Massive
Methane Leaks From Texas Fracking Sites Even More Significant Than
Infamous Porter Ranch Gas Leak
23
February, 2016
After
the mammoth methane gas leak that spewed uncontrollably from a
damaged well in California’s Aliso Canyon was finally capped
last week,
residents of nearby Porter
Ranch began
trepidatiously returning to their homes. Lingering doubts over
whether Southern California Gas Company will continue using the
underground storage field have left many wondering if concerns for
their safety are being considered at all—particularly considering
the company has, so far, only been charged withmisdemeanor
violations.
All
told, the Aliso Canyon leak thrust an estimated 96,000
metric tons of potent methane—not to mention benzene, nitrogen
oxides and other noxious substances—into
the atmosphere over
a period of months. So vast was the impact of the leak, it has
been likened in
impactful scope to BP’s
Deepwater Horizon oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
California,
however, isn’t the only state dealing with mammoth methane leakage.
Texas is
dealing with a comparable disaster that has been overlooked by
officials and the media, in part, because the state’s methane
emanates from a powerful industry’s infrastructure. According
to the Texas Observer’s
Naveena Sadasivam:
“Every
hour, natural gas facilities in North Texas’ Barnett Shale region
emit thousands of tons of methane—a greenhouse gas at least 20
times more potent than carbon dioxide—and a slate of noxious
pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and benzene.
“The
Aliso Canyon leak was big. The Barnett leaks, combined, are even
bigger.”
At
its peak, the SoCal Gas leak emitted 58,000 kilograms of methane per
hour. By comparison, researchers with universities in Colorado and
Michigan, partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund, estimate
around 60,000 kilograms are
spewed every hour by more than 25,000 natural gas wells in
operation on the Barnett Shale—with the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
at the center. This amounts to around 544,000 tons of methane every
year. But contrary to the magnitude of the Aliso Canyon event,
emissions caused by oil and gas extraction from the Barnett Shale—and
a second large formation, Eagle Ford Shale—won’t cease as long
as hydraulic
fracturing remains
the boon it has been to the fossil fuel industry.
An eight-month
long study of
Eagle Ford by the Center for Public Integrity, Weather Channel
and InsideClimate News found “a system that does more to
protect the industry than the public.”
Due
to a scarcity of air quality monitoring stations, with only five
permanent monitors to cover Eagle Ford’s nearly 20,000 square
miles, state officials simply don’t know the extent of pollutants
in the air. Many facilities are permitted to police themselves and
aren’t required to submit those findings. Not that regulators would
have an easy time enforcing a reporting mandate, as the “Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates most air
emissions, doesn’t even know some of these facilities exist.”
David
Sterling, chair of the University of North Texas Health Science
Center, told InsideClimate News, “As much as I would like to
believe that industry can police itself, history has shown that that
has not worked without sufficient oversight.” With TCEQ’s budget
having fallen 34
percent between
2010 and 2014, it’s virtually impossible to imagine such oversight
increasing in the future.
There
is a dearth of accountability for lawbreakers in Texas’ oil and gas
industry. As the study discovered, in a period of nearly two years
beginning in January 2010, 284 complaints against the industry—and
“164 documented violations”—led to just two non-punitive fines,
the larger of which was a mere $14,250.
Though
alarming, that gap in accountability isn’t a surprise.
“Texas
officials tasked with overseeing the industry are often its strongest
defenders,” stated the study. “The Texas Railroad Commission,
which issues drilling permits and regulates all other aspects of oil
and gas production, is controlled by three elected commissioners who
accepted more than $2 million in campaign contributions from the
industry during the 2012 election cycle, according to data
from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.”
Texas
lawmakers are often personally tied to the industry, as “nearly one
in four state legislators or his or her spouse, has a financial
interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford,”
according to an analysis of personal financial forms by CPI cited by
the study.
Residents
located in the two Texas shale production regions experience many
similar symptoms to those in Porter Ranch near Aliso Canyon, such as
nosebleeds, dizziness, nausea and various respiratory ailments. Those
symptoms could be due to any number of pollutants and toxins. As the
study described:
“Chemicals
released during oil and gas extraction include hydrogen sulfide, a
deadly gas found in abundance in Eagle Ford wells; volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) like benzene, a known carcinogen; sulfur dioxide and
particulate matter, which irritate the lungs; and other harmful
substances such as carbon monoxide and carbon disulfide. VOCs also
mix with nitrogen oxides emitted from field equipment to create
ozone, a major respiratory hazard.
“Studies
show that, depending on the concentration and length of exposure,
these chemicals can cause a range of ailments, from minor headaches
to neurological damage and cancer. People in the Eagle Ford face an
added risk: hydrogen sulfide, also known as H2S or sour gas, a
naturally occurring component of crude oil and natural gas that lurks
underground.”
Texas’
shale facilities are responsible
for 8
percent of the nation’s methane emissions, already; but the
combination of faulty equipment and lack of monitoring sites mean
occasional large methane releases from wells—called
“super-emitters”—won’t necessarily be noticed immediately.
“If
one well was a super-emitter the day we measured them, it could
change the next day,” explained Daniel Zavala-Araiza, lead
researcher of a 2015 Barnett Shale methane study
by the Environmental Defense Fund,
in the Observer. “It’s not just about finding a handful of
sites. You need to be looking continuously to keep finding the ones
that are malfunctioning … If you don’t have frequent monitoring,
there’s no way you’re going to know when one of these
super-emitters begins spewing.”
In
fact, a recent
study by
Harvard University points the finger at the U.S. as the cause of an
enormous spike in global methane emissions over the past decade,
accounting for 30 to 60 percent of all “human-caused atmospheric
emissions.”
“I
believe the U.S. probably is responsible for this much of an increase
in global methane emissions,” said Roger Howarth, a methane
researcher at Cornell University, who is unaffiliated with the
Harvard study, the
Guardian reported.
“And, the increase almost certainly must be coming from the
fracking and from the increase in use of natural gas.”
Texas
residents unfortunate enough to find their homes positioned near oil
or gas facilities aren’t left with much recourse to combat the
state’s infamous industry. Shale gas production more
than doubledbetween
2009 and 2014, though it has slowed slightly with the recent glut. As
InsideClimate News reported, state Representative Harvey Hilderbran
tellingly asserted to a media panel in 2014:
“I
believe if you’re anti-oil and gas, you’re anti-Texas.”
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