration Communications Coordinator
217-766-7174
December 12, 2008
(Mattoon, IL) – The Illinois State
Geological Survey (ISGS) completed an
evaluation of new geophysical data that
confirms previous research indicating that
the proposed FutureGen site in Mattoon,
Illinois, is well suited for large-scale,
long-term underground storage of carbon dioxide
(CO2), a major greenhouse gas.
Researchers from the ISGS, a division of the
Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
provided much of the technical information that
helped win the FutureGen competition for Illinois
one year ago this week. With support from the
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity and Coles Together, a regional economic
development group, geologists and geophysicists
used seismic instruments to provide a
three-dimensional perspective of the subsurface
extending in a 15-mile radius around the FutureGen
site
...more on FutureGen
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PRODUCTS - EVENTS
Shop Online:
Photographic History and More!
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(ordering information).
The Illinois coal mining industry has been a
vital part of the state's economy since the 1860s,
and three 2008 coal-related publications top the
list of new ISGS releases.
ISGS Circular 572, Photographic History
of Coal Mining Practices in Illinois,
is an attempt to gather, publish, and preserve a
large collection of historic photographs
documenting the processes, equipment, and people
integral to the coal mining industry in Illinois.
Many of these photographs...
more about ISGS products
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HIGHLIGHTS
Mahomet Aquifer Mapping Reveals Surprises
and Gains International Collaboration
Bill Dey of the Illinois State Geological Survey
and George Roadcap of the Illinois State Water
Survey (ISWS) met with staff from Illinois
American Water (IAW) in early November 2008 to
select a drilling location by the company's water
tower in north Champaign. The ISGS mobile drill
rig was used to drill the hole November 18-20,
2008. Continuous core was collected during
drilling, and core recovery was over 80%. A
downhole gamma log was collected following
drilling. Within the 305 feet of Quaternary
sediments overlying the bedrock, only two sand
units were encountered that were thick enough to
permit installation of an observation well.
Neither unit was the Mahomet Sand. A
ten-foot-thick sand unit was found 105 to 115 feet
below the land surface, which most likely is late
Illinois Age material in the upper Glasford
Formation. Although water is present in the
observation well, which was constructed with 10
feet of 2-inch well casing below the screen,
attempts to pump the well have thus far been
unsuccessful. A second sand unit was encountered
from 175 to 180 feet below the land surface. This
sand is most likely in the lower Glasford
Formation and could be part of a lower Glasford
aquifer. Drillers' logs for water wells in the
area report sand at or near this depth. The water
level in the well was measured at 143 feet below
the land surface on
...more highlights
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