Methane levels get new check | Denton Record Chronicle

Thursday, March 4, 2010
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe
Reprinted from Denton Record Chronicle 

DISH — An atmospheric researcher drove a specially equipped van through several Barnett Shale counties this week and found methane plumes near many natural gas facilities, with one plume in Flower Mound measuring 40 parts per million.

According to Chris Rella, director of research and development for California-based Picarro Inc., scientists consider about 1.8 ppm of methane to be a normal background level in the atmosphere.

The company developed its equipment to read methane for greenhouse gas research. Its equipment, considered the gold standard, Rella said, is in use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and others in the scientific community.

The company recently adapted its equipment for mobile monitoring of methane and other greenhouse gases. The mobile monitor uses a global positioning system to map measured emissions in real time.

Rella said the maps can show good places for scientists to gather air samples because methane, when being emitted from industry sources, signals where to find other toxic compounds.

“When an industry emits methane, you’re probably going to see some other stuff,” Rella said.

Previous studies of emissions at Barnett Shale natural gas facilities by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality showed that where there were methane emissions, the agency often also found carcinogens or neurotoxins in the mix.

Rella made several passes through Dish, where the background level was about 2 ppm of methane, and got readings near the compression complex as high as 18 ppm — or 16 ppm above background — Wednesday night.

Eleven compression stations run by five energy companies sit side-by-side on the edge of Dish town limits.

But chemist and environmental researcher Wilma Subra, of Louisiana, said she and Rella found methane plumes around all kinds of stationary equipment in the Barnett Shale area, particularly near condensate tanks.

In Flower Mound, near the intersection of Scenic Drive and FM1171, Rella spent about two hours Tuesday night isolating the boundaries of a methane plume that, at its highest points, measured 40 ppm — as high as the system could measure.

Subra said they notified state and federal officials of their findings.

“The TCEQ, with their 12-hour response system, can ask the operator for information and help determine what was going on at that time,” Subra said.

Alisa Rich, of Wolf Eagle Environmental, took Summa canister samples at the site, saying she would have lab results in about 10 days that would detail what other compounds were in that methane plume.

State health officials are investigating a child leukemia cluster in Flower Mound.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881.
Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .