Continental Scientific Drilling in California: The Saga of the Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project (SSSDP)

Abstract

Three yeas ago the Salton Sea Geothermal Field (SSGF) was selected as a site for research drilling, as part of a national program of Continental Scientific Drilling. The SSGF is one of the largest, hottest, and most saline geothermal fields in the world. A commercial well in the SSGF was planned to a depth of 3.6 km where a temperature of up to 300°C was anticipated. We proposed to deepen it to 5.5 km to study the deeper, hotter parts of the hydrothermal system. This plan received widespread support from the scientific community and in 1983, $5,900,000 was awarded to the US Department of Energy for the project. Since then the project ahs suffered various vicissitudes. At the time of writing, drilling has not yet begun, therefore this report deals as much with political science as it does with geosciences. General lessons learned from out experience to date are, (i) there is tremendous scientific interest in deep drilling in geothermal fields, (ii) for the national Continental Scientific Drilling Program to be successful into eh U.S.A. a small, efficient, technically competent and fiscally responsible organization, dedicated to this mission is needed, (iii) the geothermal industry should get involved in advancing the basic sciences underlying geothermal development.