Emission management

Colorado Regulators OK One-of-a-Kind Rule To Track Emissions Beginning With Oil and Gas Wells' Construction

A state commission has approved a rule that will require companies to monitor emissions from oil and gas sites earlier and more frequently than is currently done as Colorado officials implement a law overhauling how the industry is regulated.

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Cars drive on Colliers Boulevard past an Anadarko drilling rig near Erie, Colorado, on 15 December 2017.
Credit: Matthew Jonas/Times-Call.

A state commission has approved a rule that will require companies to monitor emissions from oil and gas sites earlier and more frequently than is currently done as Colorado officials implement a law overhauling how the industry is regulated.

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) voted unanimously for a rule to track emissions from the start of construction of a well and over the first 6 months of production. The monitoring of so-called preproduction, a phase that can produce high emissions of chemicals and health complaints from the public, is a new requirement.

The proposal is part of the implementation of Senate Bill 181. The 2019 law changed the state’s mission from fostering oil and gas development to regulating it in a way that protects public health, safety, and the environment.

The monitoring rule, thought to be the first of its kind in the country, builds on changes the Air Quality Control Commission made in December to require more frequent inspections of oil and gas equipment statewide. Companies will have to start monitoring programs for new wells starting 1 May.

During public hearings, speakers acknowledged the efforts to monitor pollutants during phases of oil and gas production currently not covered but said more specific objectives and criteria for technologies and practices are needed to produce useful data. Some speakers urged the AQCC to put the state or an independent third party in charge of devising the monitoring plans, not the oil and gas companies.

What the state air pollution control division calls “high-frequency” monitoring will start with well construction and  continue through drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and what’s called flowback, which is when groundwater and fluids used in fracturing are brought to the surface and disposed of. Companies will have to get their monitoring plans approved by the state division.

Pollutants that will be monitored include methane, a potent greenhouse gas; benzene, known to cause cancer; and other chemicals that form ground-level ozone. The ozone pollution levels in several counties along the Front Range exceed federal standards.

Read the full story here.