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Our look at
GAS WELL FLARES

Flaring a Gas Well

After a Marcellus gas well is drilled and hydraulically fractured, open flaring is often used to test production of the well. The EPA and Pennsylvania DEP do not currently monitor or enforce any air quality regulations around Marcellus Shale natural gas wells and facilities, since drillers are exempt from the Clean Air Act. Important environmental oversight was removed by Congress in the 2005 Federal Energy Appropriations Bill, which also includes additional exemptions from the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and CERCLA.
   
A large number of pollutants are released into the air during the flaring process, making it an undesirable practice. Included in these airborne pollutants are the chemicals used to frac the well, as well as any of 5-dozen other pollutants including the following: acetalhyde, acrolein, benzene, ethyl benzene, formaldehyde, hexane, naphthalene, propylene, toluene, and xylenes.
  
Drilling companies could use "green completions" to improve air quality and provide themselves with extra revenue. These are mentioned in a January 2009 report by Dr. Armendariz of SMU:
  

"Green Completions" or
"The Green Flowback Process"

"Some recent reports of the effectiveness of green completions in the U.S. are available, including one by the U.S. EPA which estimated 70% capture of formerly released gases with green completions. If green completion procedures can capture 61% to 98% of the gases formerly released during well completions, the process would be a more environmentally friendly alternative to flaring of the gases, since flaring destroys a valuable commodity and prevents its beneficial use. Green completions would also certainly be more beneficial than venting of the gases, since this can release very large quantities of methane and VOCs to the atmosphere. Another factor in favor of capturing instead of flaring is that flaring can produce carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter (soot) emissions."

Full Report (PDF)

  
Below are photos and videos of gas flares
from Marcellus Shale gas wells

  
  
Pre-dawn hours.... that's not the moon or sunrise...
   
  
Light at the end of the tunnel is a flared well, lighting the darkened road
  
  
Gas flare
Gas flare over the distant horizon
      
  
Looking across a residential driveway toward a flared well next door
  
  
Gas flare that caught an impoundment liner on fire
  
  
Short videos (w/sound) of gas well flares:
Video 1 - Distant video of sky on fire
Video 2 - Close-up of a single flare
Video 3 - Twin flares at same site
  
  
The air hangs heavy with a thick, bowel-like putrid musk odor
  
  
Gas flare and residual waste tanker
        
  
  
  
Gas flare near Avella, Pennsylvania
     
  
Wind-whipped gas flare on the top of hill in Chartiers Township
     
  
  
  
Big gas flare on this one!
     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
How to toast marshmallows from your front porch in Hickory Pennsylvania
  
  
LINKS

Air quality around Marcellus gas wells

Texas Compressor Station emissions with FLIR camera   [2]
YouTube

Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations (47 min. video)

 

  

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