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Methane Plume Seen by Satellite Over Alabama Mystifies Experts

  * Naureen S Malik &
  * Aaron Clark

12:50 AM IST, 10 Nov 20214:05 AM IST, 10 Nov 202112:50 AM IST, 10 Nov
20214:05 AM IST, 10 Nov 2021
Save
(Bloomberg) -- A large methane plume was spotted over northwestern
Alabama near natural gas and coal sites three weeks ago -- though
regulators have been unable to identify what spewed out the harmful
greenhouse gas.

(Bloomberg) -- A large methane plume was spotted over northwestern
Alabama near natural gas and coal sites three weeks ago -- though
regulators have been unable to identify what spewed out the harmful
greenhouse gas.

The Oct. 22 release was detected by satellite and pinpointed to an
area in Marion County near natural gas wells in the Black Warrior
Basin, a pair of gas pipelines and coal mines, some dating back to
the late 1800s. An emissions rate of about 58 tons of methane per
hour would have been required to generate the plume, according to an
estimate from Kayrros SAS, which analyzed European Space Agency
data. 

The Alabama release is the fifth largest detected by the ESA's
Sentinel-5P satellite this year in the lower 48 U.S. states,
according to Kayrros. State and federal regulators couldn't identify
the source with the satellite data, underscoring how difficult it is
to use this greater visibility from space to take the next steps to
understand the cause or to hold companies accountable.

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after
carbon dioxide, and halting intentional releases and accidental leaks
could do more to slow climate change than almost any other measure.
Methane is the primary component of natural gas, and leaks can occur
anywhere along the natural gas supply chain from the wellhead to
homes and businesses where the fuel is burned, and the greenhouse gas
can also be released during oil and coal production.

Methane Plume Seen by Satellite Over Alabama Mystifies Experts

Why Methane Is Climate's Low-Hanging, Invisible Fruit: QuickTake

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management wasn't able to
identify a permanent facility that would be responsible for any
releases after a diligent review of its records, spokeswoman Lynn
Battle said in an email. The agency wasn't able to research or
identify transient releases, she said.

Kinder Morgan Inc. said the release wasn't caused by its two conduits
traversing the area, Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Southern Natural Gas.
While coal mines can also release methane, operations in the area
have scaled back.

"There is no active mining in the area," Dustin Morin, director of
the mining and reclamation division of the Alabama Department of
Labor, said in an emailed statement. He said the source was more
likely associated with an old gas well and rather than an old
reclaimed surface mine. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that the potential area
is too broad and the satellite data "does not provide enough tangible
information of potential sources in which to conduct a programmatic
review," a spokesman from the Region 4 office in Atlanta said via
email. 

(c)2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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