This article says, NOAA scientists were shocked to find levels of ozone pollution, as bad as the worst urban air quality, in the middle of desolate western Colorado in the winter of 2011. Since that discovery they have been trying to understand why the air quality was so bad in a region that had never reported air quality problems before. The team determined that methane emissions from the oil and natural gas fields in Uintah County totaled about 55,000 kg (more than 120,000 lbs) an hour on the day of the flight. That emission rate is about 6 to 12 percent of the average hourly natural gas production in Uintah County during the month of February. Ozone pollution in this desolate part of Utah is already about twice the federal limit of 75 parts per billion on a bad day. The oil and gas industrys plans to add 25,000 more wells to the 10,000 wells producing today may run into regulatory compliance problems with air quality standards. - See more at: cires.colorado.edu/news/press/2013/methaneleaks.html#sthash.gAqVKfGc.dpuf
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:37:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015