Entries by Kyle Ferrar, MPH

Petrochemical Industry Presence in East Bay CA’s North Coast Refinery Corridor

Who Lives Near the Refineries? By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator & Kirk Jalbert, Manager of Community-Based Research & Engagement Key Takeaways Communities living along the North Coast of the East Bay region in California are the most impacted by the presence of the petrochemical industry in their communities. Emissions from these facilities disproportionately degrade […]

More Oil Field Wastewater Pits Found in California!

Who’s in charge here? By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator FracTracker Alliance recently worked with Clean Water Action to map an update to last year’s report* on the use of unlined, above ground oil and gas waste disposal pits, also known as sumps. The new report identifies additional oil field wastewater pits and details how […]

A Climate Disaster – California in state of emergency as a result of massive natural gas leak

By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance A natural gas well equipment failure in southern California has resulted in the largest point release of methane to the atmosphere in U.S. history. California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a California state of emergency for the incident, and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has identified the […]

Wastewater Pits Still Allowed in California

By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator Above-ground, unlined, open-air sumps/ponds It is hard to believe, but disposing of hazardous oil and gas wastewaters in unlined, open-air pits – also known as sumps or ponds – is still a common practice in California. It is also permitted in other states such as Texas and West Virginia. […]

Largest Coastal Spill in 25 years [in California]

By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator The Santa Barbara Pipeline Spill On May 19, 2015, just 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, a heavily corroded section of pipeline ruptured spilling upwards of 101,000 gallons. The pipeline was operated by Plains All American LLC, based out of Houston Texas, and was used to move crude oil […]

CA Crude Oil by Rail Shipments and Railway Accidents

By Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance Incidents in California involving oil-by-rail cars increased from 3 in 2011 to 25 in 2013. There were 24 incidents within the first 6 months of 2014, and oil spills from rail cars increased from 98 in 2010 to 182 in 2013.1 With such an increase in oil train incidents, […]

Responses to the Rash of Oil Train Incidents

By Kyle Ferrar and Samantha Malone Throughout the U.S. more crude was spilled from rail incidents in 2013 than the prior four decades combined. Recently, in a period of three weeks, there were four* derailments of crude oil trains carrying Bakken and other Canadian crudes resulting in fire and explosions, with multiple cars rupturing and set […]

Disproportionate Drilling and Stimulations in California

New Report from FracTracker and the Natural Resources Defense Council By Kyle Ferrar, CA Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance The FracTracker Alliance recently contributed to a report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), titled Drilling in California: Who’s at Risk?. In the report, we find that many communities disproportionally burdened by environmental and public […]

Class II Oil and Gas Wastewater Injection and Seismic Hazards in CA

By Kyle Ferrar, CA Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance In collaboration with the environmental advocacy groups Earthworks, Center for Biological Diversity, and Clean Water Action, The FracTracker Alliance has completed a proximity analysis of the locations of California’s Class II oil and gas wastewater injection wells to “recently” active fault zones in California. The results of […]