Primary Submission Category: Environmental factors
Spatial & Demographic Patterns of Residential Proximity to Aging Oil & Gas Infrastructure in Colorado
Authors: Hannah Walters
Presenting Author: Hannah Walters*
In the last ten years, oil and gas (OG) production in Colorado has quadrupled due to innovations in extractive technology, namely horizontal drilling, and hydraulic fracturing. While much scholarly and press attention has been justifiably focused on these newer, more intense forms of extraction, research on aging oil and gas infrastructure will become increasingly important as the U.S. transitions away from fossil fuels and the enormous cohort of wells that were drilled in the last ten years age into disuse. Understanding patterns of inactive wells now, and which communities may be disproportionately burdened by aging infrastructure, would help illuminate the full lifecycle of risk that communities face while OG companies are continuing to seek new well construction. Using Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) well location data and The Attitudes and Behaviors Survey (TABS) 2022 data, this secondary data analysis will combine geospatial analytic methods and statistical modeling to examine spatial patterns of abandoned and injection oil and gas wells across Colorado and whether there are statistically significant relationships between select socio-economic factors and residential proximity to these OG structures. This analysis will provide a formative picture of the landscape of abandoned/repurposed oil and gas infrastructure in the state, while setting up future research questions related to environmental justice, potential stressor exposures, and health risks associated with abandoned oil and gas wells in Colorado.