ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the geochemical steps that are considered appropriate for aquifer storage recovery (ASR) feasibility investigations, starting with sampling of recharge water and native groundwater, laboratory analysis, and a preliminary geochemical assessment. It is important that test program development should reflect awareness that ASR geochemistry is not yet an exact science. Long-term satisfactory performance of ASR systems and with no signs of geochemical problems, it is probably reasonable to assume that such problems should not occur in future projects. Analysis of water chemistry from a well in a proposed ASR storage zone can suggest the dominant processes and mineralogy potentially affecting the quality of water stored at ASR site and the associated geochemical plugging characteristics. Most of the operational ASR sites in the US for which core testing has been performed, utilized frozen cores. Physical plugging by suspended solids is perhaps the most important technical fatal flaw for ASR projects.
