For almost a decade the 2006 Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) Phase III oil and gas emissions inventories were relied on for the Uinta Basin (Basin), the main oil and gas producing region in Utah. Although these inventories were projected forward using up-to-date annual production and drilling activity data from the region, the inventories still…
Utah State University’s Bingham Research Center presents the results of simultaneous aerial and ground-based optical gas imaging surveys conducted in winter and spring 2018.
Relevant Documentation Principal Investigators: The Utah Legislature’s 2016 budget included a $150,000 appropriation for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to create a pilot program to screen for leaks of volatile organic compounds (VOC) primarily coming from the “thief hatch” on oil and gas-condensate storage tanks. DEQ proposed a partnership agreement with the Tri-County…
Oil and gas production appears to be the major source of ozone precursors in the Uinta Basin. The Division of Air quality seeks to maintain the regulatory ozone limits within the basin without impeding continued development. As such, the Division of Air Quality developed a model projecting future-year emission inventories in the oil and gas…
During the winters of 2012, 2013, and 2014, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) led a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency study of ozone formation in the Uinta Basin. Among other findings, these studies found that formaldehyde and other carbonyls play a key role in wintertime atmospheric ozone production. There are three main carbonyl sources in the…