Utah Forge team outlines seismic well work and circulation tests; plans outreach to local schools

Representatives of the University of Utah's Utah Forge project gave the Beaver County Commission a quarterly update on Feb. 18 that detailed near-term well work, monitoring plans and community outreach.

Christopher Pittis, marketing and communications specialist for the Utah Forge Project, said the team plans to drill two seismic monitoring wells "in early spring, probably late March," followed by cleaning debris from the injection and production wells. He told commissioners the project will then engineer and build a small closed-loop organic Rankine cycle system to produce a small amount of electricity and will conduct a three- to four-month circulation test in the autumn.

Joseph Cohen, outreach coordinator, said the team also plans to stimulate additional segments of existing wells and build a longer-term third deviated well in a later phase. The presentation described monitoring and simulation work and noted the project will continue public outreach, including school visits and a planned demonstration at the county fair.

Pittis and Cohen described recent outreach activity: classroom visits to Milford schools and coordination with county staff on upcoming public events. The team also reported that Dr. Moore (project lead) received a recognition from state legislators for long-term contributions to geothermal energy.

During questions, commissioners asked about the sensitivity of the seismic monitoring array; project staff said the new wells will improve local monitoring and that the array already detected distant seismic events in recent months. No policy action or funding request related to Utah Forge was taken at the meeting.