Oil and gas spills see modest rise despite increased regs - Longmont Times-Call

The number of oil and gas related spills reported in Colorado has remained relatively stable over the past five years despite stricter regulations being enacted in 2013 and again in 2015, according to the Center for Western Priorities annual report.

While the Colorado Oil and Gas Association says the number of spills must be viewed in the context of production quadrupling in the Denver-Julesburg Basin between 2011 and 2017, environmental advocates say the numbers suggest that the industry must be even more strictly regulated.

“With the number of reported spills increasing in Colorado (from 596 in 2018 to 636 in 2019), there is clearly a need for sustained enforcement of public health and environmental safeguards throughout the drilling process,” Jesse Prentice-Dunn, the Center for Western Priorities’ policy director, wrote in a statement.

Of the 636 oil and gas related spills reported in Colorado last year, which includes everything from oil and drilling fluid to produced water and natural gas liquids, 349 of them occurred in Weld County, more than five times the number reported in Garfield County, which experienced the second-most spills.

In southwest Weld County — in an area bounded by Colo. 56 near Berthoud, 136th Ave. in the Broomfield area, East County Line Road, and Weld County Road 19 — there were 70 spills reported in 2019. Some of those were as close as 90 feet from occupied buildings in Firestone — including Rocky Mountain Christian Church, Tri-Town Baptist Church, and Frederick High School — and a little over 100 feet away from surface water in Lafayette and Erie.

One spill, on March 13, 2019, near the Todd Creek Golf Club in Adams County, which saw 25 oil and gas spills, was just 55 feet from surface water, according to the report.

In all, 62% of reported spills (398) were within 1,500 feet of a building, 47% (297) were within 1,000 feet of surface water, and 81% (517) were within a mile of a water well.

Though Weld County found no groundwater contamination above the maximum concentration limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 785 drinking water samples that it conducted since 2012, the true impact of these spills is largely unknown, especially because most spills occur on private property and are self-reported.

“There is simply no research funding available to study (the effects of spills),” Jens Blotevogel, a senior research scientist with Colorado State University, wrote in an email. “The bottom line is that we still don’t know, and really, no one wants to fund the work that would be needed to find out.”

What is known is that the most commonly spilled fluid is produced water, a toxic byproduct of fracking that can include barium, and elevated concentrations of naturally occurring radioactive elements, such as radium.

While many of the spills reported in Colorado never left the contained drilling area and if it did, the affected soil was quickly removed before any fluids could seep into the groundwater, a 2018 study conducted by Amanda Shores — a former project manager and postdoctoral scholar for the Secondary Cities Initiative, a field-based initiative of the Office of the Geographer to map for resiliency, human security, and emergency preparedness — found that 36% of spills involving produced water resulted in some level of groundwater contamination.

The study found that the risk of groundwater contamination does not have anything to do with the amount of produced water spilled, but instead how close the groundwater is to the surface.

“The average depth of groundwater for spills that had resulted in contamination was 2.3 meters, and the probability of contamination dropped to 50% when groundwater was 4.1 meters from the surface and dropped to just 1% to when the groundwater was 12.5 meters,” she said. “So my conclusions from this study were that we should not allow fracking at sites with shallow groundwater. It’s kind of a no-brainer — especially with horizontal drilling that allows fracking companies to reach natural gas deposits from miles away.”

With most spills resulting from tank battery failure, she added that secondary monitoring of tank batteries could significantly reduce spills and as well as the likelihood of historical spills, which release fluids into the ground and toxins into the air for an unknown amount of time.

In light of the passage of Senate Bill 181, which directed the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to prioritize public health, the board is currently scheduled to discuss the potential for stricter regulations this May.

In reaction to similar data collected by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which shows emission leaks increased from 17,254 in 2017 to 23,866 in 2018, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission surprised many by directing CDPHE to  drastically increase reporting requirements for permitting, leak inspections and emissions.

“The objective is simple — minimize emissions at the source,” Garry Kaufman, director of the Air Pollution Control Division at CDPHE, wrote in a statement following the commission’s decision. “These new rules represent months of hard work and communication with affected communities. They will slash emissions, make Colorado’s air cleaner and improve the quality of life for Coloradans across the state, including those citizens that live or work near oil and gas sites. They’re reasonable, cost-effective, innovative, and absolutely necessary. And we’re just getting started.”

Environmental activists hope data like that released in the Center for Western Priorities spill tracker, drive similar results at the COGCC.

“It was a new day at the commission in that they finally acknowledged the enormous amount of peer-reviewed science and public outcry to reign in oil and gas and get Colorado air quality back in compliance,” Anne Lee Foster, a spokeswoman with Colorado Rising, one of the more outspoken anti-fracking advocacy groups, said following the Air Quality Control Commission’s decision in December.

“We’d love to see the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission take the same approach.”

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"oil" - Google News
March 08, 2020 at 01:25AM
https://ift.tt/38vPYhr

Oil and gas spills see modest rise despite increased regs - Longmont Times-Call
"oil" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2PqPpxF
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini