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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Environmental Science & Technology

Regional Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations on Ozone and Air Toxics

  • Yongtao Hu1
  • Kamal Jyoti Maji1
  • M. Talat Odman1
  • Jennifer Kaiser1
  • Armistead G. Russell1
  1. 1School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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Abstract

Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) has expanded over the past three decades and now accounts for most of U.S. oil and natural gas production. Although prior studies link local UOGD activity to health outcomes, they provide limited evidence directly attributing ambient pollutant levels to UOGD emissions. We address this gap by quantifying UOGD impacts on ozone and air toxics using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with the Integrated Source Apportionment Method (ISAM), enabling an explicit linkage between UOGD emissions and ambient concentrations. UOGD activities produce substantial local contributions to primary air toxics and continental-scale influences on ozone. Across CONUS, UOGD increases population-weighted annual averages of maximum daily average 8-h (MDA8) ozone, 1-h benzene, 1-h nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and 1-h formaldehyde (HCHO) concentrations by roughly 1 ppb, 1.1 ppt, 0.035 ppb, and 0.03 ppb, respectively. Annual maximum UOGD contributions to MDA8 ozone are about half of those from other anthropogenic sources. ISAM also reveals unexpectedly large UOGD-driven ozone enhancement (up to 4–5 ppb) in the Los Angeles region from Texas emissions, a feature less evident in brute-force sensitivity tests. These findings highlight the need to further examine interstate UOGD influences on nonattainment areas and source-impact quantification methods.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{hu2026regional,
  title = {{Regional Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations on Ozone and Air Toxics}},
  author = {Yongtao Hu and Kamal Jyoti Maji and M. Talat Odman and Jennifer Kaiser and Armistead G. Russell},
  journal = {Environmental Science \& Technology},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1021/acs.est.6c03632},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c03632},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Regional Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas Operations on Ozone and Air Toxics
AU  - Yongtao Hu
AU  - Kamal Jyoti Maji
AU  - M. Talat Odman
AU  - Jennifer Kaiser
AU  - Armistead G. Russell
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/19
JO  - Environmental Science & Technology
DO  - 10.1021/acs.est.6c03632
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c03632
AB  - Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) has expanded over the past three decades and now accounts for most of U.S. oil and natural gas production. Although prior studies link local UOGD activity to health outcomes, they provide limited evidence directly attributing ambient pollutant levels to UOGD emissions. We address this gap by quantifying UOGD impacts on ozone and air toxics using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with the Integrated Source Apportionment Method (ISAM), enabling an explicit linkage between UOGD emissions and ambient concentrations. UOGD activities produce substantial local contributions to primary air toxics and continental-scale influences on ozone. Across CONUS, UOGD increases population-weighted annual averages of maximum daily average 8-h (MDA8) ozone, 1-h benzene, 1-h nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and 1-h formaldehyde (HCHO) concentrations by roughly 1 ppb, 1.1 ppt, 0.035 ppb, and 0.03 ppb, respectively. Annual maximum UOGD contributions to MDA8 ozone are about half of those from other anthropogenic sources. ISAM also reveals unexpectedly large UOGD-driven ozone enhancement (up to 4–5 ppb) in the Los Angeles region from Texas emissions, a feature less evident in brute-force sensitivity tests. These findings highlight the need to further examine interstate UOGD influences on nonattainment areas and source-impact quantification methods.
SN  - 0013-936X
SN  - 1520-5851
ER  -