Recently sulfolane has been detected in well water within the town of North Pole, Alaska. A plume was identified in groundwater, originating from a petroleum refinery, and the highest concentration measured in wells outside the refinery was 269 ppb as of January 2011. Due to the contamination, residents were being provided bottled water for use and additional wells were created outside the plum...

To determine factors controlling permeability variations within and adjacent to a fault-hosted geothermal reservoir at Dixie Valley, Nevada, we conducted borehole televiewer observations of wellbore failure (breakouts and cooling cracks) together with hydraulic fracturing stress measurements in six wells drilled into the Stillwater fault zone at depths of 2-3 km. Measurements in highly permeabl...