Udall bill could help oil-rich, water-poor West

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) visited Wellington Water Works on March 17 to check out an operation that could benefit oil interests and development while solving Wellington's water woes.

The facility on East County Road 70, in operation for one year, purifies water that is produced along with oil in the Wellington Oil Field. The purified water is then discharged into the Boxelder Creek drainage.

Udall recently sponsored a bill that would fund research and development into using the WWW idea on a wider scale. HR 902, called the More Water and More Energy Act, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 19 and now awaits action in the U.S. Senate. Noting that fellow members of Congress often consider him "super-green," Udall said that reputation could give him an edge with environmentalists in getting the legislation passed.

HR 902 calls for $5 million in federal grants to help develop four pilot plants in oil fields and methane-producing coal beds. Plants would be built in Colorado, California and Texas, with a fourth in Arizona, Nevada or New Mexico.

"Energy and water are two of our most important resources, so it makes sense to pursue ways to produce more of both," Udall said.

The research would look at ways to make beneficial use of water produced as a byproduct of oil and gas operations. If successful, Udall noted, this type of enterprise could also increase the country's domestic oil supply by reducing oil-drilling costs.

Currently, water is considered an expensive liability in oil and gas production, since it must be injected back into the earth after the oil is removed. As oil fields age, they produce more water and less oil. The Wellington field, for instance, produces about 1.5 percent oil, according to field operator Brad Pomeroy.

The concept of using the produced water for irrigation is fairly new and only viable because of current high prices for both energy and water.

The WWW plant is currently the only one in the country that puts oil-field water to beneficial use, according to Dave Stewart, president of Stewart Environmental Consultants which developed the technology for the plant. The plant cost about $1.5 million to engineer and build. If Udall's bill becomes law, it could stimulate development of more such plants.

Wellington interested

Wellington is definitely interested in the plant's potential. Town Administrator Larry Lorentzen, who was present for the Udall tour, said the community hopes to buy 500 acre-feet of water from WWW, with an option for 500 more, once the company obtains a water right from the state water court. Five hundred acre-feet could serve about 1,000 homes, he said. Serious negotiations about price won't begin until there's a water court decision.

The plan is to use the purified oil-field water for irrigation, thereby freeing up current irrigation water for domestic use. The WWW water is the first new water source in Colorado in 50 years, Pomeroy said, and could indirectly supply 50,000 people with water. Stewart added that the oil field has a 300- to 500-year supply of water. "It's drought-proof," he noted, "regardless of what's happening on the surface."

WWW is a partnership between landowner Richard Seaworth and Pomoco, one of the principal owners of the Wellington Oil Field. WWW already has a state permit to use the produced water, and the company is currently trying to obtain new water rights related to the project. If they are successful in water court, the company will drill a new water well upstream of the WWW plant, using an existing water right. That water could be sold to Wellington for domestic use.

Seaworth, who was out of town for the Udall tour, has also expressed interest in developing some of his own property using the newly available water.

New territory explored

Udall said plants like the Wellington one could be a good example of "making green and being green." Wes Pomeroy, a geologist with Pomoco, agreed and claimed that using water from oil fields is a win-win-win proposition for farmers, developers and oil interests. However, Pomeroy acknowledged that the concept has faced an uphill battle with the public and the state's water court.

"People are resistant to change because they don't understand it," he said.

"We're dealing with totally new territory," Brad Pomeroy added.

Brad Pomeroy said that although the Wellington Oil Field has been active since 1923, only about 8 percent of its oil has been tapped. The biggest bottleneck in the operation, he said, is all the water that comes up with the oil. "We're producing more water than we can dispose of in our infrastructure," he said. "There's room to expand the oil field operation, but we can't until we can deal with the water."

With the WWW plant, Pomeroy said, "We're looking at water not as a liability anymore but an asset."

However, it's not an easy matter to treat water from oil fields. Stewart said the Wellington Oil Field water was "the most difficult water" he has ever dealt with in terms of purifying it. He also noted that every oil field--in fact every formation within every field - has different purification problems. Some oil-field water, Pomeroy said, is not even treatable.

Pomoco operates the Fort Collins Oil Field about six miles to the south, and Brad Pomeroy said there's "tremendous potential" for replicating the Wellington project in the Fort Collins field. Nationally, he said, making beneficial use of produced water could make some old, abandoned oil fields economically viable again.

WWW is due to appear before the state water court in Greeley in January 2008 to argue its water rights cases. Pomeroy said the company hopes to satisfy objectors to the project before then, in which case there could be an earlier decision by the court.