Soil Pollution Assessment of a Gas Flare Site in the Niger Delta Region

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this research was to investigate the level of pollutants deposition on soil generated from a gas flaring site.
 Study Design: The Soil Samples for this study were picked from two sets of locations (a proposed gas flare site situated at Ogbogu Gas plant and two control sites sfrom a primary source of local farm lands). A total number of eighteen samples were collected from the five different sampling spots as designated using the global positioning system (GPs).
 A contaminated Site and three farm lands within Ogbogu and Ebocha community were mapped at 20m, 50m, 100m, 500m & 700m from the gas flare site and mapped with GPs location at two different sampling depths (0-15 & 15-30) cm.
 A Control Site and two (2) farm lands within Idu Ekpeye community were mapped outside the area of concentration from the gas flare sites. These locations were chosen to determine by comparative assessment, the impact of gas flaring on the soil properties of the contaminated sites.
 Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. This area was chosen for this study because of the high volume of petroleum activities. Oil and gas processing, production, transportation and utilization for power generation occur daily in the area resulting in numerous cases of environmental degradation and pollution.
 Methodology: This research explores and presents a method of analysing the environmental impact of gas flaring in the Niger Delta so as to provide the data required for the complete analysis and evaluation of the various observed and noted health and environmental effects of gas flaring in Niger Delta. Different samples at various proximities at 200m, 500m, 1000m, 5000m and 7000m from the flare site using a hand aguar equipment sampled at depths of (0-15)cm and (15–30)cm were taken and measurements and experimentations were meticulously carried out.
 Results: The results obtained in this research show a marked trend as all the parameters considered indicated a gradient away from the flare points in all the flow stations such as soil pH changing from acidic (4.0-4.2) to near neutral (6.4-6.6) away from the flare points and the average low soil moisture content of (17% - 23%) as against 40% for the (10m and 20m) and control distance. The quantity of carbon emitted by these flares are about 2,525,000.00 tonnes of carbon per day. These values portray a bad omen for the affected communities.
 Conclusion: Contamination of agricultural soils by trace metals creates a serious risk of the introduction of these xenobiotics into human food chain. The soil fertility is being reduced as this study has revealed an increase in temperature along-side an increase in gas flaring and flare distances.
 This study recommends that gas flaring should be seen as a violent action against the people and that the flared gas should be channelled to meeting the ever increasing demand for energy in the industrial sector of the economy.