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Show I (BcedDtKhiojrnTrQEid Mayor Nay said that the water has been running across the bench east of the city for years and people peo-ple have drunk the water for medicinal purposes and cattle and sheep have ranged on the bench. He said no one has been hurt yet that anyone is aware of. A geothermal energy project in Monroe has been abandoned by the federal government, the victim of high costs and the Department Depart-ment of Energy's own rules and regulations. Mayor Duane Nay said government officials informed in-formed the city that the project would not be com -petitive with coal as a source of heat. Some $424,000 in federal funds and $7,000 in Monroe Mon-roe City monies had been spent in the development program. The City had received a $924,000 grant from the DOE three years ago to develop geothermal energy from a source just northeast north-east of the community. The mayor said he was informed in-formed the department was. to withdraw $500,000 of the grant which has not been spent. It was first thought the geothermal energy was e-nough e-nough to provide energy to heat all the homes, public pub-lic buildings and businesses busi-nesses in the city. The $431,000 was spent on engineering, test wells and a production well. Monroe was to be the first community In the nation na-tion to develop geothermal energy as a utility. Residents Re-sidents were told that a home could probably be heated for about $100 a year with the system . The project was retarded retard-ed so long because of environmental en-vironmental regulations that it was caught in the inflationary cost squeeze. It would cost $1 million more to complete it now. Following a study by the University of Utah, which determined the project was feasible, Terra Tek, was hired and test wells were drilled. Then a well was drilled to a depth of 1,500 feet and a reinjection well was needed to return water to its source. That's when the Utah Wa -ter Quality Board became be-came involved. They indicated indi-cated they were opposed ' to the city bringing water to the surface, contaminating contamin-ating it by having it flow across an open surface, then returning it into the ground. |