Brine Spills Associated with Unconventional Oil Development in North Dakota

Lauer, Nancy E.; Harkness, Jennifer S.; Vengosh, Avner

doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b06349

Cited by 217 publications

(189 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Quantifying cumulative landscape‐level effects is a challenge that other researchers have dealt with and that we attempted to address via the development of our disturbance index (Cote et al , Craig et al ). Although we observed minimal landscape‐level effects of oil and gas disturbance on brood abundance, development also has the potential to effect waterfowl at much smaller scales in the form of increased water contamination (Preston and Chesley‐Preston , Lauer et al ) and reduced invertebrate diversity that are crucial for brood development (Preston et al ). These factors could accumulate over time to have broadly deleterious effects on waterfowl productivity if females with broods do not avoid wetlands with reduced water or invertebrate quality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Impacts of oil and gas development on duck brood abundance

et al. 2019

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The extraction of oil and natural gas from reserves in the Bakken Formation has increased from 2004 to 2017 in North Dakota and northeast Montana, USA. High development areas overlap substantially with wetlands and grasslands identified as high priority for waterfowl conservation in the Prairie Pothole Region. To test for anthropogenic disturbance on waterfowl brood abundance, we conducted repeat‐visit waterfowl brood surveys during 2014–2017. We tested hypotheses about disturbance and brood abundance using hierarchical zero‐inflated Poisson models and a spatially and temporally explicit disturbance index within 3 radii (0.32 km, 0.64 km, 1.51 km). Model selection supported detection and abundance parameters that were consistent with previous research and suggested that brood abundance was higher in landscapes with high densities of small, shallow wetlands. Our analysis also demonstrated a negative relationship between abundance and the disturbance index for the smallest spatial radius (0.32 km); however, the effect size was small and predictions suggested that <1% of the broods in the sample population were affected. Considering this relatively weak negative relationship and the continued role of wetlands as the primary factor influencing brood abundance, we recommended that managers continue to focus conservation efforts in landscapes with high densities of small, unprotected wetlands, even in the presence of oil and gas development. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Wildlife Management Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Impacts of oil and gas development on duck brood abundance

et al. 2019

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“…() were not able to conclude that energy development activities in the Bakken production area affected groundwater quality; however, Gleason and Tangen () and Lauer et al . () observed that surface‐water and/or groundwater samples collected in the Bakken region had elevated levels of inorganic contaminants associated with the produced water (or brine) from the Bakken oil and gas wells. Recently, Horner et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Impacts of Bakken Shale Oil Development on Regional Water Uses and Supply

Lin

Lim

et al. 2017

J American Water Resour Assoc

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The Bakken shale play in western North Dakota is one of the largest unconventional oilfields in the United States, but published research about impacts on the region's water resources is rare. In this study, besides examining North Dakota water management policies and activities, we also analyzed three datasets: the Bakken horizontal well completion data (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), North Dakota permitted water consumption data (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), and groundwater level and streamflow observations in western North Dakota (2000Dakota ( -2014. We found from 2008 to 2014, the annual total industrial water uses for Bakken shale oil development ranged between 0.5 and 10% of statewide total consumptive water use. The percentage increases were between 3.0 and 40% within the Bakken oil production region. The increased population of temporary oilfield service workers contributed additional domestic water use, which was equivalent to~15% of annual industrial water use for the shale oil development in the Bakken. Despite being in a semiarid region, the impact of Bakken development on regional water supply was limited because the water in the Bakken was adaptively managed and the region received on average over 20% more precipitation than normal during 2008-2014. Of the 15 glaciofluvial aquifers under study, 12 have seen water levels increasing or unchanged and the water levels for the remaining 3 aquifers have decreased.(KEY TERMS: Bakken shale; CHANS; groundwater management; hydraulic fracturing; unconventional energy development; water allocation; water policy; water supply.)

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“…Heavy metals have been introduced to soil through agricultural management, such as the addition of composts (Sharifi & Renella, 2015), fertilizers (Chen et al, 2014) and pesticides (Morgan, 2013), industrial activities (Gottesfeld et al, 2018;Khaledian, Pereira, Brevik, Pundyte & Paliulis, 2017), mining (Mbila & Thompson, 2004), poorly regulated or illegal recycling of electronic wastes or e-wastes (Wu et al, 2015) and the construction of structures using treated timber or lumber (Gardner, Weindorf & Flynn, 2013). The petroleum industry can negatively affect soil near oil or water production and spill sites or near waste disposal locations with a wide range of organic chemicals, heavy metals (Laffon, Pásaro & Valdiglesias, 2016), salts (Lauer, Harkness & Vengosh, 2016) and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) (Zielinski & Otton, 1999). Organic chemicals have been added to soil through agricultural and industrial activities and waste disposal, including the discarding of pharmaceutical wastes (Burgess, 2013).…”

Section: Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting the public with soil to improve human health

Brevik

Steffan

Rodrigo‐Comino

et al. 2019

European J Soil Science

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Despite the definite links between soil and human health, it is likely that most people do not think about soil when considering human health. There is a disconnect between most people in our modern society and soil, and when people notice soil it is often in a negative context. People care for things that matter to them, and creating a more positive public image of soil could improve human health by leading to better treatment and understanding of the soil resource. There are a number of concepts that may be able to connect people to the soil, including terroir, soil health and soil security. While terroir originally established a connection between those who appreciate wine and the soils that produce those wines, the concept has been expanded to many additional products. It might be possible to provide a terroir link to human health benefits if they can be shown to be characteristic of a given soil environment. The concept of soil health has caught on with many farmers, policymakers, scientists and the general public, thus providing another possible approach to improve peoples’ connection with soil. Soil security is a recent concept that has been advanced as a way to take advantage of the connection that concepts such as energy, food and water security have made with policymakers. Therefore, we advocate a concerted effort to investigate terroir, soil health and soil security as concepts to improve overall human health. Soil health and soil security might have the most promise, and some social marketing campaigns that include soil health are ongoing. Highlights Soil is important to human health. A disconnect exists between the urban population and soil. Education about soil can rebuild these connections. Concepts such as terroir, soil health or soil security might help make connections.

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Brine Spills Associated with Unconventional Oil Development in North Dakota

Cited by 217 publications

References 28 publications

Impacts of oil and gas development on duck brood abundance

Impacts of oil and gas development on duck brood abundance

Impacts of Bakken Shale Oil Development on Regional Water Uses and Supply

Connecting the public with soil to improve human health

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