title: Unconventional Oil and Gas Spills: Risks, Mitigation Priorities, and State Reporting Requirements.
abstract: Rapid growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs, revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We found 2-16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill volumes ranged from 0.5 m3in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m3in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m3. Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed an interactive spills data visualization tool ( http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html ) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data.
authors.affiliation: Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University , 2111 Campus Drive, Durham North Carolina 27708, United States.
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7512-7845
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: Environmental Policy Initiative, Harvard Law School , #4123 Wasserstein Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Konschnik
authors.affiliation: Florida State University College of Law , 424 W. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, United States.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wiseman
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, 1101 West River Parkway, Suite 200, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415, United States.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fargione
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey, Leetown Science Center, Kearnevsville, West Virginia 25430, United States.
authors.forename: Kelly O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, Global Lands Team, 117 E. Mountain Avenue, Suite 201, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524, United States.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kiesecker
authors.affiliation: Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin , 10100 Burnet Road, Building 130, Austin, Texas 78758, United States.
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Nicot
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, Global Lands Team, 117 E. Mountain Avenue, Suite 201, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524, United States.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baruch-Mordo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Central Arkansas , 201 Donaghey Avenue, Conway, Arkansas 72035, United States.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Entrekin
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, African Program, University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological Sciences , 820G Rieveschl Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, United States.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trainor
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University , 195 Prospect St., New Haven, Connecticut 06511, United States.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Saiers
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012306:Risk; D060986:Water Wells