Reported spills at oil and gas production sites went up 17 percent in 2013. The number of spills rose from 6,546 in 2012 to 7,662 last year in the 15 top states for onshore oil and gas activity, Mike Soraghan reports for EnergyWire. The spills accounted for "more than 26 million gallons of oil, hydraulic fracturing fluid, fracking wastewater and other substances."
The data is not 100 percent accurate because some states only report certain spills, and other states opt not to report any, Soraghan writes. "Some of the increase may have come from changes in spill reporting practices in a handful of states, but the number of spills and other mishaps rose even without counting those states." (EnergyWire map)
The biggest increase was in the North Dakota Bakken Shale region, where spills rose by 42 percent from 2012 to 2013 even though the state's average number of working rigs dropped by 8 percent, Soraghan writes. Most of the spills were from smaller, newer companies.
"Pennsylvania had a 60 percent increase in spills paired with a 30 percent decrease in rig activity. But industry and state officials say the increase is attributable to a lower spill reporting threshold in place for the last three months of the year," Soraghan writes. Statistics may also be skewed in Utah, where reported spills doubled to more than 400 in 2013, but 150 of those resulted from one company's reporting incidents of flaring, which the state doesn't require to be reported. (Read more)
The data is not 100 percent accurate because some states only report certain spills, and other states opt not to report any, Soraghan writes. "Some of the increase may have come from changes in spill reporting practices in a handful of states, but the number of spills and other mishaps rose even without counting those states." (EnergyWire map)
The biggest increase was in the North Dakota Bakken Shale region, where spills rose by 42 percent from 2012 to 2013 even though the state's average number of working rigs dropped by 8 percent, Soraghan writes. Most of the spills were from smaller, newer companies.
"Pennsylvania had a 60 percent increase in spills paired with a 30 percent decrease in rig activity. But industry and state officials say the increase is attributable to a lower spill reporting threshold in place for the last three months of the year," Soraghan writes. Statistics may also be skewed in Utah, where reported spills doubled to more than 400 in 2013, but 150 of those resulted from one company's reporting incidents of flaring, which the state doesn't require to be reported. (Read more)
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