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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>D.D. Harper</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>W.A. Hubert</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>A.E. Hubert</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Aida M. Farag</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2010</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The purpose of this chapter is to provide a summary of issues and findings related to&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;the potential effects of coalbed natural gas (CBNG) development on fish and other&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;aquatic resources. We reviewed CBNG issues from across the United States and used the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Powder River Basin of Wyoming as a case study to exemplify some pertinent issues. The&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;quality of water produced during CBNG extraction is quite variable. High total dissolved&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;solids in many CBNG produced waters are of concern relative to fish and other aquatic&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;organisms. Untreated CBNG produced water has the potential to be toxic to fish and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;aquatic organisms. Of particular concern at some locations in the Powder River basin are&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;elevated concentrations of sodium bicarbonate which have been shown to be toxic to&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;some species of larval fish and aquatic invertebrates. The areas affected by direct toxicity&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;were limited to headwaters and small tributaries studied in the basin. The potential&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;effects of organic compounds used during well drilling and CBNG production on water&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;span&gt;quality, fish, and aquatic organisms are not well defined. Water produced from CBNG&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;wells that is low in salts or has been treated to remove salts may be discharged into&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ephemeral or perennially-flowing streams. Higher flows in small streams can enhance&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;erosion and affect habitat for fish and aquatic organisms. In Great Plains rivers, such as&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;the Powder River, fish and aquatic invertebrate communities are structured by extreme&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;environmental conditions. Direct discharge of CBNG produced water during periods of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;very low or no surface flow may cause shifts in the aquatic community structure.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Additional effects of CBNG development on fish and aquatic organisms may stem from&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;road building and pipeline construction, roads crossing streams and ephemeral water courses, the possible spread of invasive organisms, potential spills of toxic substances,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;and increased harvest of sport fish.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Nova Science</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Potential effects of coal bed natural gas development on fish and aquatic resources</dc:title>
  <dc:type>chapter</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>