Quantifying emissions and air quality impacts from unconventional oil and gas activity in the Eagle Ford shale

Emissions from unconventional oil and gas are poorly constrained in existing inventories and contribute to uncertainties in our understanding of air quality near oil and gas producing regions. Emissions from the Eagle Ford Shale in southern Texas, which is a top oil and gas producing region in the US, are particularly uncertain due to a lack of ambient air quality data and the extensive use of flaring. First, alkane emissions in the central Eagle Ford Shale were quantified using data collected by the state of Texas in a mass balance approach. The median emission rate from raw natural gas sources in the shale, calculated as a percentage of the total produced natural gas in the upwind region, was 0.7% with an interquartile range (IQR) of 0.5-1.3%, below the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current estimates. However, storage tanks contributed 17% of methane emissions, 55% of ethane, 82% percent of propane, 90% of n-butane, and 83% of isobutane emissions. The inclusion of liquid storage tank emissions results in a median emission rate of 1.0% (IQR of 0.7-1.6%) relative to produced natural gas, overlapping the current EPA estimate of roughly 1.6%. However, a recently published study using aircraft data suggests that this estimate may be biased low due to the position of the downwind monitor. Nonetheless, we conclude that emissions from liquid storage tanks are likely a major source for the observed non-methane hydrocarbon enhancements in the Northern Hemisphere. Second, air quality measurements were performed at a field site in the western Eagle Ford Shale. Oil and gas sources dominated ambient VOC concentrations and plumes from nearby sources were identified. Trace gas ratios suggest that many plumes originated from low-temperature combustion sources, which are likely to be nearby flares based on knowledge of regional emissions sources. Modeling exercises with parameterized flaring emissions show that plumes are capable of reaching Shape Ranch, and the observed emission ratios are within a factor of two of the modeled emission ratios based on EPA emission factors. Flaring emissions should be studied further to understand the scope of air quality impacts associated with widespread flaring

Mental, behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders in the ICD-11 : An international perspective on key changes and controversies

The Author(s). 2020Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.An update of the chapter on Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) is of great interest around the world. The recent approval of the 11th Revision of the ICD (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization (WHO) raises broad questions about the status of nosology of mental disorders as a whole as well as more focused questions regarding changes to the diagnostic guidelines for specific conditions and the implications of these changes for practice and research. This Forum brings together a broad range of experts to reflect on key changes and controversies in the ICD-11 classification of mental disorders. Taken together, there is consensus that the WHO's focus on global applicability and clinical utility in developing the diagnostic guidelines for this chapter will maximize the likelihood that it will be adopted by mental health professionals and administrators. This focus is also expected to enhance the application of the guidelines in non-specialist settings and their usefulness for scaling up evidence-based interventions. The new mental disorders classification in ICD-11 and its accompanying diagnostic guidelines therefore represent an important, albeit iterative, advance for the field.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Carbon Monitor Cities, near-real-time daily estimates of CO2 emissions from 1500 cities worldwide

Building on near-real-time and spatially explicit estimates of daily carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, here we present and analyze a new city-level dataset of fossil fuel and cement emissions. Carbon Monitor Cities provides daily, city-level estimates of emissions from January 2019 through December 2021 for 1500 cities in 46 countries, and disaggregates five sectors: power generation, residential (buildings), industry, ground transportation, and aviation. The goal of this dataset is to improve the timeliness and temporal resolution of city-level emission inventories and includes estimates for both functional urban areas and city administrative areas that are consistent with global and regional totals. Comparisons with other datasets (i.e. CEADs, MEIC, Vulcan, and CDP) were performed, and we estimate the overall uncertainty to be 21.7%. Carbon Monitor Cities is a near-real-time, city-level emission dataset that includes cities around the world, including the first estimates for many cities in low-income countries

Forensic microbiology reveals that Neisseria animaloris infections in harbour porpoises follow traumatic injuries by grey seals

Neisseria animaloris is considered to be a commensal of the canine and feline oral cavities. It is able to cause systemic infections in animals as well as humans, usually after a biting trauma has occurred. We recovered N. animaloris from chronically inflamed bite wounds on pectoral fins and tailstocks, from lungs and other internal organs of eight harbour porpoises. Gross and histopathological evidence suggest that fatal disseminated N. animaloris infections had occurred due to traumatic injury from grey seals. We therefore conclude that these porpoises survived a grey seal predatory attack, with the bite lesions representing the subsequent portal of entry for bacteria to infect the animals causing abscesses in multiple tissues, and eventually death. We demonstrate that forensic microbiology provides a useful tool for linking a perpetrator to its victim. Moreover, N. animaloris should be added to the list of potential zoonotic bacteria following interactions with seals, as the finding of systemic transfer to the lungs and other tissues of the harbour porpoises may suggest a potential to do likewise in humans

Source apportionment of non-methane hydrocarbons, NOx and H2S data from a central monitoring station in the Eagle Ford shale, Texas

Unconventional oil and gas exploration in the US has become a significant new source of atmospheric hydrocarbons. Field measurements and monitoring have been initiated to determine integral effects from this geographically dispersed source in and downwind of shale areas, driven mostly by concerns related to photochemical ozone production. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) deployed its first air quality monitor near the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas in summer 2013, followed by a more centrally located monitor in winter 2014/15. Here, we report on the latter monitor’s 2015 data, showing at times extraordinarily high levels of saturated hydrocarbons, similar to earlier findings in this area. Using hydrocarbon ratios, we establish that the dominant sources at this site appear to be oil and gas exploration. A non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) analysis revealed six consistent source factors, of which two were associated with pre-existing local sources from car traffic and industry, three with regional oil and gas exploration, and one with diesel emissions. The dominant source factors were associated with evaporative and fugitive emissions, and with flaring and (diesel-powered) compressor engine emissions. The former is a major source of saturated hydrocarbons while the latter is a major source of NOx and unsaturated hydrocarbons, confirming earlier findings. Due to the rural nature of the site, road traffic is a minor NOx source in this area, and the NMF results support inventory estimates showing oil and gas exploration to be the dominant regional source of NOx emissions. The NMF based source apportionment results also suggests that benzene levels in this rural area in 2015, while comparable to levels in Houston now, were probably three to five times lower before the shale boom

Analysis of non-methane hydrocarbon data from a monitoring station affected by oil and gas development in the Eagle Ford shale, Texas

Abstract Within the last decade, unconventional oil and gas exploration in the US has become a new source of atmospheric hydrocarbons. Although a geographically dispersed source, field measurements in and downwind of a number of shale basins demonstrate the impact exploration activities have on ambient levels of hydrocarbons. Due to concerns related to ozone production, regulatory agencies are adding monitoring stations to better understand the potential influence of emissions from areas with increased oil and gas related activities. The Eagle Ford shale in south Texas is a rapidly developing shale play producing both oil and natural gas, providing 10% and 5% of US domestic oil and gas production, respectively, in 2013. We analyzed the first year of measurements from a newly established monitoring site at its central north edge. The data reveal median ethane mixing ratios—used as a marker for oil and gas exploration related emissions—at five times its typical clean air background. Ethane mixing ratios above ten times the background occurred regularly. Saturated hydrocarbons with likely origin in oil and gas exploration explain half of the data set’s variability. They dominate OH radical reactivity at levels both similar to other shale areas and similar to Houston’s ship channel area a decade ago. Air advecting slowly across the shale area from east-southeast and southwest directions shows the most elevated hydrocarbon concentrations, and evidence is presented linking elevated alkene abundances to flaring in the shale area. A case study is presented linking high emissions from an upwind facility to hydrocarbon plumes observed at the monitor

Replication Data for: Quantifying alkane emissions in the Eagle Ford Shale using boundary layer enhancement

The files in this folder contain data that were used in: Roest, Geoffrey and Gunnar Schade: Quantifying alkane emissions in the Eagle Ford Shale using boundary layer enhancement, Atmos. Chem. Phys., available via https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-861, 2017. The contents are as follows: cdumpYYMMDD_20hr.txt: See NOTE below. concplot_YYMMDD.ps: See NOTE below. enhancement.csv: Averaged afternoon (15:00 - 18:00 LST) alkane mixing ratios at Floresville and Oak Park for days used in this study. Also contains averaged afternoon winds and temperature at Floresville, width of upwind area, and long-term gas production in upwind area. floresville_daily.csv: 24-hour averaged meteorology and hydrocarbon data at the Floresville site. floresville_hourly.csv: 1-hour meteorology and hydrocarbon data at the Floresville site. long_term_trends.csv: Hydrocarbon data at several TCEQ sites used to assess long-term trends in alkane mixing ratios over SE Texas. oakpark_daily.csv: 24-hour averaged hydrocarbon data at the Oak Park site. oakpark_hourly.csv: 1-hour hydrocarbon data at the Oak Park site. partplotYYMMDD.ps: See NOTE below. production.csv: Total oil and gas production data for each county in Texas expressed as a sum of production from July 2013 through December 2015. NOTE: Each file has a corresponding metadata file, except for the cdumpYYMMDD_20hr.txt, concplot_YYMMDD.ps, and partplotYYMMDD.ps files. These three file types are outputs of the PC-run program Hysplit4 (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_info.php). See HYSPLITbackdispersion_metadata.txt for more details

Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities

International audienceCities dominate greenhouse gas emissions. Many have generated self-reported emission inventories, but their value to emissions mitigation depends on their accuracy, which remains untested. Here, we compare self-reported inventories from 48 US cities to independent estimates from the Vulcan carbon dioxide emissions data product, which is consistent with atmospheric measurements. We found that cities under-report their own greenhouse gas emissions, on average, by 18.3% (range: -145.5% to +63.5%) - a difference which if extrapolated to all U.S. cities, exceeds California's total emissions by 23.5%. Differences arise because city inventories omit particular fuels and source types and estimate transportation emissions differently. These results raise concerns about self-reported inventories in planning or assessing emissions, and warrant consideration of the new urban greenhouse gas information system recently developed by the scientific community