AIM Toolbox
Evaluate the impacts of underground injection operations
EPA's Aquifer Injection Modeling (AIM) Toolbox was designed to help users, including EPA and other federal and state agencies, implement Underground Injection Control (UIC) and other groundwater protection programs.
The AIM Toolbox provides a collection of scientific, data-driven analytical methods for evaluating the potential extent of the areas impacted from subsurface injection operations, techniques most typically related to oil and gas development, waste disposal, and subsurface mining.
About the AIM Toolbox
EPA regulates the construction, operation, and closure of injection wells used to place fluids underground for storage or disposal under its Underground Injection Control (UIC) program. Ensuring the protection of groundwater resources is a high-priority need. Any decision making related to underground injection operations for waste disposal and/or energy and mineral development activities (e.g., considering boundaries of exempted aquifers, permitting/determining area of review) requires a quantitative understanding of the system characteristics.
The analytical algorithms provided in the AIM Toolbox each have different approaches, assumptions, and focus with respect to the processes in subsurface and the nature of the injection operations. Collectively, the set of algorithms provides a broader evaluation of the area that can potentially be impacted by an injection operation. By providing estimates for the injectate plume extent, the software supports technical aspects of planning, evaluation, and overseeing injection activities. That is, the results help assess when further regulatory controls (e.g., monitoring, testing) may be required and, in the case of proposed injection activities into an underground source of drinking water, the extent of the impacted area that would require exemption from protection under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
A variety of features are intended to provide in-application help, including labels and tool tips. In addition to those features, the AIM Toolbox provides a “User Guide” button in the application header so that the user can view the User Guide.
Application and Use
The AIM Toolbox provides a collection of analytical solutions suitable for evaluating the potential extent of the impacted areas due to subsurface injection operations. The estimated results can account for variations in subsurface formation properties (confinements, thicknesses, depths), hydraulic flow parameters (porosity, permeability), in situ fluid properties (salinity, regional gradients), and injectate properties (TDS). The software supports technical aspects of planning, evaluation, and overseeing activities by providing information on the injectate plume extent.
Software and Compatibility
The AIM Toolbox software is available as a single-page web application, providing an interface for necessary inputs and visualization of results in both chart and map panes.
The software was designed for use in the Google Chrome™ web browser on a Microsoft® Windows® machine.
Being a web-based software application, the AIM Toolbox may function properly on other operating systems (e.g., Apple® Macintosh®, Android™, Linux®) and other web browsers (e.g., Mozilla® Firefox®, Microsoft Edge®, Apple® Safari®), however those configurations have not been tested and are unsupported.