Ozone Precursor Trends in Colorado and Their Relevance to Oil and Gas Development

Abstract:

Oil and gas development has occurred in Colorado for over 150 years. With the increasing use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, development of shale oil resources has increased significantly during the past ten years. One of the areas is the Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin in northeast Colorado, where there are now over 20,000 active wells. The North Front Range area of Colorado, including Denver, is a non-attainment area for ozone, where emissions from oil and gas development in the D-J Basin are a major concern. If a lower ozone standard is promulgated by EPA, other areas of Colorado will likely be designated as non-attainment as well. Colorado has instituted a number of regulations on the oil and gas industry over the past decade to help reduce emissions. The Denver metropolitan area has also grown significantly over the past decades to a population of over 2.6 million, which adds an urban component to the mix of ozone precursor emissions. Ambient monitoring of ozone precursors, including non-methane organic compounds and carbonyls, has been performed at a number of locations in the North Front Range area of Colorado over the past 12 years. Two of these sites have been in continuous operation since 2012; one site is located in the core of the city of Denver, while the other is located in the center of the oil and gas development area and has recorded high levels of ethane. Additionally, air monitoring sites operating on the western slope of Colorado that includes the Piceance Basin have data as far back as 2004. We present trends from the ozone precursor monitoring conducted in Colorado, and discuss how these precursors may contribute to ozone formation, particularly those related to oil and gas development. These data are valuable for emissions inventory work and model validation related to upcoming State Implementation Plans for ozone. The data will also be used in association with the 2014 Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment (FRAPPE) for source apportionment to help determine future regulations to reduce ozone concentrations in the area.