Predictive, Source-oriented Modeling and Measurements to Evaluate Community Exposures to Air Pollutants and Noise from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development

Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) in the United States has experienced significant growth in both scale and pace. Due to the complex and varied nature of these operations, assessing community exposure to air pollutants and noise from UOGD presents a challenge. Predictive tools are crucial for evaluating exposures across wide spatial and temporal scales, enabling more targeted measurements, exposure assessments, and health studies. This project will focus on the Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) in south-central Texas, a major oil and gas production area known for dry gas, wet gas, and oil extraction.

Our team, the Health and Air Quality (HAQ) Lab, will be responsible for conducting detailed air dispersion modeling to predict the concentration of various pollutants released during oil and gas operations. This will help us understand how pollutants spread across different areas, considering both short-term fluctuations and long-term exposure patterns. In addition to the modeling efforts, we will also perform exposure assessments to evaluate the actual exposure levels that individuals experience in communities surrounding the UOGD sites. By combining these approaches, we aim to provide a comprehensive picture of air quality impacts and help guide further health and exposure studies.