Rocks to Roads to Ruin: A Brief History of Western Kentucky’s Rock-Asphalt Industry, 1888–1957

The history of western Kentucky’s rock-asphalt industry required substantial research of primary sources to correct the disjointed and often conflicting record published to date. Its history is checkered with characters from visionary entrepreneurs and ambitious businessmen to financial scoundrels. The earliest evidence of exploitation of bitumen resources at the surface in western Kentucky is in Native American artifacts recovered from several sites. Early settlers in the region used heavy oil and bitumen found in seeps as lubricants and wood preservatives, among other uses. The commercial value of the widespread western Kentucky rock-asphalt deposits was first recognized in the 1880’s, leading to the development of a 70-year industry with a product used to pave roads in much of the midwestern and eastern United States, and in Canada, Cuba, and Brazil. From the industry’s inception in 1889 to its closure in 1957, 19 companies developed rock-asphalt deposits in the Big Clifty Sandstone and Caseyville Formation in Grayson, Edmonson, Logan, Breckinridge, and Hardin Counties, although only about half of these companies were in business more than 6 years. The longest active was the Kentucky Rock Asphalt Co., in business from 1917 to 1957. Peak annual production was reached in 1927 when eight operators produced 344,220 tons, and an estimated total of 6.04 million tons from all Kentucky rock asphalt, containing an estimated 2.33 million barrels of bitumen, produced throughout the industry’s entire history. Considering, however, the enormous volume of heavy oil and bitumen resources estimated to be in surface and shallow subsurface deposits in the rock-asphalt–producing counties, only about 0.1 percent of these resources have been produced to date

Heavy-Oil and Bitumen Resources of the Big Clifty Sandstone, Northeastern Grayson County and Adjacent Hardin County, Kentucky

Rock asphalt (bitumen-saturated sandstone) was produced from the Big Clifty Sandstone near Tar Hill and Big Clifty in northeastern Grayson County, and at Summit in adjacent Hardin County, from 1889 to 1940. Noncommercial amounts of oil were distilled from Big Clifty rock asphalt before 1930. Resource assessments conducted throughout the area during the mid-1920\u27s described substantial rock-asphalt deposits. Later assessments in 1951, 1965, and the early 1980\u27s, however, overlooked the northeastern Grayson County area. A new evaluation in 2015 estimated that the historically developed area between Clifty Creek and meeting Creek, and between the Summit Fault and Eveleigh Fault Zone, contained 200.3 million barrels of heavy oil and bitumen in place in the Big Clifty Sandstone. This study estimates an additional 29.6 million barrels of heavy oil and bitumen in place in less than 9,600 ha of the Big Clifty southwest of Clifty Creek, or about 7,600 barrels per hectare. The rock-asphalt industry in the northeastern Grayson County area left substantial surface damage that is still visible, especially at Summit, more than 70 yr later. Although leaching of hydrocarbons from rock-asphalt mine-spoil piles is a reasonable environmental concern, tests have shown no leaching of hydrocarbons using a synthetic rainwater at a pH above 3.5; natural rainwater has a pH of about 5.5

Heavy-Oil and Bitumen Resources of the Western Kentucky Tar Sands

Heavy-oil and bitumen resources in western Kentucky are present in the Upper Mississippian Big Clifty and Hardinsburg Sandstones and Lower Pennsylvanian Kyrock and Bee Spring Sandstone Members of the Caseyville Formation in a belt extending from Logan County on the south to Breckinridge and Hardin Counties on the north. Net oil-saturated intervals in the tar sands range from 2.5 to 4.7 m thick, largely in downthrown fault blocks in and bounding the Rough Creek Graben. Records from 1,500 wells, analysis of reservoir properties from 3,769 plugs from 135 coreholes, and bulk volume of hydrocarbon calculated in 139 surface samples were evaluated using original quantitative methods, reinterpretation of prior qualitative results, and industry-standard petroleum-engineering principles. Median porosity of the tar-sand reservoirs is 14.8 to 19.8 percent, and median oil saturation is 17.4 to 34 percent. Mobile versus immobile oil in the pore space was calculated for five wells cored in Edmonson County in which permeability and porosity were measured before and after extracting all hydrocarbons in 393 core plugs. Median movable oil saturation in these cores was 40.7 percent of the total oil saturation in the Big Clifty, 26.9 percent in the Hardinsburg, and 61.9 percent in the Caseyville. Unrisked contingent and prospective heavy-oil and bitumen resources in place in the tar sands are estimated to total 3,346 million barrels of oil: 2,247 million barrels in the Big Clifty, 357 million barrels in the Hardinsburg, and 742 million barrels in the Caseyville. There are no demonstrable reserves. Overall, these resources are about 10 percent greater than previous evaluations. The western Kentucky tar sands developed from microbial degradation of light oil during migration into the reservoir rocks, leaving heavily biodegraded pore-lining bitumen and mobile heavy oil. Pore-lining bitumen causes the reservoirs to be oil-wet, reducing effective permeability and porosity in a reservoir and decreasing oil recovery in enhanced-oil-recovery projects. Since the collapse of the rock-asphalt industry in 1957, there has been no commercial process developed to date, either for enhanced oil recovery or for bitumen extraction from mined rock asphalt, to produce oil from the western Kentucky tar sands. In 2014, a new project was initiated to recover bitumen from the Big Clifty in northern Logan County; however, results of this project are inconclusive

Assessing Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Potential in Kentucky to Augment Energy Production from Renewable Resources

Fossil fuel power plants in Kentucky have some of the highest emissions of greenhouse gasses in the United States. One potential strategy for mitigating greenhouse gasses from electric power generation is the co-installation of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and a renewable source such as photovoltaic solar electricity generation (PV solar generation). CAES with complementary co-installed PV solar generation enhances stand-alone PV solar generation because CAES power is available at night. CAES, however, requires both a site where large volumes of compressed air can be stored in the subsurface, and a heat source to prepare the stored air prior to entering the electricity-generating turbines. Co-installed PV solar electricity can provide the required thermal energy, but compressed air storage can be problematic. The two existing CAES plants, in Germany and Alabama, store compressed air in subsurface solution-mined salt caverns, however the thick salt deposits necessary to develop a compressed air storage cavern are not a part of Kentucky’s geology. Six compressed air storage models were reviewed as part of this project: acid solution-mined caverns, abandoned limestone mines, advanced energy storage in mined air storage chambers, depleted gas fields aquifer storage; and cased wellbore energy storage. Each of these models has the potential for application in Kentucky. Two issues need to be addressed in applying CAES and its variations in Kentucky: ownership of the subsurface pore space where compressed air would be stored in depleted geologic reservoirs and aquifers, and social equity of the CAES electric power generation process. Pore space ownership is addressed under both state and federal law, generally from the standpoint of natural gas storage in depleted gas fields. These storage reservoirs would require an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) injection permit. CAES models that do not impact porosity or groundwater may require other state and federal operational permits. Because CAES is both site-flexible and easily scalable, it provides a starting point for the conversation surrounding energy equity in the U.S. CAES with co-installed PV solar electricity generation provides a path to equitable power generation for all Americans

Geology of the Kentucky Geological Survey Marvin Blan No. 1 Well, East-Central Hancock County, Kentucky

The Kentucky Geological Survey’s Marvin Blan No. 1 well was drilled in east-central Hancock County, Ky., about 4 mi southwest of the Ohio River, to demonstrate CO2 injection in the Western Kentucky Coal Field, following the mandate and partial funding from Kentucky’s House Bill 1, August 2007. Installation of a groundwater monitoring well was required as a condition of obtaining a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control Class V Permit prior to drilling the Blan well; however, no groundwater was encountered under the Blan well site. The groundwater monitoring well was immediately plugged and abandoned in accordance with State regulations, and the UIC permit was amended to require monitoring of two domestic water wells and two developed springs within approximately 2 mi of the Blan well site. Drilling of the Blan well commenced in April 2009 and was completed in June 2009. Testing CO2 injection and storage was completed in two phases during 2009 and 2010. The Blan well penetrated an unfaulted Early Pennsylvanian through Neoproterozoic stratigraphic section characteristic of western Kentucky north of the Rough Creek Graben. Minor hydrocarbon shows were encountered during drilling. Whole-diameter 4-in. cores were recovered from the Late Devonian New Albany Shale, Late Ordovician Maquoketa Shale and Black River Group, Middle Cambrian–Lower Ordovician Knox Group (Beekmantown Dolomite, Gunter Sandstone, and Copper Ridge Dolomite), and Precambrian Middle Run Sandstone. Electric logs recorded in the Marvin Blan No. 1 can serve as type logs for western Kentucky. Structural dip in the well was found to be homoclinal, dipping approximately 0.5° west above the Knox unconformity, 1° west in the Knox Group and Eau Claire Formation, and about 3.5° north in the Middle Run. The Knox Group, the target interval of the well, has a complex lithology including fabric-preserving primary dolomite and fabric-destructive secondary dolomite, vugfilling saddle dolomite, vug-lining chert, chert nodules and fracture fills, and nodular to disseminated pyrite in the Beekmantown, Gunter, and Copper Ridge dolomite facies, and fine-grained quartz sand with dolomite cement in the sandstone facies of the Gunter. CO2 storage capacity of the Knox was evidenced by reservoir properties of porosity and permeability and the injection testing programs. Reservoir seals were evaluated in the Knox and overlying strata. Within the Knox, permeabilities measured in vertical core plugs from the Beekmantown and Copper Ridge Dolomites suggest that intraformational seals may be problematic. Three stratigraphic intervals overlying the Knox in the Marvin Blan No. 1 well may provide seals for potential CO2 storage reservoirs in western Kentucky: the Wells Creek Formation, Black River Group, and Maquoketa Shale. The Wells Creek and Black River had permeabilities suggesting that these intervals may act as secondary sealing strata. The primary reservoir seal for the Knox, however, is the Maquoketa. The Maquoketa is a dark gray, calcareous, silty, fissile shale. Maximum seal capacity calculated from permeabilities measured in vertical core plugs from the Maquoketa exceeded the net reservoir height in the Knox by about two orders of magnitude. Rock strength measured in core plugs from the Maquoketa suggests that any CO2 migrating from the Knox would likely have sufficient pressure to fracture the Maquoketa. Phase 1 injection testing used 18,454 bbl of synthetic brine and 323 tons of CO2 (equivalent to 1,765 bbl of fluid or 5,646 mcf of gaseous CO2), and phase 2 injection testing used a total of 4,265 bbl of synthetic brine and 367 tons of CO2 (2,000 bbl of liquid or 6,415 mcf of gaseous CO2). Calculating the reservoir volume required to store a volume of supercritical CO2 used data provided by wireline electric logs, analysis of whole and sidewall cores, wireline temperature and pressure surveys, and analysis of formation waters collected prior to injection tests. The most likely storage capacities calculated in the Knox in the Marvin Blan No. 1 ranges from 450 tons per surface acre in the phase 2 Gunter interval to 3,190 tons per surface acre for the entire Knox section. At the completion of testing, the injection zone in the Marvin Blan No. 1 well was permanently abandoned with cement plugs in accordance with Kentucky and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Regional extrapolation of CO2 storage potential based on the results of a single well test can be problematic unless corroborating evidence can be demonstrated. Core analysis from the Knox is not available from wells in the region surrounding the Marvin Blan No. 1 well, although indirect evidence of porosity and permeability can be demonstrated in the form of active saltwater-disposal and gas-storage wells injecting into the Knox. This preliminary regional evaluation suggests that the Knox reservoir may be found throughout much of western Kentucky. The western Kentucky region suitable for CO2 storage in the Knox is limited updip, to the east and south, by the depth at which the base of the Maquoketa lies above the depth required to ensure storage of CO2 storage in its supercritical state and the deepest a commercial well might be drilled for CO2 storage. The resulting prospective region has an area of approximately 6,000 mi2, beyond which it is unlikely that suitable Knox reservoirs may be developed. Faults in the subsurface, which serve as conduits for CO2 migration and compromise sealing strata, may mitigate the area with Knox reservoirs suitable for CO2 storage. The data from the Marvin Blan No. 1 well make an important contribution to understanding the subsurface strata in western Kentucky, and clarify relationships between electric-log responses, lithology, and rock properties, and effectively demonstrate the CO2 storage potential of the Knox and sealing capacity of the Maquoketa. The results of the injection tests in the Blan well, however, provide a basis for evaluating supercritical CO2 storage in Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate reservoirs throughout the Midcontinent

Class I Waste-Disposal Wells and Class II Brine-Injection Wells in Kentucky

This map shows locations of disposal wells permitted and regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under parts of their Underground Injection Control program. Only UIC Class I and Class II disposal wells are illustrated and described. EPA defines Class I as industrial and municipal waste-disposal wells and Class II as oil- and gas-related injection wells (EPA, 2012a). Disposal wells are designed to protect underground sources of drinking water. The primary function of this map is to provide general information about type, name, location, geology, and depth of injection zone for these disposal wells on a statewide basis

Overview of the Kentucky Geological Survey No. 1 Hanson Aggregates Well, Carter County, Kentucky

The Kentucky Geological Survey drilled the No. 1 Hanson Aggregates well in northern Carter County, Ky., to assess the carbon dioxide storage capacity and confining intervals in the Middle Cambrian–Upper Ordovician section in the southern Appalachian Basin, north of the Rome Trough. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4,835 ft, penetrating the Mississippian–Middle Cambrian Paleozoic section and 120 ft of Neoproterozoic Grenville granite gneiss. Steel casing was cemented to the surface at 350 ft and 2,944 ft to isolate the deep wellbore from the near-surface aquifer and provide anchors for pressure-control equipment. Eight cores totaling 453 ft and 30 rotary sidewall cores were cut, and an extensive suite of geophysical logs, including imaging logs, was run in the borehole. Core plugs were analyzed in the laboratory to determine porosity and permeability, triaxial rock mechanical strength, and capillary entry pressures for shale core plugs; thin sections were taken of sandstone and carbonate reservoir rocks. From these data, three intervals were selected for formation-water sampling, step-rate pressure testing to determine in-situ rock strength, and determining reservoir porosity and permeability parameters: the Maryville sand–Basal sand section, middle Copper Ridge Dolomite, and Rose Run Sandstone. Although CO2 injection testing was cost-prohibitive, the project has otherwise successfully delivered the high-quality data required to assess CO2 storage capacity and subsurface confinement in the southern Appalachian Basin of northeastern Kentucky

Zircon U-Pb Geochronology of Two Basement Cores (Kentucky, USA): Implications for Late Mesoproterozoic Sedimentation and Tectonics in the Eastern Midcontinent

Basement cores from two wells drilled west and east of the Grenville front consist of feldspathic litharenite and granitic orthogneiss, respectively. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages for the litharenite define a broad dominant U-Pb age mode at ca. 1115 Ma. The dominant mode matches that for the type locality of the Middle Run Formation in the Ohio subsurface and is interpreted to consist of detrital zircons sourced from East Continent Rift volcanic sources (ca. 1100 Ma) and Grenville Shawinigan granites/gneisses (1120–1180 Ma). The youngest detrital zircon ages (ca. 1020 Ma) require a maximum depositional age that is at least 70 My younger than the time of Midcontinent and East Continent rifting and magmatism. We propose that the litharenite is correlative with the Middle Run Formation in Ohio and was deposited in an evolving late Grenville rift/foreland basin adjacent to the exhuming Grenville orogen. Zircon U-Pb secondary-ion mass spectrometry ages from orthogneiss define a discordant array with intercepts of ca. 1500 and 1000 Ma. The oldest concordant dates (ca. 1450 Ma, from oscillatory-zoned cores) are interpreted as the crystallization age of the igneous protolith of the orthogneiss. Metamorphic zircon rims define a weighted mean U-Pb age of 1018 ± 19 Ma (2σ) Ma, interpreted to represent the time of high-grade metamorphism during the late Ottawan phase of the Grenville orogeny. This age pattern matches that of exposed basement in the Central Gneiss Belt of the Grenville Province (Ontario) and similar basement orthogneisses in Ohio and Kentucky that are interpreted to be of Eastern Granite-Rhyolite Province affinity. All age data are consistent with a provenance model of an actively exhuming Grenville orogen at ca. 1000 Ma producing sediment that is mixing with recycled East Continent Rift sediments

Summary of Carbon Storage Project Public Information Meeting and Open House, Hawesville, Kentucky, October 28, 2010

U.S. DOE Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FE0002068Ope