A resident of Montrose, PA, took this picture and wrote:"Drove by the Markovitch well tonight and saw this spectacular sight. The sound was like a train or a jet engine. The flames were 30-40 ft. high. Flaring the newly fracked well. This is a Alta well, just north of Montrose, PA."
Especially eerie in the winter night scape.
Picture by Lynn Selnick
4 comments:
It looks so pretty, but it seems so wrong. Everybody's trying to decrease emissions from their cars and we don't burn TRASH anymore. Why is the gas company allowed to burn huge amounts of chemicals then? It makes our puny individual efforts seem absurd. Laurie G.
i like gas wells.
The flares are not burning chemicals off, but gas, that's why they burn so hot. I really get upset when people post misinformation on the internet, with the best of intentions, and lead others astray. Facts are facts. Let's stick to them.
I get upset, too, when people post misinformation. People like you, Anonymous. Please learn about flaring.
"Flaring is the practice of burning gas that is deemed uneconomical to collect and sell. Flaring is also used to burn gases that would otherwise present a safety problem. It is common to flare natural gas that contains hydrogen sulfide (i.e., sour gas), in order to convert the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas into less toxic compounds.
Flares emit a host of air pollutants, depending on the chemical composition of the gas being burned and the efficiency and temperature of the flare. Flaring results in hydrogen sulfide emissions if hydrogen sulfide is present in large enough amounts in the natural gas. There may also be additional by-products formed if some of the chemicals used during the drilling or hydraulic fracturing process are converted to a gaseous form and are burned along with the natural gas.
The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, in California has estimated that the following air pollutants may be released from natural gas flares: benzene, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, including naphthalene), acetaldehyde, acrolein, propylene, toluene, xylenes, ethyl benzene and hexane. Researchers in Canada have measured more than 60 air pollutants downwind of natural gas flares."
[1] Leahey, Douglas M., Preston, Katherine and Strosher, Mel. 2001. "Theoretical and Observational Assessments of Flare Efficiencies, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. Volume 51. p.1614.
Also you can go here:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/airpollutionsources.cfm#FLARING
So I am afraid that you are the one who is misinformed on this subject. So I hope you will take your own advice and stick to the facts.
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