M&A designs the infrastructure for producing groundwater and injecting brine wastes in a complex hydrologic system along a freshwater / saltwater interface.
Client: Compaňía de Generación Valladolid (GCV)- Time frame: 2005–2009
- Location: Valladolid, Mexico (Yucatan Peninsula)
M&A provided hydrogeologic and water-resource engineering services to CGV for its Valladolid III Energy Center, a 525MW, state-of-the-art, combined-cycle, gas-fired power plant. The local hydrogeology reflects the plant’s location along the freshwater / saltwater interface. The aquifer system — a mature, karstic limestone — contains a shallow freshwater zone; a deeper, brackish-water, transition zone; and an even deeper, highly saline zone. The plant is cooled using high-quality water that is pumped from the shallow zone via 10 production wells. The waste stream, which consists of concentrated brine, is disposed of on site via six injection wells completed in the deepest zone. Water levels are monitored closely to prevent upwelling of the underlying saline water.
M&A has played a role in designing and managing both the supply and disposal systems at the power plant. For the supply system, we designed the piping, forwarding pump stations, and dynamic controls. For the disposal system, we designed the pipeline and control system. For both systems, we provide ongoing services to optimize efficiency and manage daily operations. These services include periodically reviewing water quality and specific-capacity trends to assess individual and system-wide well performance.
M&A provided services to CGV for developing and expanding sustainable water supplies. We led an exploration program to identify potentially productive areas for additional production wells. This program entailed conducting geophysical surveys and interpreting the results to find areas with significant near-surface porosity. A high-capacity, high-quality water supply was subsequently developed in one of these promising areas.
M&A designed the production and injection wells for the process water system, providing installation oversight and rehabilitation services as required.
We also examined salinity trends between production wells and found that TDS (a measure of salinity) varied significantly — by up to 50 percent — between wells in close proximity to each other. This high degree of variability was interpreted to reflect differences in the alignment of subsurface karstic dissolution features.
M&A provides ongoing monitoring services to CGV to generate data critical for well field management, maximizing well field capacity, and evaluating potential impacts to the freshwater supply wells.
Acronyms & Abbreviations
