An oilfield disposal practice on the decline in California will again come under regulatory scrutiny this month by air quality officials asking whether new emissions-control technology can feasibly be applied to local wastewater treatment.
A scoping meeting being hosted next week by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District will look at ways to contain volatile organic compounds escaping from outdoor sumps used for evaporation and sometimes percolation of “produced water” that comes up with oil.
Sumps have come under greater regulatory pressure in recent years, leading in some cases to facility closures that force their customers in local oil production to find an alternative disposal method. Usually that’s underground injection, which is far more common, costlier and has, during about the same period, faced its own regulatory challenges.
The difference between those cases and the focus this month is the type of pollution at issue: Instead of groundwater protection, next week’s scoping meeting will look at air quality impacts and what can be done to reduce them in an economically reasonable way.
Oil and water brought up from the ground typically get separated in large tanks where crude floats to the top and gets skimmed off. Separation tanks are equipped with vapor control systems, but produced water left in the open air lets off VOCs that can cause a variety of health effects. Injection wells are not subject to the upcoming regulatory proceeding.
Under state and federal clean-air rules, the air district is required to review new technology that might lead to cleaner air for the region. Before making changes, though, there must be a finding that any new regulations are economically feasible.
The last time the district made changes to its rules on sump emissions control was about 10 years ago. Staff there say that while they’re not close to determining whether modifications are in order, they suspect improvements could be made.
“We think there may be some potential opportunities to lower the levels under which we consider the fluid to be classified as clean produced water,” Deputy Air Pollution Control Officer Morgan Lambert said.
The scoping meeting, intended for stakeholders, the general public and vendors, will kick off what Lambert said will be a year-long series of public workshops.
Oil industry groups were largely unaware of the subject of this month’s scoping meeting and were unable to offer comment. Nevertheless, CEO Rock Zierman of the California Independent Petroleum Association said the trade group looks forward to participating.
“The California Independent Petroleum Association members have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to operate under the strongest environmental and health laws in the world,” Zierman said by email Friday. “Our members constantly review the best available technology and practices and produce the only climate-compliant oil in the world.”
The air district has scheduled the scoping meeting to start at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 13 at 1990 E. Gettysburg Ave. in Fresno. There will be a video link to the district’s Bakersfield office 15 34946 Flyover Court. Participation over Zoom videoconferencing is also an option (webinar ID 823 8276 8557, password 935686). Documents on the proceeding are to be posted at valleyair.org/workshops.
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