New Tool Maps the Health Impacts of Toxic Air Pollutants Released With Methane in Super-Emitter Events

On a breezy late summer day in the small Colorado town of Fort Lupton, a massive plume of methane escaped from a hydrocarbon storage tank about 200 feet from an RV park. The leak, the second over four days in September 2023, released enough of the potent climate-warming gas per hour to fit the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of a methane super-emitter.

Fort Lupton is in Weld County, which produces more oil and gas than any other Colorado county. Yet no alert system exists to warn people about the fugitive emissions or whether they posed a health risk.

A new tool from an independent science research institute working on climate solutions that protect health and the environment aims to change that. The Methane Risk Map, created by experts at PSE Healthy Energy, reveals the risks of toxic gases present in methane plumes by visualizing the path of hazardous air pollutants released alongside the colorless, odorless gas.

Emissions of methane, the main component of natural gas, are rising faster than any other greenhouse gas, driven largely by fossil fuel production and use, agriculture and landfills.