A lithium well just outside Green River spurted substantial amounts of water the afternoon of March 8, according to several eyewitness accounts.
The slightly saline water did not breach the Green River, which runs less than a half mile from the operation, according to Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining spokesperson Hollie Brown.
The well operator released a statement saying the surge was the planned result of breaching an aquifer 1,500 feet underground.
“In this instance, more water rose to the surface than was expected, which exceeded the system’s capacity and threatened to exceed the containment area,” wrote Cindy Gubler, a spokesperson for Australia-based Anson Resources.
Anson’s subsidiary, A1 Lithium, is currently drilling a temporary, exploratory test well to extract lithium from brines thousands of feet under the Earth’s surface. Another subsidiary, Blackstone Minerals, holds the relevant permits.
Gubler said the company strategically breached an earthen berm, allowing the water to collect in former evaporation ponds. The next day the company disposed of about 10,000 barrels of water in a state-managed disposal site, she said.
“We had a solid plan in place to manage such an event,” said Anson CEO Bruce Richardson.
Brown said that initial tests of the water indicate there is “really no threat to drinking water.” She said the water was considered slightly too salty to be potable but could still be used for irrigation purposes.
Several Green River residents first reported that water had flowed from the lithium operation’s well tower, which lies less than half a mile east of the Green River and just north of Interstate 70.
When Kenny Fallon Jr. drove out to the site Friday, he said he saw water gushing out of the well tower, “maybe six or 10 feet off the ground.”
“It didn’t seem very controlled,” he said.
Fallon Jr. said he didn’t see any evidence the water had breached Brown’s Wash, an adjacent streambed that leads to the Green River.
He did see some water flowing in the wash upstream of the well operation, as well as water bubbling out of the ground downstream.
“This was definitely pressurized water that was coming up,” Fallon Jr. said.
Christine Sheeter, another Green River resident, said she observed large puddles of water around the well site after the “blowout.”
“There were bulldozers that were moving soil to manage the water flow,” Sheeter said, seemingly to divert it away from the wash.
On March 9, Gubler said the company had contained the water and continued drilling, installing a specialized valve to prevent future blowouts.
The Great Basin Water Network and Living Rivers-Colorado Riverkeeper, two environmental nonprofits, released a statement on Monday panning the blowout, saying it “affirms doubts about the company’s ability to tap deep lithium brines.”
“There are so many red flags that are flagrantly waving with this project,” said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the water network organization. “This foreign company cannot be trusted to steward the Green River and the Colorado River.”
Per the draft injection permit for Anson’s subsidiary, Blackstone Minerals, the company is drilling thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface into a layer of brine, which is then pumped aboveground so lithium can be extracted through a novel, largely untested process called direct lithium extraction.
After that processing, the brine is reinjected about 6,000 feet underground — the subject of the Utah Division of Water Quality permit.
The exploratory well, just south of the town of Green River, will be operational for one year according to Gubler, with actual production wells located farther away.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from the well’s operator and the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.