Layers of volcanic rock in eastern Oregon, the Willamette Valley and the Columbia Basin have created fertile soil for agriculture and ranching, but in the future they could provide fertile ground for an entirely different industry aimed at fighting climate change.

The Oregon state geologist is proposing a novel idea to use the region’s rocky basalt bedrock—born from lava that flowed millions of years ago from cracks in the earth’s crust—to act as a bank for storing planet-warming carbon dioxide.

Ruarri Day-Stirrat, state geologist and executive director of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, discussed the potential for geological carbon sequestration at a State Land Board meeting in Salem last month and will seek funding to begin investigating potential sites in eastern Oregon. . It involves using machines to capture carbon dioxide from the air, or capturing it directly from a source, such as a large animal farm or factory, and injecting it into rock layers deep in the earth.

The strategy is still very new and so far not cost-effective or scalable in the fight against climate change. But places like Oregon, Washington and Iceland that have lots of volcanic rock are unique in their potential to store carbon deep underground.

“Right now, it’s definitely in the seed idea,” Day-Stirrat told the Capital Chronicle. “We want to do a good stratigraphic test to understand if it’s even plausible — not even feasible — but plausible.”

At the encouragement of the state land board — which includes Gov. Tina Kotek, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade and state Treasurer Tobias Read — he will present the idea to the state Legislature in January and begin raising funds.

Exist potential to store more than 14,000 megatons of carbon dioxide in the basalt beneath Oregon and Washington, according to a 2013 study by the US Geological Survey. This is equivalent to over 200 years worth of carbon dioxide emissions from Oregonians and Oregon industry. In eastern Oregon, some of that bedrock lies deep beneath state-owned land, where Day-Stirrat sees the greatest potential for development.

But it’s expensive to drill and develop a project, and it could be counterintuitive to the mission of reducing pollution and slowing climate change if energy must be used to capture carbon dioxide and inject it into the ground. Modeling by En-ROADS simulate developed by the nonprofit organization Climate Interactive and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that direct carbon capture and storage is not the most efficient way to spend money to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and would be much more effective over the next 75 years to spend money to decarbonise the energy sector and to tax polluters.

“We should investigate a lot of different solutions. And yes, every project has higher or lower costs. And right now, we’re probably making them all cheap, and they’re cheap for a reason,” Day-Stirrat said.

Some direct air capture and geological carbon storage projects are already underway. In Dulles, Google is building its own $20 million direct carbon capture facility. The University of Wyoming also runs a test project near Hermistonwith more than $10 million from the US Department of Energy to eventually capture carbon dioxide emissions from a natural gas plant and inject them into underground basalt.

In those facilities, a chemical filter captures or locks in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and holds it until it is sequestered and then injected into the ground.

Test projects also take place in Washingtonand a consortium that includes the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado climate nonprofit, and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries is trying to create a direct carbon capture and storage hub in the northwest.

To initiate a project in eastern Oregon, Day-Stirrat said his agency needs to be able to drill more than 3,500 feet underground to see how deep the water table is, where the water flow zones are, and if there are plausible storage areas. mineralized carbon and whether it is possible to get the mineralized carbon that deep. Standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency do not allow any geological sequestration of carbon in an area where water could be compromised, Day-Stirrat said.

“Direct air capture still has a ways to go. But there is a lot of money for research and development to understand the technology and what scaling up globally might look like,” he said.

Day-Stirrat, 45, said he expects in his lifetime to see it used as a tool to reduce emissions and slow the worst outcomes of climate change.

“I’d be disappointed if it doesn’t,” he said.

— Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle

The Oregon Capital Chroniclefounded in 2021, is a nonprofit news organization focused on Oregon state government, politics and policy.