More than 5,893 leaks from aging natural gas
pipelines2 have been found under the streets of Washington, D.C. by a research team from Duke University and Boston University. A dozen of the leaks could have posed explosion risks, the researchers said. Some manholes had
methane3 concentrations as high as 500,000 parts per million of natural gas -- about 10 times greater than the
threshold(门槛) at which explosions can occur.
Four months after phoning in the leaks to city authorities, the research team returned and found that nine were still emitting dangerous levels of methane. "Finding the leaks a second time, four months after we first reported them, was really surprising," said Robert B. Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Duke who led the study.
The researchers published their findings this week in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology.
"Repairing these leaks will improve air quality, increase consumer health and safety, and save money," Jackson said. "
Pipeline1 safety has been improving over the last two decades. Now is the time to make it even better."
Nationally, natural gas pipeline failures cause an average of 17
fatalities4, 68 injuries, and $133 million in property damage
annually5, according to the U.S. Pipeline and
Hazardous6 Materials Safety Administration.
In addition to the explosion hazard, natural gas leaks also pose another threat: Methane, the primary ingredient of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas that also can
catalyze7 ozone8 formation. Pipeline leaks are the largest human-caused source of methane in the United States and contribute to $3 billion of lost and unaccounted for natural gas each year.
Jackson's team
collaborated9 with researchers from Boston University and Gas Safety, Inc., on the new study. The team mapped gas leaks under all 1,500 road miles within Washington using a high-precision Picarro G2301 Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer installed in a GPS-equipped car. Laboratory analyses then confirmed that the
isotopic10 chemical signatures of the
methane(甲烷) and
ethane(乙烷) found in the survey closely matched that of pipeline gas.
The average methane concentration observed in the leaks was about 2.5 times higher than in background air samples collected in the city. Methane levels in some leaks were as high as 89 parts per million, about 45 times higher than normal background levels.
The team also measured how much methane was coming from four individual street-level leaks. "Methane
emissions11 from these four leaks ranged from 9,200 to 38,200 liters per day for each leak -- that's comparable to the amount of natural gas used by between 2 and 7 homes," said Duke Ph.D. student Adrian Down.
Last year, the team mapped more than 3,300 natural-gas pipeline leaks beneath 785 road miles in the city of Boston. "The average
density12 of leaks we mapped in the two cities is comparable, but the average methane concentrations are higher in Washington," said Nathan G. Phillips, a professor at Boston University's Department of Earth and Environment.
Like Washington and Boston, many U.S. cities have aging pipeline
infrastructure13 that may be
prone14 to leaks. The researchers recommend
coordinated15 gas-leak mapping campaigns in cities where the infrastructure is deemed to be at risk.
The new study comes at a time when the nation's aging pipeline infrastructure is generating increased
legislative16 attention. Last November, Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) introduced two new bills to speed up the
replacement17 of natural gas pipelines in states with older
infrastructures18 by offering new federal programs and
incentives19 to help
defray(支付) the costs associated with the repairs.
"We need to put the right financial incentives in place," said Jackson. "Companies and public utility commissions need help to fix leaks and replace old cast iron pipes more quickly."