Statistical analysis of compliance violations for natural gas wells in Pennsylvania

Abualfaraj, Noura; Olson, Mira S.; Gurian, Patrick L.; Roos, Anneclaire De; Gross-Davis, Carol Ann

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2016.07.051

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…No UNGD metric took into consideration the full variability of potential exposures. For example, safety practices (and potential accidental exposures) differ between well operators, 44 and impacts also vary over time, as regulations are enacted and industry practices change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure Assessment Using Secondary Data Sources in Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Health Studies

Koehler

Ellis

Casey³

et al. 2018

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Studies of unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) and health have ranked participants along a gradient of geographic information system (GIS)-based activity that incorporated the distance between participants' home addresses and unconventional natural gas wells. However, studies have used different activity metrics, making result comparisons across the studies difficult. The existing studies have only incorporated wells, without accounting for other components of development (e.g., compressors, impoundments, and flaring events), for which it is often difficult to obtain reliable data but may have relevance to health. Our aims were to (1) describe, in space and time, UNGD-related compressors, impoundments, and flaring events; (2) evaluate whether and how to incorporate these into UNGD activity assessment; and (3) evaluate associations of these different approaches with mild asthma exacerbations. We identified 361 compressor stations, 1218 impoundments, and 216 locations with flaring events. A principal component analysis identified a single component that was approximately an equal mix of the metrics for compressors, impoundments, and four phases of well development (pad preparation, drilling, stimulation, and production). However, temporal coverage for impoundments and flaring data was sparse. Ultimately, we evaluated three UNGD activity metrics, including two based on the existing studies and a novel metric that included well pad development, drilling, stimulation, production, and compressor engine aspects of UNGD. The three metrics had varying magnitudes of association with mild asthma exacerbations, although the highest category of each metric (vs the lowest) was associated with the outcome.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure Assessment Using Secondary Data Sources in Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Health Studies

Koehler

Ellis

Casey³

et al. 2018

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…They are: Texas (23.9%), Pennsylvania (20 %), Louisiana (9.3%), Oklahoma (8.5%) and Ohio (7.7%) (EIA). Among them, to provide information, the Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection has established an oil and gas report database in a user-friendly format, the recorded content is reliable and instructive (Abualfaraj et al, 2016;Kim and Oliver, 2017;Krupnick et al, 2014). In this paper, we collected data from the o cial Pennsylvania government website, the Department of Environmental Protection "Oil and Gas Compliance Report", then choose the oil type as "unconventional oil and gas".…”

Section: Study Area and Data Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Manda et al (2014) used geospatial and statistical analysis of 3786 environmental violation accidents to reveal the impact of the single-well pad and multi-well pad in shale gas on wastewater management and environmental pollution. Logistic regression was used to test the probability of violations of unconventional and conventional oil under different conditions, as well as the differences in the probability of violations between different development operators were found, and more complicated efforts should be made to explain the performance of each company (Abualfaraj et al, 2016). Kim and Oliver (2017) used shale gas inspection reports from 2000 to 2013 to explore the effectiveness of Pennsylvania's newly revised Oil and Gas Act and found that the current environmental regulations have indeed played a role in reducing violations.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identify Environmental And Health Threats In Unconventional Oil And Gas Violations: Evidence From Pennsylvania Compliance Reports

Guo

Zhao

et al. 2021

Preprint

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With unconventional oil and gas booming commercial development, its inevitable damage to the environment arouses the vigilance of the public. It is of great necessity both for practitioners and governors, to learn from the history, find the pattern of violations then build a sound production warning system. In this respect, we utilized the “Oil and Gas Compliance Report” from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from 2000 to 2019. After the preprocessing, a total of 5737 violation records were obtained. Through LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) analysis combined with the decision tree model, our research attained the following conclusions: first, we find that the LDA themes of violations as "Erosion and sediment" and "Water pollution" are key factors for “Failed” enforcement results. Therefore, policymakers and practitioners should pay more attention to these two types of accidents. Second, it is noted that counties are also one of the important features that matter the enforcement results. Third, we need to consider the role of economic punishment dialectically, while it is not a significant feature for successful enforcement results. That is to say, monetary punishment may not necessarily improve the effectiveness of the company’s handling of violations.

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“…Rahm et al (2015) conducted a statistical-based study on 3267 unconventional oil and gas violations released by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and found that environmental policies are highly correlated with environmental violation rates. To further prove that extracting unconventional oil and gas has a higher risk of environmental concerns, Abualfaraj et al (2016) applied logistic regression to test the probability of unconventional and conventional oil violations under different conditions. The results also suggest more complicated efforts should be made to explain the performance of each company.…”

Section: Unconventional Oil and Gas Environmental Concernsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying environmental and health threats in unconventional oil and gas violations: evidence from Pennsylvania compliance reports

Guo

Zhao

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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With unconventional oil and gas booming in commercial development, its inevitable environmental damage has aroused the public's vigilance. To support the regulation improvement and early-warning system building, it is of great need to learn the regular patterns in recurrent violations both for practitioners and governments. In this respect, we utilized the "Oil and Gas Compliance Report" from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from 2000 to 2019, a total of 5737 violation records, to dig out the historical violation patterns. Through LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) analysis combined with the decision tree model, our research attained the following conclusions: first, we find that the LDA themes of violations as "Erosion and sediment" and "Water pollution" are critical factors for "Failed" enforcement results. Therefore, policymakers and practitioners should pay more attention to those two types of accidents. Second, it is noted that counties are also one of the essential features that matter the enforcement results. Third, we need to consider the role of economic punishment dialectically, while it is not a significant feature for successful enforcement results. That is to say, a monetary penalty may not necessarily improve the effectiveness of the company's measurements.

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Statistical analysis of compliance violations for natural gas wells in Pennsylvania

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

Exposure Assessment Using Secondary Data Sources in Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Health Studies

Exposure Assessment Using Secondary Data Sources in Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Health Studies

Identify Environmental And Health Threats In Unconventional Oil And Gas Violations: Evidence From Pennsylvania Compliance Reports

Identifying environmental and health threats in unconventional oil and gas violations: evidence from Pennsylvania compliance reports

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