Groundwater phosphorus concentrations: global trends and links with agricultural and oil and gas activities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Warrack ◽  
Mary Kang ◽  
Christian von Sperber
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Surface Water Quality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Global Trends

<p>Although observations show that anthropogenic phosphorus (P) can reach groundwater supplies, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of P in groundwater at the global scale. Additionally, there have been minimal studies on distributed sources, such as agriculture, and the effects of oil and gas activities on P contamination in groundwater are poorly understood. We compile and analyze 181,653 groundwater P concentrations from 13 government agencies and 8 individual research studies in 11 different countries in order to determine the extent of P pollution at the global scale. We find that every country with data has groundwater P concentrations that pose a significant risk of eutrophication to surface waters. In Canada and the United States, we study the relationship between land use, focusing on crop/pastureland, and increased P concentrations in groundwater. In Ontario and Alberta, two Canadian provinces with different histories of oil and gas development, we find areas with a high concentration of P groundwater pollution to coincide with regions of intense oil and gas activity. Understanding the effects of anthropogenic sources on phosphorus contamination of groundwater and identifying all possible pathways through which contamination can occur will assist regulators in planning and implementing effective strategies to manage groundwater and surface water quality and sustain ecosystem health.</p>

scholarly journals Uneven impacts and uncoordinated studies: A systematic review of research on unconventional oil and gas development in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 101465
Author(s):  
Kathryn Bills Walsh ◽  
Julia Hobson Haggerty ◽  
Jeffrey B. Jacquet ◽  
Gene L. Theodori ◽  
Adrianne Kroepsch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Unconventional Oil ◽  
Unconventional Oil And Gas

Thoughts on Unconventional Oil and Gas Development in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 121-126 ◽  
pp. 3034-3038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Xu Guan ◽  
Yi Xuan Fan ◽  
Qiang Cao
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
The United States ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Coal Bed ◽  
Tight Sandstone ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Natural Gas Development ◽  
Unconventional Natural Gas ◽  
Unconventional Oil And Gas

With the era of high oil prices and prominent contradict between domestic oil and gas supply and demand, a boom of unconventional natural gas development has set off. While a major success of shale gas development has been made in the United States, it has also brought a successful experience and advanced technology to China. China also have carried out deep research and have achieved certain results in coal bed methane and tight sandstone gas, etc. However, difficulties and problems faced in the development process need to be carefully dealt with .

scholarly journals A Problem Lurking Just Below the Surface

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-525
Author(s):  
Terrell Fenner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Effective Remedy

A long history of oil and gas development in Texas has made the state the number one energy producer in the United States, and the bulk of that energy is produced from fuels acquired by drilling into the vast natural resources that sit below the state. As a side effect of this long history, it is common for the surface and mineral estates in Texas to be severed, and many severances happened several generations ago. This history has spread mineral interests between dozens of owners in some cases, many who are unknown and cannot be found. Absentee ownership has diluted the value of these fractionalized interests and has made use by their non-absentee counterparts more difficult. Existing laws that have been used in the past to clear absentee owners from title have not been effective in the context of a severed mineral estate, as those laws evolved primarily to address surface interests, or to accomplish other purposes with only incidental effect on land titles. This Comment discusses the inadequacy of the current methods used in Texas to remove absentee owners from mineral titles and illustrates the need for a more effective remedy. It then offers a dormant mineral act that suits the unique cultural and economic needs of Texas and addresses the growing fractionalization of Texas’s mineral estates.

Satellite-based characterization of methane point sources in the Permian Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate ◽  
Luis Guanter ◽  
Yin-Nian Liu ◽  
Daniel J. Varon ◽  
Joannes D. Maasakkers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Permian Basin ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Regional Study ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Emission Point

<p>The Permian Basin is known for its extensive oil and gas production, which has increased rapidly in recent years becoming the largest producing basin in the United States. It is also responsible for almost half of the methane emissions from all oil and gas producing regions in the country. Given the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is crucial to identify and characterize the point sources of emissions. To this end, we have combined three new high-resolution hyperspectral sensors data onboard the GF-5, ZY1 and PRIMA satellites to create the first regional study to identify methane sources and measure the emitted quantities from each source. With data collected over several days in 2019 and 2020, we have identified a total of 37 point source emissions with flux rates >500kg/h, that is, a high concentration of extreme emission point sources that account for nearly 40% of the Permian annual emissions. Also, we have found that new infrastructure (post-2018) is responsible for almost 60% of the detected emissions, in many cases (21% of the cases) due to inefficient use of flaring of the gas that they cannot store. With this study, we demonstrate that hyperspectral satellite data are a powerful tool for the detection and quantification of strong methane point emissions.</p>

United States Experience Regulating Unconventional Oil and Gas Development

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edith Allison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Unconventional Oil ◽  
Oil And Gas Operations ◽  
Unconventional Oil And Gas

ABSTRACT In the midst of aggressive anti-drilling campaigns by environmental organizations and well-publicized complaints by citizens unaccustomed to oil and gas operations, rigorous studies of unconventional oil and gas development show that there are no widespread or systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States. In addition, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions have significantly declined with the growth in natural gas production and its use in power generation. Furthermore, induced seismicity from subsurface waste disposal has plummeted in response to industry initiatives and new regulations. This record of environmental protection reflects the fact that U.S. hydraulic fracturing, like other oil and gas operations, is highly regulated by the states. In addition, air emissions, operations on federal lands, and subsurface injection are subject to federal regulation. Academic and government researchers have documented that chemicals and gas produced by hydraulic fracturing are not contaminating drinking water. However, as an added complication, methane occurs naturally in drinking water aquifers in some producing areas. In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a four-year study of potential aquifer contamination from hydraulic fracturing and associated industry operations. The report found some impacts on drinking water including contamination of drinking water wells; however, the number of cases was small compared to the number of wells hydraulically fractured. The scientific peer-review and public critique of the study, which continues after more than a year, may recommend additional research. The emotionally charged, anti-fracking campaigns provided important lessons to U.S. operators: pre-drilling, baseline data on water and air quality are essential to answering public concerns; infrastructure issues such as increased truck traffic on small, local roads are important to residents; and the initial failure to disclose the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluid intensified public concern.

Disclosure Conflicts

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby Kinchy ◽  
Guy Schaffer
Keyword(s):  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extraction Process ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nature Of Information

Many governments and corporations have embraced information disclosure as an alternative to conventional environmental and public health regulation. Public policy research on transparency has examined the effects of particular disclosure policies, but there is limited research on how the construction of disclosure policies relates to social movements, or how transparency and ignorance are related. As a first step toward filling this theoretical gap, this study seeks to conceptualize disclosure conflicts, the social processes through which secrecy is challenged, defended, and mobilized in public technoscientific controversies. In the case of shale oil and gas development (“fracking”) in the United States, activists and policy makers have demanded information about the contents of fluids used in the extraction process and the routes of oil shipments by rail. Drilling and railroad companies have resisted both demands. Studies of such disputes reveal the dynamic and conflictual nature of information disclosure. In both cases, disclosure conflicts unfold dynamically over time, reflecting power disparities between industry groups and their challengers and requiring coalitions of activists to pursue multiple tactics. When a disclosure policy is established, it does not resolve social conflict but shifts the focus of struggle to the design of information systems, the quality of disclosed data, and the knowledge gaps that are now illuminated.

scholarly journals Materializing Exposure: Developing an Indexical Method to Visualize Health Hazards Related to Fossil Fuel Extraction

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Wylie ◽  
Elisabeth Wilder ◽  
Lourdes Vera ◽  
Deborah Thomas ◽  
Megan McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Scientific Instrument ◽  
Sensing Element ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
The Us ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies

How can STS researchers collaborate with communities to design environmental monitoring devices that more effectively express their experiences and address gaps in regulation? This paper describes and shows the results of a novel method of visualizing environmental emissions of corrosive gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exposure using photographic paper. H2S is a neurotoxic and flammable gas that smells like rotten eggs and is frequently associated with oil and natural gas extraction. Communities living with oil and gas development in Wyoming report odors of rotten eggs and describe symptoms of H2S exposure. H2S is recognized as an acute and chronic threat to human and environmental health and oil and gas companies are required to have plans in place to prevent and respond to accidental, high concentration releases of H2S. They are not, however, required to monitor, report or prevent routine daily emissions. Yet 15-25% of the oil and gas wells in the US are predicted to contain H2S, and some communities surrounded by multiple wells report chronic, routine exposure. Chronic exposure is difficult to represent with current tools for monitoring H2S because they are designed to measure acute workplace exposure. Informed by STS theories of black boxes and regimes of imperceptibility that focus on the need to revise not only regulations but also material tools of science, this paper describes the development of an indexical approach to visualizing this hazard. In indexical design, the reactive sensing element of a scientific instrument is brought to the foreground. The silver in the photopaper is an index as it tarnishes with H2S exposure. Discolored tests strips can be arranged together to form data-rich maps of the exposure landscape where this discoloration both represents how the gas spreads through a space and is a physical trace of the gas. Preliminary results in the form of data-rich maps show that regulating H2S emissions as primarily accidental is inappropriate and fails to adequately protect human health. 

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