Emission inventories—databases that list, by source, the amount of air pollutants released in a specific geographical area—help determine significant sources of pollutants, track emission trends over time, direct regulatory actions and control strategies, and provide data for computer modeling.
In 2006, Environ and the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) conducted a study to compile baseline estimates from the oil and gas industry in Utah’s Uinta Basin, including Duchesne, Uinta, Carbon, Emery, and Grand counties. Emissions estimates for nitrogen oxides (NOx), VOCs, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulates (PM10) were inventoried for oil and gas extraction and production, with these baseline emissions projected out to 2012. DAQ updated the inventory in 2011 to reflect actual production increases in the area.
Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) Inventories
WRAP is a voluntary partnership of states, tribes, federal land managers, local air agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who collaborate to understand current and evolving regional air quality issues in the West. In 2007 the WRAP, in conjunction with the Western Energy Alliance (WEA), initiated a project to update the current emission inventory for the oil and gas industry in the western US. The resulting inventories (Phase III inventory) include all criteria pollutant emissions for all point and area sources associated with the exploration, production, and gathering operations of oil and gas in the major basins throughout the six-state study region (Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming) for the base year 2006. Emissions were also projected to the year 2012. The WRAP continues to evaluate emissions from oil and gas sources to improve the inventory.
2013 Uinta Basin Non-Road Mobile Inventory
(05/09/14) Using a methodology developed by Environ, emissions from the non-road mobile sector for oil and gas activity were inventoried. Emissions activity comes from two main groups: vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) from light- and heavy-duty trucks, and non-road diesel equipment. DAQ estimates that the non-road mobile sector makes up 10 percent of the total oil and gas inventory in the Basin.