(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



The Permian Basin: The Largest North American Carbon Bomb [1]

[]

Date: 2023-02-02 22:57:49+00:00

TRANSCRIPT

AD READER: This episode of The Sweaty Penguin is brought to you by candy corn. Do you like your Halloween candy both extremely sugary and divisive? Try candy corn today.

ETHAN: Welcome to episode 101 of The Sweaty Penguin: Antarctica’s Hottest Podcast. I’m your host, Ethan Brown. Today we are talking about the Permian Basin, not to be confused with the perm basin where, you know, everyone from the 80s was made.

The Permian Basin is a region spanning West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, an area that is rich with culture and breathtaking landscapes, but still forever neglected by HGTV. And it is also yet another site for carbon bombs. Need a refresher on what carbon bombs are? Well, let’s let our carbon bomb friend explain it to you:

CARMEN: Hey, you might be wondering how I got here. It’s me, Carmen Von. I’m a carbon bomb, but my parents wanted to have a slightly more normal name so I wouldn’t get bullied at school. But it’s hard to not get bullied when you’re a fossil fuel project that will release 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide over just a few years. Like woah, that’s how long the “Blip” was in the Avengers movies, when Thanos snapped! Gee whiz, I love that movie. Even though I’m an existential threat to the environment, I’m just a normal kid who likes Pokemon, pizza, and baseball. And plus, I’ve actually got a ton of other carbon bomb friends! There are hundreds of us! *bell rings* Uh oh, gotta get to bio class. We’re dissecting frogs today. Go Mets!

ETHAN: Wow, carbon bombs! I like the rebrand! Carmen Von sounds a lot more fun! It’s true though. Carbon bombs are oil and gas projects that emit over a billion tons of carbon dioxide from start to finish, and in May, The Guardian released an investigative report that found there are 195 of these carbon bombs planned around the world that would collectively emit over 646 billion tons of CO2 and blow past our international climate goals. We’ve explored three of the other sites for carbon bombs so far: the Ghawar Oil Field in Saudi Arabia, the Haynesville Shale in the U.S., and the Rovuma Basin in Mozambique.

Today, we’re taking a look at our fourth and highest emitting carbon bomb: the Permian Basin. This is a large region spanning West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, and it is home to three planned oil and gas carbon bombs that together would emit 46.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide. For context, in 2019, the entire world emitted 59 billion tons of carbon dioxide, meaning these three Permian Basin projects are nearly as bad as an entire year of global emissions. And if you alone are emitting as much as the entire world, you really need to get that checked by a doctor! Seriously, imagine getting stuck in an elevator with the Permian Basin? That sounds like hell! But in addition to that massive climate impact, the Permian Basin also faces many local challenges as a result of the oil and gas industry, a number of climate vulnerabilities, and a number of opportunities to move forward more sustainably, so today, we’ll discuss what issues these Permian Basin oil and gas projects present, what’s special about this region, and what the future might look like.

The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. If you want to take two minutes to help out The Sweaty Penguin, you can either leave us a five star rating and review or join our Patreon at patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. Doing that either earns you a special shoutout at the end of the show; joining the Patreon gets you merch, bonus content, and a whole lot more.

But first, it’s time for Permian Basin 101. [bell ring] I know size really doesn’t matter, but the Permian Basin is over 250 miles wide and 300 miles long, making it slightly smaller than South Dakota and slightly bigger than your local IKEA. With its impressive size that I can only imagine rakes in all the matches on fossil fuel tinder, the Permian Basin contains over 7,000 fields for fossil fuel extraction. As such, nearly 40 percent of U.S. oil production is from the Permian Basin, and 15 percent of natural gas production is too. And it’s easy to see why: even though America runs on Dunkin’, America’s also pretty dependent on what it can get out of this land. It’s so popular that it even hosts an international oil show!

CLIP: From pump jacks to hard hats, even makeshift putters. —It’s nothing but good company and good businesses, they’ve got great goodies. —The Permian Basin International Oil Show opened its doors 9:30 Tuesday to welcome in the curious, the impassioned, and the friendly. […] I know we have customers coming in from all points on the globe. —Many walking away with bags of giveaway goodies. —I’ve been dropping some business cards. I hope to win some stuff.

ETHAN: Okay. As cool as that sounds, this seems more like a decked out conference than a show to me. I mean, when I think oil show, I’m thinking oil jumping through hoops, doing tricks, NBC broadcasting it on Thanksgiving, Joel McHale being thrown in randomly as a celebrity judge. Look, I’m glad people are having fun, I’m just saying it’s not living up to its full potential. That said, the fact that the Permian Basin is the site of the International Oil Show is a pretty big deal. Not only is the Permian Basin massive, but oil and gas extraction has more than quadrupled in the Permian in the past decade alone. The industry has adopted methods like fracking that have allowed the region to continue to expand its production over several decades. As such, it’s no surprise that the Permian would be fossil fuel central among international oil enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, in addition to the energy and awesome conferences that are coming out of the Permian, the region is also home to a number of environmental, social, and economic challenges. If you’ve been keeping up with the podcast, I probably don’t have to reiterate how damaging 46.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from just three projects would be. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that if we want to keep global warming under the threshold of 1.5°C hotter than preindustrial times — which is the target the entire world has agreed to — then our carbon budget is 500 billion tons. And if you use that app that TikTok keeps advertising on my For You page, you’ll get an extra 10 billion tons deposited into your account just by signing up! Isn’t that cool?! In all seriousness, if we emit 500 billion tons more of carbon, then we have a 50:50 shot at meeting that 1.5°C target. The reason there’s odds involved is that scientists are having to do predictions here. It’s the climate science equivalent of saying “what are the odds the Texans beat the Chargers on Sunday,” and then “what would be the odds if the Texans added Tom Brady at quarterback,” and then “what would be the odds if Joey Bosa from the Chargers overslept and missed the game,” and you keep adding variables. We know adding things that helps the Texans will boost their odds of winning the game, just like we know adding carbon into the atmosphere boosts the odds of surpassing our 1.5°C global warming threshold. We can’t say exactly, but we can model it and make predictions. So okay, if we want a 50:50 chance of meeting our climate goal, we can only emit 500 billion tons more carbon total, for the whole world. And like I said, there are currently 46.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions planned at the Permian Basin. That is nearly a tenth of the entire world’s carbon budget coming from one spot, three projects in Western Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. One of those projects is responsible for 27.8 billion tons of emissions all on its own, making it far and away the highest emitting oil and gas project in the world.

And we’ve done many many other episodes exploring the impacts of climate change, so I won’t get into that here. I was actually really hoping we could dedicate today to discussing Don’t Worry Darling, but I guess we got sidetracked with this Permian Basin talk. In addition to being a major, major driver of global climate change, the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin has driven a lot of local issues as well. There have been impacts on water and wastewater, which we’ll explore a bit more in our expert interview later. Heavy truck traffic destroys roads and creates some safety risks — in 2018, nearly half of all traffic deaths in Texas took place in major energy production areas such as the Permian Basin. And large amounts of methane enter the atmosphere due to venting and flaring. Venting is when an oil rig comes in and immediately starts complaining about its coworker Felicia who spent the whole day on vegan blogs instead of doing her work, and flaring is when it puts on a sparkly pink top hat. Yeah, that sounds right. [dry cough sound] Should we move on? Actually, these two practices deal with the fact that when drilling for oil, it is typically not profitable to capture the natural gas that comes up with it. Venting refers to releasing the excess natural gas right into the atmosphere, while flaring refers to burning the excess natural gas where it is being produced.

And what is natural gas? Mostly methane — a greenhouse gas with 28 times the climate impact of carbon dioxide. That’s right, methane is more than just cow farts! [moo sound, fart sound] Yep, another episode where we can’t get through it without a fart sound. I think The Sweaty Penguin needs to stop eating enchiladas. So this process of venting natural gas is pouring methane into the atmosphere, having a huge impact on the climate. Flaring, on the other hand, burns the methane, which ultimately causes a chemical reaction that turns it into carbon dioxide. This is a bit better for the climate — CO2 is not as potent as methane — but it’s not ideal. (1) CO2 still contributes to climate change; (2) malfunctions routinely lead to methane leaks when flaring; and (3) it’s wasting perfectly good natural gas that could be used as energy. It’s one thing to have greenhouse gas emissions to create electricity or something, but if we’re just leaking greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere for no real purpose, that’s a different story. I mean, I say if we’re going to emit…

AD NARRATOR: Emit with purpose. Because the dirtiest things in the world should at least be a little useful.

ETHAN: And this isn’t just a climate issue. According to Sharon Wilson of Earthworks, this methane issue also impacts local communities.

CLIP: I think its important to think of it as Permian to Gulf Coast to all around the world, because methane is a global problem now and so it impacts everyone. Locally, it impacts the people who live nearby because the methane brings with it volatile organic compounds and they cause serious health impacts, and they’re an impact to the local air quality, but then the methane is a global issue.

ETHAN: We might think of methane as just a global issue because of how the climate works, but as Sharon points out, there is a local dimension that is important to consider as well. Natural gas is mostly methane, but not all methane. There are also a variety of these volatile organic compounds, and exposure to these chemicals can cause a variety of health effects, including eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches and loss of coordination; nausea; and damage to the liver, kidneys, or central nervous system. Some VOCs are suspected or proven carcinogens. That means these deliberate leaks of natural gas are actually really harmful for people living in the Permian Basin region, and by bringing it up alongside global climate change, Sharon shows just how important that local dimension is.

Now, venting and flaring are somewhat common practices in the oil and gas industry. However, the Permian Basin is a bit unique in terms of how unregulated these processes are, and as a result, how unknown the consequences are. There is something called The Texas Railroad Commission, which- you guessed it- does not deal with railroads. The Texas Railroad Commission instead regulates oil and gas. Which is like if the Department of Water and Power were the ones who managed the Academy Awards. But The Texas Railroad Commission only inspects drilling facilities in the Permian Basin once every five years, and there is one inspector for every 1,600 facilities. Can you imagine: The Oscars happening only once every five years and hosted by Greg the Waterworks Mechanic from the DWP? This is not a great number to present, considering there are over 275,000 of these active facilities in Texas. New Mexico, where the other part of the Permian lies, is not any better. According to the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, in 2020 there was only one inspector for every 6,380 oil wells in the state. Without sufficient oversight, operators rarely have incentives to change things and improve their facilities to limit pollution and other external effects. I mean, they’d probably have just as much success if they just had cows inspect the facilities. Hey, who’s a bigger expert on methane than cows? I think they’d do a good job!

In addition to being a major producer of oil and gas that we use for energy, the Permian Basin also produces a large number of fossil fuel byproducts. And no, Jared Leto, I didn’t say “buy products.” I think we both know your hair has enough product as it is. [long pause] Sorry, I didn’t mean that, you have awesome hair, Jared Leto. Anyway, in 2019, the Permian Basin produced more of these byproducts than any other country or basin in the world. These include things like ethane and propane, which are used to make plastics by the petrochemical industry. Petrochemical means the chemicals result from the extraction of petroleum, not to be confused with the famed actor Pedro Pascal. They’re often mixed up, but I’ll try my best to avoid it. The process of turning these byproducts into plastic results in chemical pollution and the release of hazardous material, like some persistent organic pollutants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals as well as carcinogens. Communities surrounding plastic processing are already being hit hard by this pollution, and now, the plants are expanding. The area of Manchester/Harrisburg in Texas contains the largest Pedro Pascal complex– I mean largest petrochemical complex in the U.S., and residents have expressed concerns over the exposure to pollution.

And while we’re talking about the environment, it’s worth noting that Western Texas and Southeastern New Mexico are also being hit hard by climate change. Just listen to this weather report from weather forecaster Bridget Sarpong in the Permian Basin region from a few months ago:

CLIP: Now talking about those storms, we did see, you know, some rain come Wednesday, today, and we’re going to see some tomorrow, but really our drought monitor does show that we need that rain. Even though it was pretty gloomy today, we need it because we are in that dark red. […] So here are a couple rain tips for you guys because we’re going to start seeing that rain in the afternoon time into the evening when we’re out, you know, enjoying that weekend. So, number one thing, turn around, don’t drown.

ETHAN: I’m sorry, did she just say “don’t drown?” [weather music] Now remember, if you encounter rain, don’t drown. You may be tempted to stick your head in the water and leave it there until you suffocate. That would be wrong. Keep your head out of the rainwater so you can safely breathe oxygen and continue to live. Some of you might be asking: but doesn’t water contain oxygen? Yes, it does. But because it is not O2 in its gaseous state, you are not going to be able to breathe it. The safest thing you can do is keep your head out of the rainwater and continue to breathe normally. Back to you in the studio. [end weather music] Seriously, though! Rain tips? The fact that this local news team felt people needed rain tips should tell you a little something about the current climate situation in the region. As Bridget explained, the region is experiencing severe drought, so as silly as it might sound, it actually may be reasonable that they’d need a little guidance on how to prepare for a rainstorm. I’ll be honest though, I think “don’t drown” should be self-explanatory.

In addition to getting drier, Western Texas is also getting hotter. By 2036, the annual average temperature in Texas is expected to be 3 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the 1950s, and the number of extreme 100-degree days is expected to double from the 2000-2018 average. It’s so hot that Texans have started wearing their chaps over shorts instead of pants, and leather crop tops instead of leather jackets! [“yeehaw!” sound]

Obviously this extreme weather is a strain for anyone living in the Permian Basin, including the workers in the oil and gas industry there. But it’s also a strain on agriculture. Agriculture is really popular in the Permian, and it’s a place many family-owned farms and ranches call home. The heat effects of climate change on Texas impact this industry greatly as well, sending cattle into heat stress as well as causing plants to lose water. And these cattle are extra stressed because they have to go to their jobs of inspecting drilling facilities. [ba-dum-tss] I’m sorry, I just really want cows to inspect the Permian Basin drilling facilities. On top of this climate-related stress, farmers in the Permian often find themselves getting pushed out by the oil and gas industry. In Texas, what we call “mineral rights” and “surface rights” can be owned separately. If someone owns the surface, say, a farmer, it is not guaranteed that they own the minerals that lie below the surface of their farm.

So if the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin is contributing heavily to climate change, causing local health issues, wasting perfectly good natural gas, and driving farmers off their land, it’s got to be absolutely sensational for the economy, right? Well, yes and no. According to the Permian Strategic Partnership Report, the Permian Basin contributed 91 billion dollars toward local and state GDP in 2019. This income produced 7 billion in tax revenues and royalties, nearly 4 billion of which went toward state education funds. That’s even more money than the new shorts and chaps fashion trend brought to the market! [weak laughter] The oil and gas industry in the Permian also creates jobs, with 203,000 in Texas and 22,000 in New Mexico, and these jobs average over six figure salaries. Now those are pre-COVID numbers, but they do give a sense of the region’s potential. In all fairness, the wind industry in the region averages about the same salary, but that doesn’t negate the good paying jobs from oil and gas, just puts them in context.

However, there’s another side to the story. As there always is, Janine. [awkward long pause] Yeah, I don’t know anyone named Janine. Anyway, while growth in the Permian Basin does bring money, jobs, and tax revenue to the region, there’s one key thing it isn’t bringing, and that is energy. So much oil and gas is coming from these fields that the U.S. demand cannot keep up, meaning almost all new oil produced in the region has just been exported to other countries. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting a ton of targeted Instagram ads for oil and gas lately. They’re really trying to sell it. Now, most oil refineries in the United States are set up to refine sour crude, which is a type of oil that is much higher in sulfur content, and as a result, much more difficult to refine. But the Permian produces sweet crude, which has lower sulfur, is easier to refine, and tastes great on a cracker. Totally better than vegemite. And that means no matter how much the United States wants to grow oil production in the Permian, it’s not going to affect U.S. energy security or energy independence or anything like that. We still have to import sour crude, because that’s what our refineries can handle. And that’s fine — we can be players in the global trade — but for people in the Permian Basin who have to live with the pollution impacts, they’re not getting to use the oil and gas and there’s no real national security benefit to speak of either.

How do we export all of this stuff? Well, we have to get it to the exporting facilities on the Gulf Coast, meaning there have to be pipelines constructed and operated all across the state of Texas, and that has led to some major conflicts. At least once a day, there’s a Texan who approaches the pipeline and says [old western guitar sting] “There ain’t room in this town for the both of us,” and then taps it with his knife and leaves a small dent.

Take the Big Bend region of Texas, not to be confused with the Bend and Snap region of Texas where, you know, the first cardinal rule of Permian Basin maintenance is that you’re forbidden to wet your shale rock at least 24 hours after getting inspected at the risk of deactivating the methane. In 2017, in the Big Bend region, the Trans Pecos pipeline began operating despite major pushback from the community. The community first tried to resist the pipeline altogether, but had a lot of trouble when there were very few opportunities for public comments and no environmental impact statement mandated. They then turned their efforts toward just rerouting the pipeline around an area called Trap Spring, which is an archaeological treasure where numerous Indigenous artifacts have been found. A nearby rancher even offered to have them reroute the pipeline through his land to preserve Trap Spring. Ultimately, this effort failed too, and many artifacts were destroyed in the construction of the pipeline.

So you can bet that no one, and I mean NO ONE put a basket of homemade cookies on the doorstep of that pipeline once it moved in. And this particular project ended up spilling hydrostatic fluid onto the banks of the Rio Grande, killing the natural vegetation. Residents report hearing some of the fish in the river saying, “Oh, yummy, a fun new little drink! Let me take a sip!” followed by blood-curdling fish screams. And in an attempt to solve the issue, pipeline operators planted the Salt Cedars, which turned out to be an invasive plant and created yet another problem for an already stressed environment. In addition to these ecosystem impacts, pipelines can drive communities off their land and leak methane, both accidentally and sometimes intentionally. If you want to go back and hear what I sounded like before I had a fancy microphone, voice lessons, and any semblance of self-confidence, go check out episode 8 of the podcast on Natural Gas Compressor Stations where we explore that issue in a lot more detail.

And speaking of things that happened in early quarantine, the energy industry had also slashed 20 percent of its workforce. So, you know, almost as bad as my voice in episode 8 of the podcast. And as exciting as it might be for energy producers that there’s expansion in the Permian Basin, it can’t actually happen without skilled workers who can do the job. According to Lozoya Companies president Fily Lozoya, those workers have been hard to find.

CLIP: We need more employees and so we’re, that is also a struggle for us that are service companies trying to find employees to make sure that we’re keeping up with the demand of the oil producers.

ETHAN: Fily finds employee recruitment to be a major struggle right now, and if we look at the numbers, we can see exactly why. In the heart of the Permian Basin, unemployment is at pre-pandemic levels near 3.5 percent, meaning there aren’t a ton of people on the job market. Many of these workers had commercial drivers licenses and were able to get jobs as drivers, and now, they don’t want to get back into the less stable oil and gas world. And generally, the way to attract more employees would be to raise wages, but that’s been a challenge too, since inflation has driven up the cost of equipment for these companies. Not to say they can’t afford to pay their workers more, but it does affect an industry when the cost of labor goes up. All that helps explain why Fily is observing these employee recruitment struggles, and if this continues to be an issue, it may mean that planned expansion in the Permian is not only a strain on the environment and public health, but less economically viable than anticipated as well.

Obviously, this is a really tricky situation. Even if there are many challenges and some question marks about economic viability, many many people aren’t going to want to see oil and gas in the Permian Basin go away. It creates a lot of jobs and is a huge boost to the local, state, and national economy. So there are a lot of solution proposals out there such as stop permit approvals, ban fracking, huge federal government restrictions that would come in and tear down the region. Those are absolutely good conversations to have, I’m not arguing for or against it. But today, I want to discuss solutions that look a little more holistically at the region. How do we move forward in a way that makes the Permian Basin better?

For one, the region has an environment that’s very well-suited for clean energy. Inspectors even found a sign staked in the land that said “Renewables Would Do Good Here.” Even though the grammar was wrong and the word “renewables” was spelled with a “U” in it, the sign was generally right: there’s lots of flat land, plenty of sun and wind, and relaxed regulations work in favor of new project development. Even oil and gas companies have started relying on solar and wind energy to support their own production processes, which is awesome. It’s like driving saddlebags and hay back to the stable in your car, or binging The Sandman during your lunch break as the cashier at Redbox. And do you remember the tensions between fossil fuels and agriculture? Well, agriculture and clean energy can actually coexist. Listen to Louis Brooks, a cattle rancher in West Texas, explain how wind energy has helped make his farm more profitable.

CLIP: The wind business again has really helped us make a living. We can take better care of the land and improve its quality so it’s really been a godsend for all west Texans, especially my family.

ETHAN: It’s not every day that you hear someone say wind is a godsend! [fart sound] Oops, we did it again. Sorry, that was the last one… I hope… Like Louis says, clean energy can provide money for farmers without inhibiting their agricultural practices. In addition to money, solar panel farms can also provide shade for crops and lead to more efficient water usage. And if we look to the economics, I mentioned earlier that wind jobs have about the same average salary as oil and gas jobs in the region, so if workers were retrained, there isn’t even a drop off there. Now, solar and wind don’t bring the massive profit booms to major energy companies that oil does, so it’s not a perfect solution, but it does bring energy to the region, eliminate the environmental and health concerns, allow more of the money to end up in the hands of community members, and get rid of the competition between agriculture and fossil fuels. And as much as I love good ole competition, specifically in the form of the Great British Baking Show, hopefully some cooperation could work a little better.

There’s also room to improve the oil and gas operations themselves. Companies can invest in carbon capture, as Exxon and Occidental are currently starting to do in the region. There’s a variety of ways to make fracking safer or reduce accidental methane leaks, as we discussed in our Fracking episode about a year and a half ago. And there are some more obvious things like trying to capture natural gas rather than venting and flaring it whenever possible, inspecting facilities frequently enough to keep them compliant with regulations, and actually listening to the public. Currently, if someone makes a complaint about pollution in their neighborhood in the Permian, the response time is measured in weeks and months, not hours and days. It can also be measured in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, and cups of coffee, but it’s usually just done in weeks or months. Even when a complaint is listened to, violators rarely face consequences. In the Permian, there’s evidence that operators that have received multiple complaints are found operating exactly the same for over a year after the complaints. Which isn’t fair, because as soon as I got ONE complaint about my excessive talking during a golf round I was kicked off the course. I thought you could talk during Mini Golf, but some people are weirdly serious about it.

That point about listening to the public matters everywhere, but is especially important when we talk about New Mexico. The Permian Basin is mostly on private land in Texas, but predominantly on federal land in New Mexico, and federal land is designed to be used for the best interest of the public. I’m not saying it has to become a big Mini Golf course where they allow talking, or a reverse petting zoo where humans are in the cage, or a New Balance outlet store, but the federal land should be something I can enjoy. Or, we can enjoy. So it’s really frustrating, then, to hear that according to an investigation from Earthworks, from 2017 to 2020, the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division ignored over 55 percent of pollution complaints. Completely ignored! And that’s not even considering the ones that got to operators but were disregarded later on. Can you imagine getting ghosted by the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division? I mean, I know I’m 5’7, but really?

I know that was a lot at once, and the Permian Basin may be one of the most challenging carbon bomb sites in the world to address. But that’s not to say it can’t be done. Over 80 percent of the planned greenhouse gas emissions in the Permian Basin are set to come from new wells that have not yet been drilled. If we don’t drill those wells and find a different path forward that brings the economic benefit without the environmental cost, we’re in pretty good shape. We’re talking about a real tangible dent in global climate change, improved health and safety for residents in the region, and ensure the only issue in the Permian Basin is making sure people don’t drown in the rain.

AD READER: Looking for a candy that doesn’t taste like candy or look like corn? Then candy corn is for you. Originally made from the byproducts of better candy so factories could squeeze some money out of the poors, candy corn is a great way to remember Halloween’s history…of wartime desperation! So spooky, am I right? Candy corn. It definitely doesn’t contain three food dyes that are possible carcinogens.

ETHAN: The Sweaty Penguin is presented by Peril and Promise: a public media initiative from The WNET Group in New York, reporting on the issues and solutions around climate change. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise.

ETHAN: Welcome back to the Sweaty Penguin. With me today is Dr. Joon Heo, Assistant Professor of Geosciences at the University of Texas, Permian Basin. Dr. Heo, welcome to the show.

DR. HEO: Thank you. Thank you. It’s my honor to be speaking with you.

ETHAN: First off, could you tell us a bit about your background? What led to your interest in geosciences and what made you want to actually study in the Permian Basin region?

DR. HEO: I’m working the water contamination and the hydrological event. And also, especially in the Permian Basin area, we focus on the water and the energy nexus, which is for the water used for energy production. I mean the hydrological fracturing and energy production, those ones. And I was the researcher at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and I had a PhD in geoscience, especially the geology and geophysics from Texas A&M University at the college’s station. I work in lots of the connector community resource because the hydrology is the also other connection that geophysics and the energy source or the water chemistry as well. So I think that’s very important. Make the water contamination, and the interdisciplinary research, so that’s what I’m working at here.

ETHAN: You’ve published several studies examining groundwater quality in the Permian Basin, could you tell us a bit about this work and what some of your findings have been?

DR. HEO: Yes, so mainly I’m working in hydrology. I mean, the water sample, water collecting and the water resource management as well. So, basically I work on the water quality analysis, because I’m collecting field work, and the water sample in the field, energy production area hydrological fracturing. And then after I collect the water sample, and then measuring water quality. I mean, the total dissolved solid or the chloride, or the even PhD simple water standard. Also we visualize contamination behavior and we also predict the future scenario, because we have lots of historical data. So, that’s kind of my publication work.

ETHAN: You mentioned fracking, but I’d love to get into the weeds a little more because I don’t think it’s hard to imagine that areas near drilling and fracking sites would see disruptions in water quality. But what are the specific processes when drilling and fracking that might be driving this water contamination?

DR. HEO: Yes. So I would like to explain the process of the hydraulic fracturing. So as you might know, that [in] the old days we drilled down from the surface and then in the layer, we cemented the layer below the acuper. And then the oil flow to the surface. But in unconventional, I mean the gas stay in the shale and then it caught in tight in the rock. We couldn’t make it float to the surface. So we developed the hydraulic fracturing, the process we named as the unconventional, we deviate in the [??] in the horizontal direction, and with drilling with the high pressure injection of a chemical compound, we create the fracture in the rock. So, the process in this way, the gas flow to the well to the surface. But during the process there is some fault. Why? Because we have induced the seismic process. They make some the crack and make some fault and the doing the process, as I said, hydraulic fracturing we combine with chemical compound. Those chemical compound they affect groundwater in the deep ground. So, and also after we fracturing high pressure injection, we also use to determine what the [??] water they have influence to the surface water as well. So during the process, if there’s a fault or different areas that the crack, they affect the groundwater. So we monitoring the groundwater quality, we collect the water sample and then how does it affect the water quality, yes.

ETHAN: So I don’t have the specific numbers for the Permian Basin in front of me. But obviously, with tracking, we’re talking thousands of feet into the ground doing this process very often, and I’m just curious, if you’re shooting fracking fluid chemicals into the ground at that depth, are those chemicals affecting water closer to the surface? Or are we talking about the layer of the ground in which they’re injected?

DR. HEO: Before I explain those, we need to understand the possible pathway between hydraulic fracturing and groundwater. So usually, the hydraulic fracturing, it depends on location. It depends on the geologic condition. But usually the groundwater is the below 2,000 feet. And also some kinds of the salty water, and the high ionized water is that the hundred or two hundred thousand feet from the surface, but hydraulic fracturing is more deeper and deeper. The average is the 10,000 or depends on location, in the Permian Basin area is then usually, I mean, the 7000. Maybe New Mexico or Pennsylvania is much more deeper, so there is the vast difference. So as I said that groundwater [acuper] is 1000, like 2000 the depth behind or hydraulic fracturing is at minimum 7000 or even 10,000 feet below. So, the depth is different but as I said it, during the process, if we deviate to do all the wear and then also making the high pressure of the injection of a chemical compound. Even if you dare the depth is more deeper, they make a crack, they make the fault between those decks. So that’s how they affect the groundwater quality.

ETHAN: I also read in one of your papers that chemical fertilizers are also a driver of water contamination, which makes sense. The Permian Basin has a lot of agriculture as well. As compared to fossil fuels, have you been able to develop a sense of how much contamination is coming from each sector?

DR. HEO: That’s a good question, but it’s the climate thing or the [???] fossil fuel is very complicated. So each component, for example, is I told you the TDS, total dissolved solids, depends on the fossil fuel or what human activity. The TDS might even be different, but the chemical fertilizer is, for example, a chemical fertilizer, we can estimate, we can measure, we can evaluate the nitrate. Nitrate is always the main source of the chemical fertilizer but depends on the location. How much of activity is in the agriculture, how much of production is in the fossil fuel or the oil and gas activity, they’re due to be different. And also, do we need to check the different parameter. So oil and gas activity, we need to check the TDS amount and the arsenic, lead and copper, but also in the agriculture production area we can check the phosphorous or the nitrate. They all have a different parameter, so it depends on location, depends on the parameter, it will be different, but how much of the parameter is the affected chemical fertilizers, or how much effect is the effect of fossil fuel?

ETHAN: I think these concerns are especially urgent because it appears as though the Permian Basin is currently experiencing drought, and groundwater is a major source of drinking water. So given your work, do you see there being a water scarcity issue either in the present or future?

DR. HEO: Sure, sure, absolutely. So, in the Permian Basin, in the Texas, Western Texas, we experience the climate change. So we need to understand climate pattern, even in the Permian Basin and the Eastern Texas. And the Western Texas. Then we have a different climate pattern. So Eastern Texas is only humid climate and you might have heard about the flooding event in the Houston, but in the western Texas, in our area, for desolate Texas, even though we have the flooding event, but we have the drought issue. I evaluated the research observation period from 1980 to 2015, I evaluate that we absolutely have experienced the decreased pattern in precipitation. So and also highly increasing the temperature PHD mean it’s the Permian Basin has the a little more hotter and hotter, and more drier and drier in the Permian Basin area. So especially under climate change, the water resource is a very important factor by regulating the ecosystem in the Permian Basin area. As I said water resources remain the process. We making the fracturing, the deep ground. So I, we can say this kind of climate is semi-arid climate pattern. So not even the Permian Basin, the lots of similar climate pattern has the more drier and drier, and the more hotter and hotter in Arizona, Tucson or Arizona, Phoenix. It was very similar, the climate change pattern. So, we have the lots of issue of the climate change pattern and also the water resource is more important. So we could not get the water resources to our pride, the hydraulic fracturing. So we just have the groundwater. We don’t have enough surface or we just supply the ground water resource and then we just supply agriculture. We apply the hydraulic fracturing process. So this is how we started by which under the climate change, to apply the hydraulic fracturing process and also in the agriculture, the production.

ETHAN: And I guess that ties back to climate change because obviously the Permian Basin is experiencing these climate vulnerabilities. And at the same time, the oil and gas from the region makes it one of the largest sources on Earth of these fuels that drive carbon emissions. So, I’m sure everyone living in this region is different, but I know that you are in the region and have spent a bit of time there. Do you get the sense that people are aware of the links between these two things or think about it in the same breath?

DR. HEO: Well, I working in academia and my son know where is all the climate change pattern, but it might be also pretty link lately that our policy in the taxes. And of course, climate change and climate change the directly injected to the water resource in the area. And also they, we know about the climate change is serious and the climate changes directly impacts the water resource. But also human activity, and the kinds of the lending you change. Depends on population, depends about people’s guys that moves in in the Permian Basin area then the cover change from the barren land to the de belem land. They also mainly control roll call and surface hydrological process. They also affect to water resource in the local area. So, yes, my student might come in the area. They are aware of the climate change and also human activity, and the such as the fossil fuel and also land cover change. They also control local or scales in the Water Resource. So we are aware of that. But in my community and the local area, they think, in my guess, they think it’s not serious. Not yet. So we need to improve the policy and we need to learn and we have more, I have to also more opportunity now to share information. What is our experience? How does it change? And what do we change that precipitation water temperature will be changed. I also have the strong evidence as I said from 1980 to 2015, the one of the [???] publication shows a strong evidence. We have already have a decrease in the precipitation and the high link is a temperature. We need to share and we need to learn about that this kind of opportunity. Yes.

ETHAN: It’s interesting. I appreciate that perspective and I think the other angle that sticks out to me, so a lot of the oil from the Permian Basin gets exported. And I think that, at least for me, I would imagine living in a region like that where we’re experiencing the water pollution. There’s also air pollution and lots of other local issues. Certainly, there’s some economic benefit, there’s money, there’s jobs, but we’re not maybe the ones using a large portion of this energy. Do you get the sense that there’s a conversation there, that’s something that maybe frustrates people?

DR. HEO: Well, in my academic area, I just more focused about to publish in the show some more, the publication, the article showing the impact of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater quality, and the Permian Basin area, and especially in my local city and midland Odessa in the Permian Basin. I showed the more polluted water evaluation with the more water contamination in the city. So I just show the comparison based on the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, which is the government agency, they have the standard each parameter. Kinds of copper, lead, arsenic, nitrate and chromium. Each parameter has the more important that we need to evaluate, how does it affect why this kind of number is the change. So I just more focus on my area and then I just show, how does it change? And also depends on groundwater well depths, all so different, and the ground water quality parameter is the discussion to show my students also learned about the share those kind of experience. So those kind of activity, I strongly believe that the my research and my academic activity provide more important information on groundwater quality in the Permian Basin and also the contribute to understanding of the respond to the development in the hydrological fracturing. So yes. I mean, at least the climate change, how does it change the human effect, or the agricultural activity, or the hydraulic fracture in oil and gas production, how does it affect to the Water Resource? That’s my personal goal to share my research with the public. So that’s my personal goal. Yes.

ETHAN: My last question for you, obviously given all of the work you’ve done on water pollution in the region, just being in the region. What would be your hope for the future of the Permian Basin?

DR. HEO: So in the future, we need to also regulate the water quality monitoring. We need to also the strong water well monitoring system and also we’re gonna have to keep, lots of a situation is different, the Ukraine the Russian those kind of war and also the pop mesh and, human power source is not enough in the Permian Basin area, so we oil and process, they keep increasing. But eventually in the future with those kind of oil and gas development, we need a more strong network to monitoring oil and gas with the chemical compound and water quality monitoring system.

ETHAN: Dr. Heo, thank you so much for joining us.

DR. HEO: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah.

ETHAN: This wraps up episode 101 of The Sweaty Penguin.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2023/02/the-permian-basin-hosts-the-highest-emitting-oil-and-gas-project-in-north-america/

Published and (C) by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailyyonder/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.