Clean Energy From Filthy Water Residents of Santa Rosa and Calpine Corporation are using effluent to generate

clean energy, improving life not only for humans, but for fish as well Eliminated fines like the $400 million e pense of building new waste water storage facilities Everyday Santa Rosa !eysers Recharge "ro#ect pump $% million gallons of treated wastewater through a pipeline to a mountain top 40 miles from the city and then in#ects it down into an a&uifer a mile and a half underground ' rocks boil the water into steam and is piped to the surface to drive electricity generated %00 megawatts of electricity (e&ual to the out put of a modest) si*e power plant+ without discharging any greenhouse gases or pollutants into the atmosphere, -his techni&ue could supply $0. of the nation/s electricity by %000 Residents in Calpine worry that an independent geothermal pro#ect in same area could e acerbate the problem of the ground shaking !eysers leaked steam and visuali*e to city in Santa Rosa Even water treated still contained nutrients harmful to a&uatic life in 1ake Country Electricity production was depleting underground resource faster than it could be naturally replenished 2 Calpine -he partnership with Calpine and Santa Rosa and 1ake County fi ed all 3 problems by moving the wastewater to where it is wanted 4orld/s first recycled water to electricity pro#ect in 1ake County, and the largest in Santa Rosa are both poised to e pand 4indsor signed a 30 year agreement in 5ovember %006 to allow 700,000 gallons of effluent a day into Santa Rosa pipeline !rant tried to make the nation/s first geothermal power plant at the !eysers and completed it in $8$% producing %00 kilowatts of electricity Calpine entered the geothermal business in $868 and today op) erates $8 of the %$ !eysers power plants, spread across 40 s&uare miles of steep slopes pocked with hundreds of steam wells 9rilling problems ' rainfall could not seep into the sanstone reservoir fast enough to refill the reserves $888 production had dropped sending Calpine officals looking for water to in#ect into the groundwater 4astewater ' Santa Rosa ' geysers ' pipelines pass underneath city streets, residential developments and open fields -reatment ' ' physical treatment : removal of grease, oil and other impurities ' biological treatment : break down organic matter and remove nutrients and additional compounds ' sand or activated carbon filtration : removal remaining organic matter and parasites and later e posed to ultraviolet light to kill any lingering bacteria Calpine uses $%,0 million worth of its own geothermal electricity annually to pump the water to this peak to be stored before being in#ected into steam fields Residents ' e perienced ;0. increase of earth&uakes since %003 who live %0 miles of production area <y the generation of %00 megawatts of electricity from wastewater Santa Rosa and 1ake County have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by two billion lbs a yr,

Santa Rosa and Calpine Corporation an energy company decided to partnerup in the world/s largest geothermal waste)to)power)pro#ect, -hey are using urban effluent to generate clean energy to improve not #ust human life, but fish life as well, 4ith this partnership the city has eliminated fines it would pay for dumping wastewater into the Russian River along with a $400 million e pense of building a new wastewater storage facility, =or Calpine this has helped revive geothermal stream fields that were declining due to be used too much, Santa Rosa was facing a problem with leakage of steam from !eysers, >n $883 Santa Rosa was facing a cease and desist order and a threat of a building moratorium due to the city/s illegal wastewater dumping into the Russian River in effect harming endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout, >n 1ake Country people were noticing the decline of fish as well, ?t Calpine their geothermal operation was also having problems, the production of electricity was depleting the underground resource faster than it could be naturally replenished, 4ith the partnership of Calpine, Santa Rosa and 1ake County they fi ed all three problems by moving the wastewater to where it is wanted, -his process is done by at the !eysers clean wastewater is in#ected into permeable stone, where the heat from the magma will convert it into pressuri*ed steam, 5e t a well taps the steam where in turn turbines that generated electricity, 4hat the steam does is condenses to water, cools, and then is in#ected back underground, > think this process is very interesting > have never heard of it and am unsure of what to think of it, > like how it/s environmentally friendly in the aspect that it helps with pollution in the ocean, but hearing about the earth&uakes reminds me of fracking, =rom my understandings though this process saves money and is environmentally friendly so it should be given a chance to grow, <ut > don/t think there should be too many geothermal plants because of the risk of earth&uakes, So 4hat@ <ecause of this process 1ake Country and Santa Rosa was able to save a&uatic life, ?t Capline the depletion of geothermal streams was revived, >t helped the environment and produced clean energy, So 4hat@ >f we don/t begin finding clean, environmentally friendly alternatives to get our energy we will destroy the earth faster, =ossil fuels won/t last forever and if we choose to go to ways more damaging like fracking we will demolish the earth even faster, >t/s crucial that we find new ways to live our lives, and make sure it is environmentally friendly, Says 4ho@ -his article was written by Aane <ra ton 1ittle, but other researchers and scientists like 9an Carlson and Bike Sherman contributed to the article as well 4hat 9oes -his Remind Be Cf@ -he alternative energy use of solar panels because it/s a clean way to e tract electricity, > think the creation of solar panels was a great and smart idea, everyone should get on the solar panel train,