Boulder scientists investigate Four Corners methane pollution

BOULDER – Scientists from Boulder plan to research a methane hotspot over the Four Corners region linked to mining operations, including from coal and natural gas extraction.

The large concentration of methane was detected from space by a European satellite between 2003 and 2009. Scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder and from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will work with Apache, Navajo and Southern Ute tribes, Bureau of Land Management, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and others on the research.

Scientists will use planes to spot methane and two vans with measuring equipment will cover specific pollution sources for further research. A Japanese satellite that measures methane also has been re-programmed to focus on the Four Corners area.

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Last fall, a research team reported that the Southwest hotspot represented the largest methane concentration in the U.S. The satellite observations from last decade lack adequate detail to reveal the sources of the methane in the hotspot. However, likely candidates include oil and natural-gas development and coal mining.

Industry in the region extracts natural gas from coalbed formations and coal from seams near the earth’s surface, said Russ Schnell, deputy director of global monitoring for NOAA. Thousands of wells produce natural gas in La Plata County, Colo., and San Juan County, N.M., also home to coal mines that fuel nearby coal-fired power plants.

Using their combined resources, scientists from the various agencies aim to quantify the region’s overall methane emissions and pinpoint sources of the pollution.

“There are probably many sources and some of them are intermittent,” he said. “The idea is to bring in all the resources we can in a one-month period and try to figure this out.”

“The satellite sees this huge plume of methane coming up,” he added. “There’s an underlying uncertainty: What if the satellite was wrong?”