Blundell Geothermal Power Plant

This is my second time getting a tour of the Blundell Geothermal Power Plant and I must say this time was much more informative then the last time. I think it was because last time I was with my geology group and we did not focus on the environmental aspect, actually we did not talk about the environmental aspect at all. The geology there is pretty easy so the tour was pretty simple, but this time it was a lot more interesting talking about the environmental impacts and we focused more on the methods of used at the plant to produce electricity. The power plant is run by pumping water that is about 400 degrees at very high pressure. The pressure is then released and then 18 of that water is turned into steam which is used to move a turbine that creates electricity. The remain 82% of the water is pumped back into the aquifer. There is a second phase that uses the remaining 18% of the water to raise the temperature of the isopentane high enough to change it from a liquid to a gas. This reaction again moves a turbine creating more energy. The good thing about geothermal is that it is about 98% efficient and does not waste anything and is available 24 hours a day.

There is problems though, one is that they use isopentane in their pipes. This is very flammable and toxic chemical and if spilled could have very bad environmental consequences. It has an EU classification of N which means that is dangerous for the environment. Another consequence is that since the pipes are over 400 degrees all year around in the winter the facility harbors many animals that use the heat to keep warm and to find food. This may not sound like a bad thing but because it is changing their natural habits it could be harming the specie.

Picture Citation:

"Blundell Geothermal Powerplant." State Geothermal Data. 2011.

http://www.stategeothermaldata.org/sites/stategeothermaldata.org/files/images/Utah_IMG_1031.jpg

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is absolutely breath taking, there is not much more you can say to describe it you have to see it in person. The main attraction for the park is the canyon filled with "hoodoos." Walking through them you feel like you are in another world. They seem to defy physics and their red, orange and white colors are picturesque. Even though this park is absolutely beautiful we did not visit it for the the geological wonder that it is, we talked about the prairie dogs currently inhabiting part of the park.

In some records prairie dog populations at one time we said to number in billions. The inhabited the large majority of the mid-west and colonies have being recorded as large as 25,000 squaremiles. These numbers include all types of prairie dogs, the Utah Prairie Dog is the specific species we focused on. In 1920 their population was said to be about 95,000, but by 1972 only about 3,000 were estimated to exist. This is why in 1973 they were listed as an endangered species. Initial reports said they believed that the species would not make it to the year 2000, but now their population has grown to about 5,000 and the Bryce population is at about 130. New reports put a price tag of about 106 million dollars on making Utah Prairie Dogs no longer endangered (NPS.gov).

The interesting thing about Utah Prairie Dogs in that they have a symbiotic relationship with the bison in the area. High vegetation is not good for prairie dogs because it allows predators to sneak up on them. The bison keep the grass low in the prairies and the prairie dogs burrow in the soil over turning it and creating new nutrient rich grass.

Another thing we talked about in Bryce was the no surprises clause. It dealt with the reintroduction of the prairie dogs onto private property. It stated that if a private land owner allowed for the reintroduction of prairie dogs onto their property they would not be held to the standards of the Endangered Species Act. That way if they needed to build something on the land they were allowed to no questions asked. I think this is a good idea because otherwise private land owners would not allow for the prairie dog to be put on their land but the no questions asked policy should be a little more strict in my opinion.

Citations:

"Utah Prairie Dog." NPS - Bryce Canyon National Park. Web. 2011.

http://www.nps.gov/brca/naturescience/upd.htm

Picture Citations:

"Bryce Canyon." Anthony Sarnoski. 2011.

"Prairie Dog and Bison." Defenders of Wildlife. Web. 2011.

http://www.defendersblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wm-SD-07-028.jpg

Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake, oh man what an experience. First off it smells like the bay, all of the time and has man-easting gnats and mosquitoes. Aside from those to two things it is amazing, especially Antelope Island. It was absolutely beautiful the water was crystal clear, the hills of the island were very smooth and grassy it felt like we were in a different country, a lot different then the rest of the west I have seen. Swimming in the water felt like I was on a different planet. The moon and the stars were out and so bright you could almost touch them. Your body is so buoyant you feel weightless it is definitely an experience.

The Great Salt Lake is the way it because rivers (Bear, Jordan, and Weber Rivers) and stream flow through surround limestone collecting salts and then depositing them in the lake, since there is no outflow to the river the water evaporates and leaves behind the salt. This has been happening for about 45,000 years when Great Salt Lake was a part of the much larger Lake Bonneville, which created the Bonneville Salt Flats. This cycle has lead to a salinity peaking at about 28% which is remarkable because the ocean is only about 3%. Even though this is a natural processes it is starting to be researched wether humans are increasing the salinity because treated waste water which still can contain salts is pumped into the rivers which lead to Great Salt Lake.

Due to such high salinity no life form exist in the lake except brine shrimp and brine flies. This may sound like a barren waste land but the brine shrimp and flies attract millions of birds every year. Another advantage to the lake is that it is mined for magnesium, calcium, and sodium and the salt can be used in fertilizers or salt licks. The main problem is that since there is no life in the lake the lake bed is very still this allows pollutants to become trapped in the under it. If the lake bed is disturbed the pollutants will be put back into solution severely polluting the lake.

Picture Citations:

"Antelope Island." Anthony Sarnoski. 2011.

Bingham Canyon Mine

We tried to go to the Bingham Canyon Mine today but we were not able to get in. Apparently environmentalists are not as good at trespassing as geologists are. It is a shame that we could not see the mine ourselves because it sounds remarkable. It is 2.75 miles in diameter, 0.75 miles deep and has excavated 18.7 million tons of copper. At the current rate of $4.24 per pound that converts to roughly 159 billion dollars, but then again the mine has been in operation since 1873. The ore deposit at the site is caused by a quartz monazite porphyry intruding into a sedimentary rock. Quartz monazite is just a term for an igneous intrusion containing quartz and an equal amount of plagioclase and feldspar and porphyry means that the crystals are large and held together by a very fine grained matrix. Hairline fractures in the porphyritic rock allow hydrothermal fluids with high concentration of metals to intrude the rock this forms copper porphyry. The ore that is is being mined contains between 0.4 to 1% copper.

Citations:

"Amzing Facts." Kennecott Utah Copper. Web. 2011.

http://www.kennecott.com/visitors-center/amazing-facts/

Picture Citations:

"Bingham Canyon Mine." Moldy Chum. 2007.

http://moldychum.typepad.com/moldy_chum/images/2007/10/31/bingham_canyon_copper_mine_1.jpg

Flaming Gorge Dam

This was our first view of a dam along the Colorado and for our first in depth discussion on the Colorado River. This when I began to realize how important and amazing this river really was. There are over 20 dams on the the Colorado River and even though they were built for water management not energy. They main way to get them approved was to have them produce electricity. The problem with the Colorado river is that it is the only source of water for the mid-west. The mid-west is not suppose to be habitable, it is pretty much a huge desert but with human ingenuity water has been pumped from the river to 7 states, Mexico and Native American Nations, except that the later two are sometime forgotten during drier years. The river is separated in two 3 sections, the upper basin, the lower basin and Mexico. The two basins are each suppose to receive 7.5 million acre feet of water each year and Mexico is suppose to receive 1.5 million acre feet and the Native Americans are suppose to receive between 0.2 and 0.9 million acre feet a year. The water is dammedup between the dams along the river and then allocated accordingly. The problem with these dams is the are extremely damaging to the rivers natural ecosystem.

The first problem is that dams create reservoirs behind them make sure that they have water when it is needed and to also create a strong hydraulic head to make the most amount of energy from the hydroelectric power station. This dam floods the surrounding land and builds up sediment in areas that are not natural. Since the flow of the reservoir is very slow the sediments are deposited far upstream and never make it to the dam and even less make it through the dam to replenish down stream sandbars. This is a huge concern in the Grand Canyon. We are preserving this place because of its beauty but it natural fish and plant life is being destroyed by the dams. That is why a new mandate is in affect that will have the Grand Canyon flooded every ten years which will hopefully help build up some sediments. The problem is that this won't work the sand bars are very fragile ecosystems and a flood every 10 years will not bring it back to it's natural state.

Picture Citations:

"Flaming Gorge Dam." Pierre Galin. 2008. Web.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierre_galin/2471991477/

"Colorado River in Arizona." Anthony Sarnoski. 2009.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Today we visited our first National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park. We did not meet with any share holders but gave us two very informative lectures about wildlife management and land usage in the park. He brought up a point that is often over looked, National Parks were not protected when our country was formed. The first national park, Yellowstone, was not formed until 1872 and Rocky Mountain National Park was not established until 1915. Most of the west was just as beautiful and scenic as the National Parks that we have now, especially in the Rocky Mountains this land was just too difficult to inhabit. In the valleys there was still ranching, we think about National Parks as being areas of untouched land, where we go to see true wilderness. This is not the case, up until 1965 ranching was still allowed. This is also true about the National Forests which surround the park, they are set up more for access then for preservation. It's weird to think that the government protects these forest just to ensure that there is enough lumber to supply our country.

Another problem with National Parks is that they are set up to be enjoyed by the people and visitors do not want to visit a park that has just had a wild fire that bu

rn down thousands of acres of forest. The problem is that those fires are natural and are needed to maintain a healthy forest. Since the beginning of the parks existence until the late 1980's all fires were suppressed. The park service believed this was the right thing to do and did not realize that they were causing the forest to become extremely unhealthy and because the fires are not killing off some trees the forests are becoming much more dense which is not natural and makes the trees much weaker. This goes with what we learned about in The Dying of the Trees. Now that the trees are much weaker they are affected by pests easier. That is why large stands of trees are being killed by the pine bark beetle, t

hey are also affected by pollution more, and less likely to survive a severe change in temperature or climate.

It is interesting listening to Patrick talk because you can stare out into this beautiful wilderness and wonder what can be better and then he will tell you that what we are looking at is unnatural and extremely unhealthy. The problem is that the picture in our head of a unhealthy forest is actually the real healthy forest. Due to our management the forest is turning into a monoculture of almost all ponderosa pines.

Another problem we have is with wildlife management. In the 1800's any animal that large we saw as a threat to us or our livestock so we destroy any thing that breathed. In the early 1900's there were no elk left in the area which would later become Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1914 49 were introduced. By 1990 those 49 reproduced to become 1600 and today there are over 3500 and have become a nuisance.

The topic of wildlife management always comes back to the Endangered Species Act. It was written to help protect species that we were destroying but the rules for managing the species is so strict that there is always a conflict of interest. For most cases any time an endangered species is found on a property nothing can be done to negatively impact the species. That means that the land cannot be touched even if construction has begun. This is a problem with species like the Canada Lynx. In the Rocky Mountains it is endangered. That mean

s that if it is found on your property you have to let it live there and cannot effect it. The problem is that the exact same species also lives in Canada and is plentiful and healthy, but those to populations never interact so it can still be listed as endangered.

Another problem with the Endangered Species act involves the wolverine. The wolverine lives high in the snow cap tops of the Rocky Mountains. It is very illusive and does not come in contact with humans very often. A study in 2010 found that the population in the Rocky Mountains was only somewhere between 28 to 52 but it is not being protected (Schwartz). The official reason is that research was done on them but not enough specim

ens were found to get accurate results. What?! So there is not enough of them left research but they are not considered endangered. I also found it

staggering that one trapper admitted to legally killing 12 in the past couple years. Thats is nearly 25-50% of the remaining population destroy by one person, legally!

Citations:

Michael K. Schwartz, Copeland, J. P., Anderson, N. J. (2010). "Wolverine gene flow across a narrow climatic niche." Ecologoy 90. Page 3222-3232. Ecological Society of America.

Picture Citations:

"Rocky Mountain National Park." Anthony Sarnoski. 2011.

"Wolverine." 1965. National Park Service.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Wolverine_on_rock.jpg

National Renewable Energy Lab + Western Resource Advocates

Today was our first day learning about the issues being dealt with out west. The first shareholder that we spoke to was a lady from the National Renewable Energy Lab in Denver. This was a great introduction into all of the different types of renewable energy being used. Especially for me since I am not an environmental major this was a really good introduction for the entire trip. Even thought I had a pretty good concept of what the lady was talking about, I still learned a lot. For example the sheer size of the wind turbines. I always knew they were very large but I never knew they were as big as a 747.

Another issue that I did not know about was that the Dakotas could potentially get 40% of their energy from wind but large oil companies like Peabody own large areas of

land out their and own the mineral rights incase their are resources that they want under ground so they do not want people to build on the land. That is why there are no wind turbines out west.

It was interesting to see inside their building was a small museum highlighting the different techniques and how they have changes over the years and it also showcased new technologies and the technologies that they invented. The one invention that I thought was really neat was the transpired solar wall on the side of the FedEx building. Since the technology worked very well and it seemed to be quite easy to install it seems like a really smart thing to start implementing more often.

The second part of the day we spent listen to a presentation

by a lady from the Western Resource Advocates. Since the lady from the first talked told us all we needed to know about renewable energy out west, it seemed like this lady told us all we needed to know about the Colorado River and land use. The statistic that I found the most interesting is when she started talking about how much of the west was owned by the government. She told us that 57% of Utah was federally owned as well as 85% of Nevada. To compare that to the east coast only 0.8% of New York is owned by the government and 0.4% of Connecticut. Since I grew up on the east coast it is hard to understand that a 85% of a state can be owned by the government.

She also talked about water use and water rights along the Colorado River. This was our first introduction to the Colorado River, which will turn into the main topic of our trip. One of the things that she talked about that was interesting was that the dams along Colorado River were not built for hydropower. That is a plus to having them but they are really made for water management. For example there is a coal power plant in Arizona that is not connected to the grid at all, its only purpose is to create energy to pump water from the Colorado River to be used in the Central Arizona Plan.

Picture Citations:

"Turbines Getting Larger." Sandia National Laboratories. Web.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p7/NBBooks/WTGTurbinesGettingLargerSM.jpg

"Who Owns the West? U.S. General Service Administration. Web.

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/map-owns_the_west.jpg