For the past several years, Argonne National Laboratory has undertaken an evaluation of several methods by which oil and gas well drilling wastes have been injected into underground formations for permanent disposal.  Examples of the methods reviewed include injection into salt caverns, injection of wastes during plugging and abandonment of wells, injection to formations at pressures lower than the formation’s fracture pressure (subfracture injection), and injection at pressures exceeding the fracture pressure (referred to as slurry injection).  The study resulted in three final products, all of which are available for downloading from Argonne’s website (http://www.ead.anl.gov):  

-        A compendium of the legal and administrative requirements used by U.S. states and federal agencies to regulate slurry injection and the other types of drilling waste injection (Puder et al. 2003).

-        A technical report that focuses on slurry injection technology, how slurry injection is conducted and monitored, the geological conditions that favor slurry injection, and its costs (Veil and Dusseault 2003).  The technical report also includes an extensive database describing more than 330 actual slurry injection jobs from around the world. 

-        An informative brochure describing slurry injection technology that is written for nontechnical readers (Argonne National Laboratory 2003).

The presentation summarizes the material in these documents. Readers are referred to the original documents for more information.