Another unique aspect of gas storage facilities is that, decades ago, they were intentionally cited on the outskirts of cities to support timely supply and demand fluctuations. Underground gas storage wells are different from typical producing wells in that they operate at much higher pressures than producing wells, and recent obsolescence issues identified at many facilities (e.g., single point of failure well designs), have placed new scrutiny on the hazards they may pose to nearby populations. Thousands of residents in the nearby Porter Ranch evacuated after experiencing headaches, rashes, nosebleeds, and associated costs now exceed $1 billion. It went on for 118 days in 20-25 days longer than the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico-and released nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane and numerous other hazardous air pollutants. The blowout at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage well in 2015 was one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S history. Not long after we released our study, the federal government required all well facilities report on this and the actual number is closer to 4-in-5 wells or over 10,000-many of which are throughout PA, OH, WV, NY, MI, and CA. were operating in a similar fashion to the well in Aliso Canyon, California. Previous Harvard Chan C-CHANGE research set out to learn how many wells across the U.S. The study found tens of thousands of homes and residents are likely located within a proposed UGS Wellhead Safety Zone, and in some cases within state oil and gas well surface setback distances, which determine how far away an active oil or gas well must be from a residence. From a public health and safety standpoint, distance from any type of stressor is an initial key determinant of risk of harm or safety. With this new method that captures physical households near wells, more accurate estimates of populations at risk can be made. This kind of precision wasn’t available before, and the method could be useful for other environmental hazards of concern such as air pollution, noise, explosion hazards, flooding, and sea level rise, among others.īackground: This study provides new information regarding how close homes and residents are to active UGS wells that are predominantly located in suburban areas.
The new household-level population estimation method developed by researchers provides a clearer picture of the midstream energy infrastructure we rely upon-often hidden from sight-and shows the potential health and safety risks for people living within active gas storage fields.indicating the unique land use conflicts presented by UGS systems. 41% of the active UGS wells assessed had at least one home within 650 ft.of UGS wells, the length of an average city block. The data shows that 53,000 people across six states are living within 650 ft.
The results show that more than half (~65%) of the Aliso Canyon-style gas storage wells in the United States are located in residential suburban areas-not commercial, industrial, or even rural areas like many new unconventional wells.For the first time outside of California, researchers looked at how many people live near underground natural gas (UGS) wells in six U.S.An estimated 20,000 homes and 53,000 people in predominantly suburban areas of PA, OH, WV, MI, NY, and CA live within a city block of active underground natural gas storage wells. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) found that people live much closer to underground natural gas storage wells than previously thought. A study published in the Journal of Environmental Health from the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H.
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