Chemical Ecology Investigations at The Geysers, California

Abstract

A chemical aquatic ecology program currently in progress at the Geysers geothermal field in Northern California is described. The ultimate objective of the program is to assess the long term ecosystem effects of development related effluents to the aquatic environment. The first phase was designed to 1) identify partitioning and transport in water and sediment of a wide range of elemental constituents and 2) to determine the degree of impact of geothermal development in an area where a natural back ground of thermal tributaries and abandoned mercury mine tailings exist. Selected constituents such as ammonia, boron, sulfate and potassium are shown to be enriched in both natural geothermal waters and in cooling tower waters and emissions. Analyses implicate geothermal unties as significant contributors of aquatic input. The most probable transport process is cooling tower drift.