

Landscape CO2 Pipeline
This beautiful portrait of a 10 mile long landscape was taken early this spring. The winding red gravel county road gives you a sense of access but this is big country. There are many two track ‘roads’ through out this remote backcountry. Literally thousands of miles of travel between the fences separating pastures several square miles in area. Open a fence and keep going. Making sure you close it behind you if it was closed to start with.
Off in the distance is a linear feature in the landscape. Manmade. That is a trace of a CO2 Sequestration line. It was laid near here a decade ago. Excess CO2 is from Wyoming being used to inject back into the periphery of a big local oil field. The peripherally injected CO2 pressures the oil to migrate to the center of the oil field where wells pick up the oil. Then the CO2 is just left in place permanently sequestered deep underground. It sounds like a great idea on many levels but there are of course issues that are not for this forum.
That linear scar is hundreds of miles long across Wyoming and Montana. It was an invasive process for any local having HUGE equipment and crew daily for a month or so interrupting normal ranch operation. Lots of traffic for the duration of the project. Having said all that, the vegetation is well maintained by the company several times a year killing off noxious weeds that take over freshly disturbed ground. That is a 36 inch high pressure line. A lot of CO2 from the oil wells, natural gas wells and coal scrubbing gets put in there never to be seen again.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming / Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Landscape CO2 Pipeline
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