Putting rumors to rest: geothermal project won’t affect water table

The ongoing geothermal energy project at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla will not be taking away any groundwater from the area, according to a university official.

While wells being drilled for the project will pass through the water table, water in the piping being installed will only flow through closed loops, according to Jim Packard, director of facilities operations at Missouri S&T.

“They’re installing the wells in accordance with state statutes,” Packard explained. He said the installation process is following all of the regulations for a geothermal energy system. Packard also noted that the pipes will be grouted in accordance with those standards.

Ground-source wells dug around campus are being fitted with pipes and connected to create closed geothermal loops. Water will be circulated through the loops from three geothermal plants that will be built on campus.

The wells being dug for the pipes and loops are about 440 feet deep on the north side of campus and 420 feet deep on the south side of campus, Packard said.

“It’s not going to be pulling water out of the ground,” he said.

As of this week, more than two-thirds of the well drilling is complete, Packard said.

Well drilling operations started June 4. Durbin Geothermal is using about four drill rigs.

About 645 wells will be drilled and more than 100 miles of piping will be installed.

There will be three loop well fields on campus — northwest, northeast and south. Packard said all of the wells for one of the plants have been placed.

One of the plants will be built at McNutt Hall and another will be located in Emerson Hall. The third plant will be built in the future James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall, the chemical and biological engineering building, to be constructed at 11th and State streets. The three plants will provide geothermal energy to 15 buildings around campus.

The northeast plant will heat and cool the Engineering Research Laboratory, Straumanis-James Hall - Materials Research Center, V.H. McNutt Hall, Computer Science Building, Wilson Library, Engineering Management Building and the Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

The northwest plant will serve Emerson Hall, Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall and Fulton Hall.
The south plant will provide energy to the Rolla Building, Schrenk Hall, Centennial Hall, the planned Bertelsmeyer Hall and Castleman Hall.

Packard said in June that there are still 10 other buildings that the university needs to do something with.

Many of the loop well fields are being placed under parking lots around campus. Those parking lots will be repaved and put back into service once that part of the work is complete.

The focus of the work is now on the circuit piping in the well fields and header piping back to the geothermal plants.

Packard said design plans for the rest of the project should be completed in late October.

“It’s going to according to plan,” Packard said of the work schedule.

The geothermal energy project will replace Missouri S&T’s aging coal-fired power plant, which was built in 1945. The project is expected to cut the campus’s annual energy use by half, its carbon footprint by 25,000 metric tons per year and water usage by 8 million gallons per year.

The project will also eliminate a backlog of about $26 million in postponed maintenance costs for the power plant, including the replacement of boilers, steam lines and other outdated infrastructure.

The entire project, estimated to cost $30 million, is expected to be finished by May of 2014. Once completed, Missouri S&T will be one of only a few universities to use a geothermal energy system.