The team studies pathways of contaminants that might originate from the lifecycle of energy resources
image source - Vern Whitten Photography
The Energy Lifecycle Integrated Science Team focuses on the potential for contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from energy resource activities including, extraction, production, transportation, storage, extraction, waste management and restoration. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified this project will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants. Emphasis will be placed on addressing these issues on public and Department of Interior managed lands.
![circle showing components of energy resource lifecycle](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/full_width/public/media/images/energy_lifecycle-01.jpg?itok=NQ7vQTPf)
The United States is one of the largest users of energy, consuming annually about one-quarter of the energy resources produced in the world. The energy industry and government regulators work to provide energy resources to the public safely and effectively. Management of energy byproducts such as waste materials (including both solid and liquid wastes) from oil and gas development are a critical part of that work. However, spills, leaks, and other factors can create pathways for contaminants to enter the environment and result in exposures to humans and biota.
The associated health effects of specific spills have not been demonstrated in many cases, yet the perception of risk can drive action by industry and regulators. Hydrologists, chemists, biologists, and geologists on the Team conduct studies outside the mission of other federal agencies, by assessing actual versus perceived health effects to humans and biota due to exposures to energy production materials in the environment. This effort utilizes a watershed-and aquifer-based interdisciplinary science approach, providing a "big picture" that helps show where energy development activities are causing adverse health impacts on biota due to environmental contaminant exposures, as well as where they are not causing impacts. With this information in hand industry, land managers and other decision makers are able to balance the critical need for energy with further action, if any, to minimize health risks associated with energy production materials in the environment.
The USGS Energy Lifecycle Integrated Science Team (IST), a part of the Environmental Health Program, conducts research on potential contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from the life cycle of energy resources. Their research is completed in laboratories, at targeted field sites, and in watersheds across the Nation to collectively deliver science on exposures and risks to wildlife, humans, ecosystems, and water resources. Potential contaminant releases are associated with transportation, storage, extraction, and management of energy-related products and wastes.
The team provides science to support balanced utilization and protection of our Nation’s resources. The Team is combining their findings on sources, fate, transport, and degradation of the contaminants with an understanding of the exposure and effects on wildlife and humans for a One-Health approach that recognizes the inextricable connections between the physical and living environment.
The Energy IST is unique in that they bring together geochemists, microbiologists, ecologists, toxicologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, and modelers along with remote sensing capabilities with more than 60 scientists from 16science centers across USGS. This breadth of research abilities allows the Team to address complex nationwide questions related to the lifecycle of energy resources that would be out of reach for individual and small groups of scientists The value of their research is enhanced by the active participation of stakeholders.
The Team Aims to:
- Identify Sources of Contaminants from Energy-Related Materials
- Identify Potential Pathways of Contaminants to/in the Environment
- Determine Toxicity and Risks to Organisms from Energy-Associated Materials in the Environment
- Evaluate Environmental Responses and Recovery from Energy Lifecycle Activities
- Evaluate Reuse Potential of Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG) Wastes
Current Science Questions and Activities
- Materials from oil and gas (OG) extraction may contain toxic or radioactive elements from the geologic formation, additives such as biocides used during OG development, and products of natural degradation. What is the composition of the materials generated, the potential pathways to the environment, the mode-of-action and the effects, if any, on receptor organisms from exposure to these constituents?
- Energy development occurs nationwide on public and private lands at scales ranging from town to regional to state-level development. This work is focused on the regional, and especially watershed or aquifer scale, energy-resource associated releases (for example spills, pipeline breaks) to the environment. Are there contaminant exposures and actual, not perceived, public health concerns throughout the watershed or underlying aquifers downstream or downgradient of the release?
- Releases of energy-associated materials to the environment can occur at various time scales thereby altering biogeochemistry and potential health effects on fish and wildlife as well as contaminant exposures to humans. Is persistence related to actual health effects?
Selected Science Feature Article Listed Below.
See the publications tab for a complete list of publications
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Framework for Examining Stream Ecosystem Health in Areas of Shale Gas Development—A Multi-Parameter Watershed-Based Case Study in Pennsylvania
Wastewaters from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development
Amphibians Exposed to Oil and Gas Co-Produced Wastewaters: Differentiating the Actual and the Perceived Inorganic Contaminant Hazards — Prairie Pothole Region
Cyclical Mobilization and Attenuation of Naturally Occurring Arsenic in an Underground Petroleum Plume
Two Scientists Receive Early Career Excellence in Leadership Award
Trace Levels of Organic Chemicals Limited to Local Reaches of a Stream near an Oil and Gas Wastewater Disposal Facility
Examining Shifts in Stream Microbial Communities Exposed to Oil and Gas Wastewaters
Understanding Pathways of Unconventional Oil and Gas Produced Water Spills in the Environment
Landscape Effects of Oil and Gas Development
Indication of Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewaters Found in Local Surface Waters
Natural Breakdown of Petroleum Results in Arsenic Mobilization in Groundwater
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Groundwater and soil gas data, methods, and quality assurance information for samples collected to determine ancient carbon distributions at Red Hill, Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i 2022-2023
Aqueous and solid phases partitioning of elemental constituents associated with Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL) gas well produced wastewater, Morgantown, WV, 2016 - 2019
Geochemistry and microbiology data collected to study the effects of oil and gas wastewater dumping on arid lands in New Mexico
True color and multispectral imagery data collected by small unoccupied aircraft systems at the USGS National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site, Bemidji, Minnesota, June 2018
Quantitation of estrogens in water, alone and in combination with atrazine, using two chemically-activated luciferase expression, CALUX, bioassays and quadrupole-time of flight ultraperformance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, UPLC-MS
Dissolved organic carbon, total petroleum hydrocarbons and and toxicity assay results for Bemidji, MN (2018)
Toxicity Data for Groundwater Contaminated by Petroleum Hydrocarbons near Bemidji, MN (2016)
Nonvolatile dissolved organic carbon and diesel range organics concentrations measured in 2016 at the Bemidji crude oil study site
Water quality and survival data for 96 hour bioassays conducted near the Blacktail Creek wastewater spill, North Dakota, 2015-17
Water-quality results from a wastewater reuse study: Inorganic and organic compositions of wastewater effluent and select urban and agricultural water types during rain-induced runoff, Chickasha, Oklahoma, 2018-2019
Biological and chemical data from chloride bioassays with native wetland species in natural and reconstituted Prairie Pothole waters
Chemical and biological data from a study on sensitivity of a unionid mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea) to a permitted effluent and elevated potassium
Below are publications associated with this project.
Land-use interactions, Oil-Field infrastructure, and natural processes control hydrocarbon and arsenic concentrations in groundwater, Poso Creek Oil Field, California, USA
Illegal dumping of oil and gas wastewater alters arid soil microbial communities
Comment on “Complex mixture toxicology: Evaluation of toxicity to freshwater aquatic receptors from biodegradation metabolites in groundwater at a crude oil release site, recent analogous results from other authors, and implications for risk management”
Ammonia and aquatic ecosystems – A review of global sources, biogeochemical cycling, and effects on fish
Photochemical mobilization of dissolved hydrocarbon oxidation products from petroleum contaminated soil into a shallow aquifer activate human nuclear receptors
Attenuation of barium, strontium, cobalt, and nickel plumes formed during microbial iron-reduction in a crude-oil-contaminated aquifer
Assessing environmental oil spill based on fluorescence images of water samples and deep learning
Comparison of two estrogen chemically activated luciferase expression cell bioassays to liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry for quantifying estrone in water samples
Using biological responses to monitor freshwater post-spill conditions over 3 years in Blacktail Creek, North Dakota, USA
Understanding the evolution of groundwater-contaminant plume chemistry emanating from legacy contaminant sources: An example from a long-term crude oil spill
Characterization of the partial oxidation products of crude oil contaminating groundwater at the U.S. Geological Survey Bemidji research site in Minnesota by elemental analysis, radiocarbon dating, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and Fourier tran
Microbially induced anaerobic oxidation of magnetite to maghemite in a hydrocarbon-contaminated aquifer
The Energy Lifecycle Integrated Science Team focuses on the potential for contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from energy resource activities including, extraction, production, transportation, storage, extraction, waste management and restoration. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified this project will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants. Emphasis will be placed on addressing these issues on public and Department of Interior managed lands.
![circle showing components of energy resource lifecycle](https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/full_width/public/media/images/energy_lifecycle-01.jpg?itok=NQ7vQTPf)
The United States is one of the largest users of energy, consuming annually about one-quarter of the energy resources produced in the world. The energy industry and government regulators work to provide energy resources to the public safely and effectively. Management of energy byproducts such as waste materials (including both solid and liquid wastes) from oil and gas development are a critical part of that work. However, spills, leaks, and other factors can create pathways for contaminants to enter the environment and result in exposures to humans and biota.
The associated health effects of specific spills have not been demonstrated in many cases, yet the perception of risk can drive action by industry and regulators. Hydrologists, chemists, biologists, and geologists on the Team conduct studies outside the mission of other federal agencies, by assessing actual versus perceived health effects to humans and biota due to exposures to energy production materials in the environment. This effort utilizes a watershed-and aquifer-based interdisciplinary science approach, providing a "big picture" that helps show where energy development activities are causing adverse health impacts on biota due to environmental contaminant exposures, as well as where they are not causing impacts. With this information in hand industry, land managers and other decision makers are able to balance the critical need for energy with further action, if any, to minimize health risks associated with energy production materials in the environment.
The USGS Energy Lifecycle Integrated Science Team (IST), a part of the Environmental Health Program, conducts research on potential contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from the life cycle of energy resources. Their research is completed in laboratories, at targeted field sites, and in watersheds across the Nation to collectively deliver science on exposures and risks to wildlife, humans, ecosystems, and water resources. Potential contaminant releases are associated with transportation, storage, extraction, and management of energy-related products and wastes.
The team provides science to support balanced utilization and protection of our Nation’s resources. The Team is combining their findings on sources, fate, transport, and degradation of the contaminants with an understanding of the exposure and effects on wildlife and humans for a One-Health approach that recognizes the inextricable connections between the physical and living environment.
The Energy IST is unique in that they bring together geochemists, microbiologists, ecologists, toxicologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, and modelers along with remote sensing capabilities with more than 60 scientists from 16science centers across USGS. This breadth of research abilities allows the Team to address complex nationwide questions related to the lifecycle of energy resources that would be out of reach for individual and small groups of scientists The value of their research is enhanced by the active participation of stakeholders.
The Team Aims to:
- Identify Sources of Contaminants from Energy-Related Materials
- Identify Potential Pathways of Contaminants to/in the Environment
- Determine Toxicity and Risks to Organisms from Energy-Associated Materials in the Environment
- Evaluate Environmental Responses and Recovery from Energy Lifecycle Activities
- Evaluate Reuse Potential of Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG) Wastes
Current Science Questions and Activities
- Materials from oil and gas (OG) extraction may contain toxic or radioactive elements from the geologic formation, additives such as biocides used during OG development, and products of natural degradation. What is the composition of the materials generated, the potential pathways to the environment, the mode-of-action and the effects, if any, on receptor organisms from exposure to these constituents?
- Energy development occurs nationwide on public and private lands at scales ranging from town to regional to state-level development. This work is focused on the regional, and especially watershed or aquifer scale, energy-resource associated releases (for example spills, pipeline breaks) to the environment. Are there contaminant exposures and actual, not perceived, public health concerns throughout the watershed or underlying aquifers downstream or downgradient of the release?
- Releases of energy-associated materials to the environment can occur at various time scales thereby altering biogeochemistry and potential health effects on fish and wildlife as well as contaminant exposures to humans. Is persistence related to actual health effects?
Selected Science Feature Article Listed Below.
See the publications tab for a complete list of publications
Geochemical Signatures of Oil and Gas Wastewater from an Accidental Release Detected in Stream Sediment and Pore Waters Two Years Post Spill
Framework for Examining Stream Ecosystem Health in Areas of Shale Gas Development—A Multi-Parameter Watershed-Based Case Study in Pennsylvania
Wastewaters from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development
Amphibians Exposed to Oil and Gas Co-Produced Wastewaters: Differentiating the Actual and the Perceived Inorganic Contaminant Hazards — Prairie Pothole Region
Cyclical Mobilization and Attenuation of Naturally Occurring Arsenic in an Underground Petroleum Plume
Two Scientists Receive Early Career Excellence in Leadership Award
Trace Levels of Organic Chemicals Limited to Local Reaches of a Stream near an Oil and Gas Wastewater Disposal Facility
Examining Shifts in Stream Microbial Communities Exposed to Oil and Gas Wastewaters
Understanding Pathways of Unconventional Oil and Gas Produced Water Spills in the Environment
Landscape Effects of Oil and Gas Development
Indication of Unconventional Oil and Gas Wastewaters Found in Local Surface Waters
Natural Breakdown of Petroleum Results in Arsenic Mobilization in Groundwater
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Groundwater and soil gas data, methods, and quality assurance information for samples collected to determine ancient carbon distributions at Red Hill, Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i 2022-2023
Aqueous and solid phases partitioning of elemental constituents associated with Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL) gas well produced wastewater, Morgantown, WV, 2016 - 2019
Geochemistry and microbiology data collected to study the effects of oil and gas wastewater dumping on arid lands in New Mexico
True color and multispectral imagery data collected by small unoccupied aircraft systems at the USGS National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site, Bemidji, Minnesota, June 2018
Quantitation of estrogens in water, alone and in combination with atrazine, using two chemically-activated luciferase expression, CALUX, bioassays and quadrupole-time of flight ultraperformance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, UPLC-MS
Dissolved organic carbon, total petroleum hydrocarbons and and toxicity assay results for Bemidji, MN (2018)
Toxicity Data for Groundwater Contaminated by Petroleum Hydrocarbons near Bemidji, MN (2016)
Nonvolatile dissolved organic carbon and diesel range organics concentrations measured in 2016 at the Bemidji crude oil study site
Water quality and survival data for 96 hour bioassays conducted near the Blacktail Creek wastewater spill, North Dakota, 2015-17
Water-quality results from a wastewater reuse study: Inorganic and organic compositions of wastewater effluent and select urban and agricultural water types during rain-induced runoff, Chickasha, Oklahoma, 2018-2019
Biological and chemical data from chloride bioassays with native wetland species in natural and reconstituted Prairie Pothole waters
Chemical and biological data from a study on sensitivity of a unionid mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea) to a permitted effluent and elevated potassium
Below are publications associated with this project.