Characterization of Produced Waters from Natural Gas Production and Storage Operations: Regulatory Analysis of a Complex Matrix

In 1986, there was a general lack of comprehensive data on the chemical characteristics of produced waters. Specifically, waters from non-associated gas production and underground storage operations were not well characterized. The Gas Research Institute (GRI) commissioned a sampling program to obtain and analyze produced water from gas production and storage operations not associated with oil production (Keith et al., 1987,1988; Wesolowski et al., 1987, 1988) which includes the following major technical aspects: • A total of 24 produced water samples, 17 taken from natural gas production and 7 from underground storage operations; • Geographical distribution of the samples based on statistics for natural gas production, number of wells, and storage field output; and, • Analytes and analytical methodology were selected to parallel those available on similar exempt production wastes.