Overview: Groundwater management and coal bed methane development in the Powder River Basin of Montana

Overview:  Groundwater management and coal bed methane development in the Powder River Basin of Montana by Tom Myers, Journal of Hydrology 368:178-193, March 2009 Issue.

The study

Coal bed methane (CBM) development will eventually pump more than 124 000 ha-m of groundwater, or more than 40% of the recharge, from the coal seam and sandstone aquifers of the Montana portion of the Powder River Basin (PRB). This will relieve the hydrostatic pressure, by causing a drawdown in the potentiometric surface and drawing groundwater from storage and natural discharges, to release the methane gas. A numerical groundwater flow model simulated drawdown that will exceed 90 m in the middle of the CBM fields with 6-m drawdown extending up to 29 km from the fields. Simulation results indicate that river flux [flow] will decrease up to 40% and drawdown will encompass hundreds of wells and springs. Recovery requires up to 45 years for significant decreases in river flux to recover and is not complete for 200 years.

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