Organic compound emissions from a landfarm used for oil and gas solid waste disposal.

Solid and sludgy hydrocarbon waste from the oil and gas industry is often disposed of by landfarming, in which wastes are tilled into soil and allowed to decompose. We show that a land farm in Utah emitted a variety of organic compounds into the atmosphere, including hazardous air pollutants and compounds that form ozone. We calculate that a 2-ha landfarm facility would emit 95.0 ± 66.0 kg day-1 of total hydrocarbons, including 11.1 ± 1.5 kg day-1 of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes).