Environmental Impact Assessment of the Geothermal Area Beiu? (Romania)

Abstract

Europe 2020 Strategy, launched by EU leaders in 2010, highlights the need to modernise the economy, to focus on economic growth and employment by addressing the challenges of globalisation and demographic changes and to support economic, social and environmental objectives. The subject is inciting through the timeliness and importance in the present context of a globalized economic environment, further less the challenge for the European and national authorities to build a proper correlation between the environmental policy and a renewable resource of energy.
The specific objectives of this paper are to formulate answers to the following research questions: a. which is the accurate possibility of assessing environmental impact for geothermal waters, what are its stages? b. can the types of impact assessment be developed? c. what are the prospects for this research, what are the limits of research in this case? Therefore, I have chosen the geothermal area Beiu?, situated in the north-western side of Romania, while being a leading example for investments in geothermal heating system with available geothermal primary source through its main characteristic: it stands for the benefit of citizens by way of keeping a clean environment.
From geological viewpoint, this geothermal area is an easternmost part of the regional thermal anomaly located under the Pannonian basin and the Neogene sedimentary basins splitting the western margin of the Apuseni Mountains. The geothermal water is collected into the sole of the Neogene Beiu? basin, with Triassic dolomites and limestone belonging to the Inner Dacides (Codru Nappe System). Some drillings crossed these rocks, allowing the recovery and exploitation of the geothermal water in Beiu? town. I performed the life cycle analysis of geothermal water by following steps such as: purpose and objectives, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment or interpretation of results of life cycle analysis. In this case, the boundary research is the lack of defining and analysing the impact categories, because they are the subject of a long and thorough study and the interpretation of the data is performed by dedicated software.