The oil and gas sites occupied in the eastern suburbs of Denver fell on a suitable day and the air was so polluted that state health officials warned seniors and children to stay inside. Participants were eager to see the source of these toxic gases.
Standing on the shoulders of a noisy frontal road, the team can enjoy the operating landscape covering the life cycle of fossil fuel production – oil storage tanks, compressor stations and drilling rigs are spread across arid grasslands and pollutants are spread across nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.
When the sun is heated to form ground ozone, the gas reacts. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, inhaled pollutants can exacerbate and contribute to the development of lung diseases such as asthma.
Methane is a colorless, odorless, heat-captured molecule that warms carbon dioxide at 80 times more power over the first 20 years in the atmosphere and can also be leached from equipment about 8 miles south of Denver International Airport. These gases are invisible to the naked eye.
Not today.
Contaminants spewed out of storage tanks and other equipment from the lenses of six phosgene imaging cameras and other equipment.
The technology inside the device reveals the warming hydrocarbons of planets that absorb infrared radiation. A bright blue plume pours into the air from the oil field equipment to cover the colorful landscape.
“Oh, wow,” said Natalie Hawley, a public health graduate student, as she pulled the edge of the baseball cap on the viewfinder to stop the vicious June sun. “I didn’t know these sites could be as contaminated as they do.”
Hawley is a group of people who joined Andrew Klooster, an earthwork factory calories with 350 Colorado organizers (all environmental nonprofits) on their emissions journeys on fossil fuel sites since early 2023. Earthwork purchased OGI cameras from decades ago and interacted with residents for division to allow residents to interact.
Earthworks and 350 Colorado states collaborate to provide field trips to remind and educate the community about the health and environmental impact of the state's continued growth in oil and gas operations. As of February 24, the number of active wells in the country's fourth largest oil-producing state grew to 46,591, a 25% increase since 2009.
A drilling technology called fracturing fuels the increase in production, which forces sand and chemicals to land along the pipeline to release fossil fuels from the upper rock formations. As rigs are drilling near the suburbs of the Denver metro area, Earthworks’ mission is to enable residents to hold energy companies accountable for the pollution they generate, which is becoming increasingly important.
It was an opportunity to “educate people to be better advocates,” Crewster said. “Allowing the air of the world – what is allowed, what is not, what is compliance issues – it’s too complicated for individuals to parse.”
According to estimates by the Regional Air Quality Commission, the emissions of 253 tons of volatile organic compounds released in the region are about 36% of 253 tons per day.
The air quality that most Colorado breathes worsen over the past 15 years, and in the summer, smog begins to mask the view of Denver. The deteriorating smoke has caused officials to arrive from May 31 to August 31. Now, the air in the area is so bad, with state regulators sending half the air quality alerts during that period in 2024.
With Colorado's operations in some of the most profitable oil and gas sectors in the U.S., the transportation and energy industries have become the main drivers for the nine-county area to fail to meet federal air quality standards in the past two decades.
For that hot, stuffy summer day, the group stood beside the front road, and Crewster explained how he filed a complaint with the state air quality regulator about a horizon visible on the horizon he visited the day before the tour.
“I photographed the rig yesterday for about half an hour and there was a lot of emissions, and I couldn't determine the exact source,” he said.
He added that it couldn't help him determine which compounds to fire, or how many of them were entering the atmosphere. However, he could use videos as evidence to prompt state regulators to investigate.
Thermal photographer told TORMographer that where emissions come from is recorded on the rig, due to the temporary use of various types of equipment on site.
Klooster taught people how to file similar complaints with the state’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission and the Department of Public Health and Environment during the tour, when they suspected that toxic pollutants were leaking from faulty equipment on fossil fuel sites.
Registering a concern in the right agency means knowing who regulates what and who is responsible for enforcing the rules. These nuances include this disturbing fact: Energy companies are allowed to vent pollutants from oil and gas sites for safety reasons.
These teaching moments have already achieved results: Residents living on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains filed a complaint with the health department’s air pollution control department on possible air quality compliance issues in September. The Grand Valley Citizens Alliance used videos of Klooster's phosgene imaging cameras as evidence, which visited numerous oil and gas facilities in Garfield County about 150 miles west of Denver.
The ultimate effort prompted the state to ask operators of Williams parachute gas plant to conduct an investigation. The company worked with equipment manufacturers to burn excess gasoline, called torches, to address leaks that caused Klooster to record emissions in 2021.
“We can report that in subsequent investigations, the flares seem to function more efficiently than any previous observations,” he wrote.
Krewster said only 35 to 40% of his complaints to the state resulted in operator repairs. Colorado law requires energy companies to conduct leak detection and repair inspections on their facilities. State and municipal inspectors also conduct regular visits to monitor equipment leaks.
At the end of the emissions journey, Earthworks and 350 Colorado staff told participants how they commented on planned oil and gas projects for community in Denver and industry-related bills proposed by the state legislature. Bobbie Mooney, a coordinator for 350 Colorado, said the other information prompted some touring players to volunteer for a long time.
“Several participants have participated in committee meetings to write comments for us and create communication projects,” she said.
Krewster said he hopes the events will help catalyze the catalytic search for catalyzing the movement of neighborhood groups at oil and gas companies, which are responsible for pollution caused by rigs and equipment at fracturing sites.
“I’ve started to see it as a potential model that we can translate to something else,” he said.
Days after the tour, state regulators told Crewster that they resolved his complaint to the air pollution control department and provided video evidence that the toxic gases were flowing out of equipment near the rig.
Civitas Resources, the company, said it dispatched inspectors to the site three days after Klooster submitted its report, saying: “The rig has completed operations and started to collapse and remove it from the facility. At this time, no emissions have been observed.”
Originally published by Capital & Main, the story is part of Climate Now, a global news collaboration that enhances the reporting of climate stories.
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