Assessing Source Contributions to Air Quality and Noise in Unconventional Oil Shale Plays.

Introduction: Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD Methods: During one year of stationary air monitoring in Loving, New Mexico, in the western part of the Permian Basin (PB), we characterized the magnitude, frequency, and duration of UOGD-related emissions at temporal scales from 1 minute to seasonal. Continuous monitoring was performed for meteorological variables, near-surface ozone, nitrogen oxides (NO Results: Most of the monitored primary air pollutants showed high variability, with frequent concentration spikes that exceeded background mole fractions by up to three orders of magnitude. The frequency of concentration spikes, their maximum mole fractions, and averaged metrics (hourly, 8-hour, 24-hour, and annual) were higher than those reported from mostly urban comparison sites. Near-surface ozone measurements confirmed that this area of the PB is in nonattainment of the ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), exceeding the 70 ppb threshold more than 30 days of the year, and that this nonattainment is driven by UOGD-related emissions of VOCs and NO Conclusions: Our extensive air quality research in the Permian-Delaware Basin revealed, at times, extraordinarily high levels of air pollution, including air toxics such as benzene, and frequent high ozone days in violation of the ozone NAAQS. Our analyses show that the overwhelming amount of this pollution is due to UOGD activities, including emissions from production and storage, gas flaring, and truck traffic.