Drilling Boom Tied to Spike in Utah Air Pollution

Hydraulic fracturing is becoming more common in Utah’s Uinta Basin. According to one report issued by the governor’s office detailing the possible economic impact of oil and gas drilling in the Uinta Basin, its 2006 crude oil production of 11.4 million barrels was a 55 percent increase over a recent low of 7.3 million barrels in 2002. Natural gas production in the area has steadily increased over the past 10 years and reached an all-time high of 226 BCF in 2006. The rise in production has brought an economic boom to the Uinta Basin.

But that boom may be costing the Uinta Basin a great deal when it comes to air pollution. According to a New York Times report, in 2010 federal regulators discovered an unusual winter weather pattern in the Uinta Basin that caused ozone concentrations to reach potentially dangerous levels in January, February and March. Air monitors installed in the Uinta Basin measured ozone concentrations exceeding federal health standards more than 68 times in the first three months of 2010, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The problem was equal to the worst summertime ozone tracked by the EPA in San Bernardino, California, the most polluted place in the U.S.

The air pollution problem didn’t go away the following year. In the first six months of 2011, the monitors in Uinta Basin recorded more than a dozen violations of the federal ground-level ozone standard.

Ground-level ozone pollution is linked to health problems like asthma. It’s generally at its worst in summer, and is most likely to occur in places with a great deal of industrial development.

In October 2010, the Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) identifying hundreds of existing oil and gas wells in the basin as the primary cause of the ozone pollution, according to The New York Times.

According to a report from the Salt Lake City Tribune, the air pollution situation has residents of the basin concerned. Many are worried that state and local leaders are so focused on protecting the oil and gas industry from additional regulation that they are overlooking public health. While local leaders acknowledge the ground level ozone poses a health threat, they also insist more time is needed to determine the best way to address it.

While a study has been launched to get to the bottom of the ozone problem, it will be years before it yields any solutions. Some critics of the oil and gas industry insist, however, that air pollution in the basin should be addressed now, by reducing industry emissions.

“We know for certain that oil and gas development involves the precursors,” David Garbett, an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told the Tribune. “A reasonable mind would think this (industry) is one of the first things we should think of.”