Hazardous Organic Compounds in Liquid Wastes from Disposal Pits for Production of Natural Gas

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Abstract
Samples of liquid waste found in disposal pits from natural gas production were collected at sites selected in northwest New Mexico and were characterized for hazardous and other organic compounds using GC and GC/MS techniques. Purge and trap pretreatment was used in GC/MS determination of volatile organic compounds while solvent extraction, prefraction and preconcentration were used for isolation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the same waste samples. Benzene and alkylated benzenes were present at estimated concentrations of 10 to 50 mg/L in aqueous portions of pit wastes, Selected ion monitoring with capillary GC/MS with deuterated PAH as internal standards was used to quantify PAH in both aqueous and non-aqueous liquid phases. Over 50 PAH were detected at total concentrations of 130μg/L to 24,500 μg/L for aqueous phases and 1055 mg/kg to 13,500 mg/kg for non-aqueous phases in pit wastes. In addition, total organic compounds detected in GC analyses of pit wastes were estimated as 200 μg/L to 235 mg/L for aqueous phase and 11 g/kg to 402 g/kg for the non-aqueous phase. Consequences to aquatic environment from disposal practices in natural gas production are evaluated and discussed based on these results.