Oil and gas development influences potential for dust emission from the Upper Colorado River Basin, USA

Authors: TYREE, GAYLE - Us Geological Survey (USGS); CHAPPELL, ADRIAN - Cardiff University; VILLAREAL, MIGUEL - Us Geological Survey (USGS); DHITAL, SAROJ - New Mexico State University; DUNIWAY, MICHAEL - Us Geological Survey (USGS); EDWARDS, BRANDON - New Mexico State University; FAIST, AKASHA - University Of Montana; NAUMAN, TRAVIS - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); Webb, Nicholas - Nick

Submitted to: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/3/2024
Publication Date: 7/1/2024
Citation: Tyree, G., Chappell, A., Villareal, M., Dhital, S., Duniway, M., Edwards, B., Faist, A., Nauman, T., Webb, N.P. 2024. Oil and gas development influences potential for dust emission from the Upper Colorado River Basin, USA. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5887.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5887

Interpretive Summary: In global drylands, human land uses have changed vegetation with potential to increase dust emission and its undesirable impacts on ecosystems, human health, and societal welfare. On the Colorado Plateau of the western US, extraction of oil and natural gas removes vegetation and smooths land contours through installation of well pads and roads, creating networks of discrete patches of bare soil 1-4 ha in size. We used 16 years of satellite data to assess the effect of oil and gas development on surface roughness within five climate-soil groups of the northern Colorado Plateau. We then modeled how the change in roughness of vegetation due to oil and gas could impact wind erosion. Oil and gas development reduced vegetation and increased aeolian sediment fluxes by 12% to 18,400% across much of the study region, with the exception of areas heavily invaded by annual herbaceous plants. Such increase in sediment movement by wind could have large implications for downwind ecosystems, particularly alpine and subalpine areas of mountain ranges. Our results suggest that oil and gas development intensifies the potential for wind erosion and dust emission from drylands and reveal an opportunity to identify mechanisms that mitigate land use-driven dust emission and subsequent ecological and societal impacts in this region.

Technical Abstract: Wind erosion and dust emission from drylands have large consequences for ecosystem function and human health. Wind erosion is naturally reduced by soil crusting and sheltering by non-erodible roughness elements such as plants. Land uses that reduce surface roughness and disturb the soil surface can dramatically increase dust emission. Extraction of oil and gas is a common and growing land use in the western United States (US) that removes vegetation and other roughness elements for construction of well pads and unpaved access roads, resulting in thousands of small (1–4 ha), discrete patches of unprotected soil. Here, we use a satellite albedo-based model to assess the effect of oil/gas activity on surface roughness in the Uinta-Piceance Basin, an area of the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) with dense oil and natural gas development and modelled how the change in surface roughness could impact aeolian sediment flux and dust emission. We also investigated how regional drought influences the response of surface roughness to well pads and access roads. Oil/gas activity reduced surface roughness and increased modelled aeolian sediment flux at the landscape scale across much of the study region, resulting in a modest increase of 10 139'kg of dust per year, which is small relative to dust loads from a single regional dust event observed in the region, but downwind impact could be significant. The magnitude of surface roughness reductions by oil/gas activity was generally consistent among land cover types. However, in parts of the basin that had high cover of annual forbs and grasses, oil/gas activity was associated with larger surface roughness and smaller potential dust emission. Drought decreased surface roughness across disturbed and undisturbed sites, but there was no interactive effect of oil/gas activity and drought on surface roughness. These results suggest that oil/gas activity may increase sediment fluxes and likely contributes to dust emission from landscapes in the UCRB. Understanding how drought and land use change contribute to dust emissions will benefit mitigation of undesirable impacts of wind erosion and dust transport.