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Many spills could be prevented if states released standardized data.
A new study investigating spills from hydraulically fractured oil and gas uncovered 6,648 spills in just four states over a ten-year period. Part of the SNAP Partnership, the study examined data from Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. Significant differences in reporting requirements across states made this analysis difficult. Lauren Patterson, a water policy specialist at Duke University, and her coauthors say making this kind of state-level data more uniform and transparent would help regulators and industry reduce the number of incidents. We spoke with her to learn more.
ResearchGate: What motivated your study?
Lauren Patterson: We wanted to look at the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water, including the risk spills pose to surface and groundwater resources. In the process of gathering and analyzing spills data, we found there was an additional story to be told about state reporting requirements and spills data.
Having a multi-disciplinary team enabled us to not just quantify the risk of having spills, but also to look at the interplay between state reporting requirements and results from the data. We explored state spills data from four states—Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania—as well as how reporting requirements have changed in those states over time.
RG: Can you tell us what you found?
Patterson: Our study identified 6,648 spills at 31,481 unconventional oil and gas wells in these states between 2005 and 2014. On average, that’s equivalent to 55 spills per 1,000 wells in any given year. We also found that across all states, over 75 percent of spills at these wells occurred within the first three years of a well’s life. This is when drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and the heaviest production occurs. Most spills at these sites occurred when storing materials in tanks and pits, and moving fluids around via flowlines.
Read more here. (Research Gate)
A new study investigating spills from hydraulically fractured oil and gas uncovered 6,648 spills in just four states over a ten-year period. Part of the SNAP Partnership, the study examined data from Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. Significant differences in reporting requirements across states made this analysis difficult. Lauren Patterson, a water policy specialist at Duke University, and her coauthors say making this kind of state-level data more uniform and transparent would help regulators and industry reduce the number of incidents. We spoke with her to learn more.
ResearchGate: What motivated your study?
Lauren Patterson: We wanted to look at the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water, including the risk spills pose to surface and groundwater resources. In the process of gathering and analyzing spills data, we found there was an additional story to be told about state reporting requirements and spills data.
Having a multi-disciplinary team enabled us to not just quantify the risk of having spills, but also to look at the interplay between state reporting requirements and results from the data. We explored state spills data from four states—Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania—as well as how reporting requirements have changed in those states over time.
RG: Can you tell us what you found?
Patterson: Our study identified 6,648 spills at 31,481 unconventional oil and gas wells in these states between 2005 and 2014. On average, that’s equivalent to 55 spills per 1,000 wells in any given year. We also found that across all states, over 75 percent of spills at these wells occurred within the first three years of a well’s life. This is when drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and the heaviest production occurs. Most spills at these sites occurred when storing materials in tanks and pits, and moving fluids around via flowlines.
Read more here. (Research Gate)
