TY - JOUR
T1 - Unconventional Oil and Gas Spills
T2 - Risks, Mitigation Priorities, and State Reporting Requirements
AU - Patterson, Lauren A.
AU - Konschnik, Katherine E.
AU - Wiseman, Hannah
AU - Fargione, Joseph
AU - Maloney, Kelly O.
AU - Kiesecker, Joseph
AU - Nicot, Jean Philippe
AU - Baruch-Mordo, Sharon
AU - Entrekin, Sally
AU - Trainor, Anne
AU - Saiers, James E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/3/7
Y1 - 2017/3/7
N2 - Rapid growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs, revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We found 2-16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill volumes ranged from 0.5 m3 in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m3 in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m3. Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed an interactive spills data visualization tool (http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data. (Graph Presented).
AB - Rapid growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs, revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We found 2-16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill volumes ranged from 0.5 m3 in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m3 in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m3. Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed an interactive spills data visualization tool (http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data. (Graph Presented).
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.6b05749
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.6b05749
M3 - Article
C2 - 28220696
AN - SCOPUS:85015331948
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 51
SP - 2563
EP - 2573
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 5
ER -