Fellow: Luisa F Torres
Advisor: Advisor: Eakalak Khan, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, North Dakota State University.
Co-Advisor: Dr. Om Prakash Yadav , Associate Professor, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Degree Progress: Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, expected graduation in Spring 2016.

One of Luisa’s interests is water due to its importance in human life and development. Because of this, her advisors and she are working on reviewing the risks to water quantity and quality associated with unconventional oil and gas production. Her thesis research focuses on performing a holistic water risk assessment based on the water lifecycle during unconventional oil and gas development where every stage is going to be analyzed including social factors.

Project Objectives:

1. Understand and prioritize the risks to water quantity and quality that could result from unconventional oil and gas development.
2. Characterize the risk by performing a holistic risk assessment that also include social perception and impacts.
3. Propose solutions and mitigation plans to reduce de occurrences of the risks analyzed.

Progress:

The student has reviewed over 120 sources related to unconventional oil and gas development and risk assessment. The student just finished writing a literature review paper and her advisor are going to send it to several journals for publication. The next step for the research has been established. The scope of the research will be on performing the holistic risk assessment focused on the most hazardous contaminants found in the produced water. The effects on the environment and, most important, on human health are going to be analyzed.

Significance:

The results of this research will determine the risks to water quality and the impacts on the environment and human health. Some of the contaminant found in the produced water are well known and have been extensively studied in the past but there are some which impacts are not completely understood. One example is radioactive material which is been considered for this research. The initiating events, or situation that promote the risk of water contamination will be identified. The frequency or probability of those risks to happen are going to be assessed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Lastly, the consequences of the risks are going to be shown focusing on the environment and human health. In addition, uncertainties of the parameters involved in water contamination are expected to be reduced by performing computational simulations. The outcome of this thesis will give a better understanding about the importance of risk assessment in the oil and gas industry by showing the potential impacts on human health and the environment. Moreover, this research intends to help as a source for future studies about unconventional oil and gas development.