California's first environmental review of a carbon capture and sequestration project is being released in draft form Tuesday as part of a local oil producer's plan for profitably cutting greenhouse gas emissions at its existing processing plant in Elk Hills.
The release of the draft by the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department starts the clock on a 45-day public review that will include four joint workshops with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Afterward, county staff will recommend conditions, restrictions and mitigations for possible approval by Kern's Planning Commission and then the Board of Supervisors.
No details about the draft review were available Monday, but an official notice said county staff anticipate the project will involve significant and unavoidable impacts on air quality; water supplies; energy; geology and soils; and agricultural, biological, cultural and mineral resources.
The review is the third of its kind in the United States and the first to come of Kern's push to become a national center for carbon capture and sequestration. CCS can take different forms but in this case would inject supercritical carbon dioxide deep into geologic formations for permanent storage.
Department Director Lorelei Oviatt said by email Monday that the review of CRC's Carbon TerraVault I project continues the county's work in reviewing projects "objectively and comprehensively."
"While the technology is not new, the use of CCS for carbon management is a new land use planning issue," Oviatt wrote.
CRC, which has proposed several carbon capture and storage projects around the state, said by email it is pleased with the progress of the environmental review, which it said will "facilitate continued local investment and jobs, and meet the county’s high standards of safety, quality and environmental protection."
The project under review, called Carbon TerraVault 1, is expected to bury about 48 million tons of CO2, primarily from CRC's Elk Hills Power Plant, at a rate of about 2.21 million metric tons per year. The company also expects to bury gas from its field gas production system prior to processing at the company's Elk Hills cryogenic gas processing plant.
Two reservoir formations are proposed to receive the CO2. Together they comprise 9,130 surface areas in the Elk Hills Oil Field. The CCS project is located 26 miles from Bakersfield, about 8.5 miles from Taft, 5 miles from Tupman and 4 miles from Buttonwillow.
Six class VI injection wells are planned at the two formations. They were proposed in two separate applications in 2021 to the U.S EPA, which lists their status as being in technical review. One of the two, if approved, could receive carbon dioxide from a hydrogen facility as well as what's called direct-air capture, in which CO2 is removed straight from the atmosphere instead of an industrial smokestack.
In addition to the half dozen injection wells, the project is proposed to include new and existing wells for monitoring any CO2 leaks or seismic activity.
The environmental review is required because CRC's project requires a series of zone changes switching the designation of 6,160 acres from limited agriculture to exclusive ag. The review is also necessary because of the six conditional use permits the company's proposal would need.
A copy of the draft environmental review is scheduled to be posted online Tuesday at https://kernplanning.com/environmental-doc/carbon-terravault-1-kerncounty.
