Urban Natural Gas Production and Air Quality Issues
Both critics and backers of urban natural gas production will find ample fodder for debate in the air-quality study released last week by the city of Fort Worth. The $1 million study marks one of the most in-depth examinations yet into the effect of natural gas production on urban air quality.
Critics will find no definitive, I-told-you-so revelation in the report to bolster their contention that urban areas should be excluded from Barnett Shale gas exploitation. But the study hardly vindicates producers’ claims that they are blameless for North Texas’ poor air quality.
The independent report found minimal evidence that nearby gas fracturing operations pose significant dangers to nearby residents’ health. In virtually every case, emissions from 388 gas wells and compression stations in the study were well below harmful levels. The report also deemed the city’s 600-foot setback limit as adequate to protect residents.
Other findings, however, are troubling: The industry dumps 20,818 tons per year of organic compounds into the air over Fort Worth, which will see a 9 percent increase in emissions by 2013. Considering the region already fails to meet federal air-quality standards, this is a clarion call for the gas industry to do better.
The timing of the report is crucial for Dallas, where a task force is preparing recommendations on how (or even whether) the city should allow gas-fracturing operations within city limits. Any new permitting rules must weigh the Forth Worth study’s recommendations on how the industry can reduce emissions.
They include requiring vapor recovery units on gas storage tanks, which are the highest source of benzene emissions. Recovery units could reduce emissions by 90 percent or more. Diesel compressor engines, another major source of pollutants, should be fitted with catalytic converters. Better still, the study says, don’t use those engines at all, and require the use of low-pollution electric engines.
The Dallas task force must address other questions untouched by the Fort Worth study, such as the heavy industrial noise from urban gas production and the negative effect these operations have on neighboring property values.
Source: Dallas Morning News