Emission sources discovered

EPA finds pollution that forms smog at oil, gas facilities

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 20, 2006 at midnight

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EPA investigators armed with a pollution-detecting infrared camera recently discovered sources of smog-forming emissions billowing from oil and gas facilities northeast of Denver.

On a tour of the drilling area in Weld and Adams counties, a group of top EPA officials that included the agency's lead enforcement official in Washington, D.C., and a team of high-tech EPA investigators based in Lakewood used the infrared camera to see emissions that are normally invisible to the naked eye.

Aiming the camera at pipelines, valves and hatches atop storage tanks, the EPA regulators found numerous sources of "fugitive emissions" - those leaking from various areas of the facility - during a two-hour drive-by of the region last week.

In one case, an open hatch atop a storage tank was gushing such a tremendous volume of emissions into the air that one participant jokingly compared it to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near the ancient city of Pompeii.

The new information raises questions about whether such emissions mean the oil and gas industry is contributing more of the kind of pollution that leads to elevated ozone counts than previously believed. Ozone is a major component of smog.

"The problem we face is, individually these are minor sources (of pollution) . . . but when you have tens of thousands (oil and gas operations) out there, it makes a difference, and that's what we need to get a handle on," said Richard Long, head of air programs for the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Denver.

Long emphasized that the ozone- forming pollution spewing from leaks and other areas at the sites doesn't mean the emissions are illegal. Nor was the tour a formal inspection, or a step toward some kind of formal enforcement action against the industry, Long said.

Instead, the EPA is trying to learn more about the oil and gas industry's role in creating pollution that leads to higher ozone levels in the Denver region and elsewhere across the West.

Ken Wonstolen, senior vice president of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, played down the emissions caught by the infrared camera. He suggested much of the emissions could be water vapor or methane, a chemical that isn't as prone to ozone formation as other compounds.

Wonstolen emphasized that in the overall picture, oil and gas production plays a "tiny" role in the region's ozone problem, and doubted that the fugitive emissions caught on camera were significant beyond showing companies a new tool they could employ.

The video footage comes at a time when state health officials are pressing the industry to install additional emission controls on their operations.

Recent figures produced by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that the fast-growing industry northeast of Denver is expected to produce emissions of smog- forming compounds at a rate of 236 tons a day by the summer of 2007 - 90 tons a day beyond predictions of a few years ago.

Regulators say the emissions can wash back up the South Platte River valley toward Denver and the foothills, driving up ozone levels on hot, cloudless days when smog-forming conditions are ideal. Elevated ozone can add to the misery of those with respiratory problems such as asthma or emphysema, driving up emergency room visits and health care costs.

Regional air pollution officials are watching ozone levels closely, as the metro area needs to stay within federal health limits for the summers of 2005 through 2007 to ensure that the Denver region stays off the EPA's list of dirty-air cities.

Getting branded as a polluted region by the EPA can make it more difficult to attract industry and expand road systems.

An environmentalist who has seen the footage suggested the fugitive emissions caught on tape were a new and important source of smog-forming emissions that will need to be controlled.

"Anybody's nose can tell you that (they are significant)," said Jeremy Nichols, of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action, a group calling for more stringent actions to cut ozone-forming emissions. "Just riding past a gas station, you can smell (the compounds). You can smell it, all the leaks are there, all the fugitive emissions are there."

Watching the video, he said, "it was like these tanks are on fire - there's so much (ozone-forming) compounds coming off there."

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