By: Dave Fehling, StateImpact Texas
HOUSTON–On the mainland just across the bay from Galveston Island, it’s not always the fresh Gulf air people smell.
“This is a neighborhood in Texas City. It is surrounded by refineries and petrochemical plants. The smell is very distinct, a rotten egg odor. “
Dave Fehling: “Sewer.. It smells like sewer?
Danielle Davis: “Yes.”
Dominique Boson and her co-worker Danielle Davis are on their lunch break.
Danielle Davis: “I guess we been living here so long you just get used to it.”
Getting used to not knowing exactly what’s in the air. But in recent years, there’ve been leaks from those oil refineries, some of them big leaks, of hydrogen sulfide gas. You can smell hydrogen sulfide’s rotten egg odor when there are only tiny amounts in the air, parts per billion as the scientists say. But even when it’s a little more concentrated — in parts per million — it not only smells, it can kill. Neil Carman once worked as an investigator for the state’s air pollution regulator. He’s now with the Sierra Club.
Neil Carman: “As we approached a possible pipeline leak involving hydrogen sulfide, one sign would be to look for any dead animals, rodents and …I saw this a number of times. “
He said the most common complaint they investigated was for that rotten egg smell, in this case, coming not from oil refineries but from oil & gas wells. Because hydrogen sulfide is ubiquitous in the oil industry.
It’s found in oil & gas as comes out of the ground and is also present in some crude oil processed in refineries. In West Texas, Carman said that the pipelines used to move gas from wells to processing facilities would sometimes leak.
Neil Carman: “Some of these pipelines are carrying lethal concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas.”
The gas is the biggest threat to workers. It’s killed 10 in Texas in the past decade. Under average conditions, the gas will dissipate quickly. But in 1975 next to an oilfield in West Texas, one tiny leak on a foggy morning killed eight family members gathered in a house for a reunion. The tragedy led to stricter state regulations.
RRC Carl Caldwell: “…. the pipeline will be 11.1 miles in length…”
Last month, state regulators considered an application by an oil company for a hydrogen sulfide pipeline near Lubbock. With drilling booming, more pipelines are needed. In the past five years, the state has seen applications for hydrogen sulfide pipeline permits increase, with 42 winning approval. None has been denied including this latest one.
Barry Smitherman RRC: “Questions? Hearing none the chair moves adoption ….”
The new line will take the deadly gas past 25 homes and 15 public roads that fall within a danger zone of less than a mile.
Sheldon McKee: “Unfortunately if you come in contact with hydrogen sulfide there are not a lot of second chances.”
Sheldon McKee is with AMGAS, a Canadian company that makes safety equipment that neutralizes hydrogen sulfide at drilling sites. Last year, the company launched an expansion into Texas. McKee says they saw a growing need because so much more oil & gas is being transported from so many new wells, raising the risk for oilfield workers.
Sheldon McKee: “Now you have introduced a release point of the hydrogen sulfide. So it’s just kind of how the boom has happened. “
But people who live near drilling sites are raising concerns over releases that may not kill anyone, but which may be exposing them to long-term, low levels of the smelly gas.
A 2001 study by U-T Galveston linked gas coming from industry in Odessa to increased disorders among residents there including dizziness and shortness of breath.
Two years ago, stricter state air pollution rules took effect in North Texas where drilling has surged in urban areas but environmentalists say much more monitoring and study is needed.
For StateImpact Texas, I’m Dave Fehling.
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