Well flares blacken the skies

by Molly Absolon

February the 13th was literally a Black Friday in Pinedale, Wyo. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. and lasting until evening, an Anschutz Corporation gas well in the Pinedale Anticline field began to spew out a plume of black smoke that spread for miles across the clear winter skies.

"This was not an isolated incident," said Perry Walker, a Pinedale-area resident and an amateur astronomer. "It’s becoming a serious problem because these flares occur frequently throughout the area," Walker said. "I am becoming increasingly concerned about our air quality because these flares continue to burn, free from regulations intended to protect the environment."

On the weekend of April 3rd, Walker sighted another well flare. This one belched out a black cloud that was a mile and a half wide and 15 miles long according to his calculations. Walker, a former Air Force nuclear engineer and infrared scientist, is actively lobbying state and federal officials to stop the air pollution. He is not alone. In March, WOC filed a formal petition with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality asking for the implementation of new rules requiring the use of Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for all natural gas well field operations in Sublette County.

The petition seeks to protect air quality and visibility in the Pinedale area, as well as in the nearby Wind River mountains’ Bridger Wilderness, which is part of the largest pristine "Class I" airshed in the lower 48 states. Protecting this air quality would require reducing emissions from well flaring, a technique used to stimulate production from newly completed natural gas wells. Currently well flaring does not require any special pollution controls. Operators are simply required to notify state agencies of their intention to flare a well prior to the event.

Although flaring is a common practice, it is not necessary if Best Available Control Technologies are used in well development. Two oil companies drilling in the Upper Green River Valley—Shell and Questar—have successfully used existing technologies to limit the use of well flaring, thereby reducing the amount of air pollution their wells emit.

"A number of operators in the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline Fields have completely eliminated flaring of the gas except for the short initial period while sand is flowing out of the well," wrote Don Likwartz, the supervisor of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, in a March 17th letter to WOC.

Despite the fact that wells can be completed without resorting to extended flaring, the practice is not against regulations and, therefore, is commonly used. Pinedale area residents believe the reason for this is that it costs more not to flare. The pollution, they contend, is fueled by profits, not by the lack of available technology.

Anschutz spokesman Todd Kalstrom’s response to questions about the February 13th flaring seem to confirm this belief. Kalstrom told the Pinedale Roundup on March 11, 2004 that flare-control technology "is not required by the regulations in Wyoming. We are doing what is acceptable and haven’t really considered going to flareless completion."

What Kalstrom implies is acceptable is a practice that pours tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere, spreading pollutants that cause both human and environmental health problems as well as contribute to regional haze. Such pollution may be allowed under existing Wyoming laws, but that doesn’t make it right or acceptable.

"When I retired I moved onto property I bought 20 miles north of Pinedale where I have a large telescope and once had clear skies," Walker said. "I’m now disgusted by the hazing of the Wind River mountain range and the night sky by the energy industry."

Although several studies have been conducted, the precise cause of the haze blocking views across the Upper Green River Valley has not been conclusively established. Nonetheless, it is believed that some of the degradation in visibility can be attributed to emissions from oil and gas activities, which are spreading rapidly across southwest Wyoming.

"Oil and gas activities such as drilling, production, treatment, and transmission represent the largest single source of air pollution in Sublette County and the fastest growing source of air pollution statewide. Emissions from oil and gas operations typically include nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hazardous air pollutants such as benzene, and fine particulates," said Dan Heilig, WOC’s executive director.

WOC’s Leslie Gaines produced a piece on well-flaring for KGWC-CBS in Casper and its many sister stations throughout Wyoming that appeared on the evening news on April 9, 2004.