CONTROL OF NATURAL BRINE SPRINGS IN BRAZOS RIVER BASIN PART II: BRINE DISPOSAL1

ABSTRACT: Water quality in the Brazos River of Texas is seriously degraded by natural salt pollution. Two thousand tons/day of total dissolved solids emanate from brine springs and seeps in the Upper Brazos River drainage. Approximately 45 percent of the total salt load comes from a relatively small flow in the Dove Creek area. The companion paper demonstrates that a system of wells pumping brine at a constant rate of about 2 cfs from the near surface aquifer should eliminate the brine springs in this area. In this paper, injection into deep brine aquifers is shown to be a feasible brine disposal alternative. Four brine aquifers were determined from the literature to be possible injection zones. Accurate net aquifer thickness maps were generated in a 23 by 14 mile area centered on the Dove Creek area for three of the aquifers from an interpretation of 41 well logs. Constant injection for a project life of 100 years was simulated using the SWIFT/486 software. Modeling suggests that one well would be sufficient to inject the entire disposal volume into either the Strawn or Ellenburger Formation.