More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western U.S. are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, a new study has found, and some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future could be in the path of fires worsened by climate change.
More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western U.S. are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, a new study has found, and some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future could be in the path of fires worsened by climate change.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, said their analysis, which was published last week in the journal One Earth, is the first to examine historical and projected wildfire threats on oil and gas facilities in the U.S. While the public health effects of scorched and damaged drill sites are unclear, researchers said the study is a necessary step toward understanding the potential compound hazards and could help inform policy about future drilling.
“Most of the oil wells in California are currently in wildfire threatened areas, and a lot of people live in those areas because of the history of oil and gas development in this state,” said David J.X. González, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “The same issues that have been with us historically are still with us, and it looks like they might lead to new environmental justice issues that haven’t really been explored.”
Read more at: University of California - Berkeley
Smoke from the Maria Fire rises above an oil pumpjack in Santa Paula, California, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. New research from UC Berkeley indicates that more than 100,000 oil and gas wells in the western U.S. are in areas that have been burned by wildfires. (Photo Credit: Noah Berger/AP)
