Accidental releases of sour gas from wells and collection pipelines in the Overthrust Belt: calculating and assessing potential health and environmental risks

Technical Report · Fri Apr 15 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6570266

Layton, D W; Cederwall, R T; Ricker, Y E; Shinn, J H; O'Banion, K D

Parts of the Overthrust Belt of western Wyoming and adjoining areas in Utah and Idaho contain geologic formations with significant accumulations of oil and natural gas. Some of these formations, though, yield gas that is contaminated with toxic hydrogen sulfide. The process of assessing the health risks of a potential sour-gas release involves estimation of the emission rate of hydrogen sulfide, specification of how the gas is released (e.g., vertically into the atmosphere or horizontally), prediction of downwind concentrations of the gas, analysis of the potential health effects, and finally, review of safety methods required to minimize the potential health risks. The first part of the report includes an analysis of data on the health effects of hydrogen sulfide to determine the nature of its dose-response relationship. Following that review is a study of the different methods of quantifying the emission rate of gas from wells and pipelines. Data on the frequency of accidental releases from those faciliies are also analyzed. To assess the health risks of an accidental release from a well under BLM supervision located near Evanston, we collected meteorological data for 1 y from four stations in that area. Our analysis of a worst-case release scenario (i.e., a gas plume that is near the surface) using those data indicates that the greatest risks of incurring an acute health effect (e.g., unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, pulmonary edema, or death) are located in the northwest sector downwind from the well because of the occurrence of stable atmospheric conditions along with slow winds from the southeast. The risks of an acute health effect in that northwest sector over the 20-y operation of the well were on the order of 10/sup -4/ to 10/sup -5/ - similar to the risk of accidental death caused by a natural disaster over the same period. 103 references, 12 figures, 21 tables.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6570266
• Report Number(s): UCRL-53411; ON: DE84017286
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030500* -- Natural Gas-- Health & Safety
030800 -- Natural Gas-- Environmental Aspects
500200 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACCIDENTS
BLOWOUTS
CALCULATION METHODS
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
INFORMATION
LEAKS
NATURAL GAS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
PIPELINES
PLUMES
PUBLIC HEALTH
RISK ASSESSMENT
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
USA
UTAH
WELLS
WESTERN US OVERTHRUST BELT
WYOMING