Determination of Summertime VOC Emission Rates from Produced Water Ponds in the Uintah Basin

The observance of excess ozone concentrations in Utah's Uintah Basin over past several years has prompted several investigations into the extent and causes of the elevated ozone. Among these is the assessment of potential emissions of reactive VOCs. Evaporation ponds, used a remediation technique for treatment of contaminated production and other waters, are one potential source of significant VOC emissions and is estimated that there are around 160 such ponds within the Uintah Basin's oil and gas production areas. In June 2012 VOC emission rates for several reactive VOCs were derived for an evaporation facility consisting of a small inlet pond (≈0.03 acres) and two larger, serial ponds (≈4.3 acres each). The emission rates were determined over three sampling periods using an inverse modeling approach. Under this methodology, ambient VOC concentrations are determined at several downwind locations through whole-air collection into SUMMA canisters, followed by GC/MS quantification and compared with predicted concentrations using an EPA-approved dispersion model, AERMOD. The presumed emission rates used within the model were then adjusted until the modeled concentrations approach the observed concentrations. The derived emission rates for the individual VOCs were on the order of 10-3 g/s/m2 from the inlet pond and 10-6 g/s/m2 from the larger ponds. The emissions from the 1st pond in series after the inlet pond were about 3-4x the emissions from the 2nd pond. These combined emission rates are about an order of magnitude those reported for a single study in Colorado (Thoma, 2009). It should be noted, however, that the variability about each of the VOC emission rates was significant (often ×100% at the 95% confidence interval). Extrapolating these emission rates to the estimated total areas of all the evaporation ponds within Basin resulted in calculated Basin-wide VOC emissions 292,835 tons/yr. However, Bar-Ilan et al. (2009) estimated 2012 VOC oil and gas related emissions within the Uintah Basin to be 119,974 tons/yr. Given the large observed variabilities and the uncertainties with extrapolating the derived emission rates across varying pond types and differing climatic conditions, the comparisons are not unreasonable. If the lower, literature emission rates of Thoma (2009) are used the estimated Basin-wide evaporation emissions, the pond emissions would still be approximately 30% of the total emissions compiled by Bar-Ilan et al. (2009). Although the study described herein only represents a single facility and a single set of seasonal conditions, extrapolating these rates can give potential insight into the significance of VOC emissions into the Basin atmosphere from evaporation ponds.