Methane Flares - The Rise of an Invisible Killer
I had been holding into this article I wrote for a while now, looking for the right place to share it, and it was recommended that I share it here.
I had written it to post on !superbowl, but this isn’t really the vibe I try to curate over there, so I had removed it. I’ve seen talk recently about methane flaring on Mander, so I wanted to finally share this.
Thankfully since I’ve written this, there seems to be proposals by the current administration in the US to reduce or eliminate flaring, which I still need to read more about.
I hope you take the time to read this and can encourage your legislators to follow up on getting this regulated to protect humans and animals affected by this practice.
The following is about an unpleasant topic that I was unaware of until this week. It concerns landfills, which is not a glamourous topic to discuss, but we need to be aware of problems if we are to get them fixed. Due to new climate change regulations of the last few years, a new concern has come about in regard to keeping wildlife safe as we try to control greenhouse gas emissions.
I have avoided including anything graphic so you can all be made aware of what is happening without being forced to look at something you wouldn’t want to see, but some of the links do contain both great information, but also contain photos of the injuries that occur from this new danger. At the end of the post, I list some articles that do not contain any potentially disturbing images, but still provide expanded information on this subject.
Global warming has been the focus of much regulation in recent years. Methane constitutes about 12% of US greenhouse gas emissions, as opposed to the 80% that is carbon dioxide, but the impact of methane is greater than carbon dioxide due to the density of the molecules. Methane will hold onto 28 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. There are a variety of manmade and natural sources of methane emissions, but today we will examine the 15% that is from landfills. Methane is colorless, odorless, and burns with a flame not typically visible in daylight.
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The Clean Air Act requires landfills to reduce methane emissions from landfill gas, also known as LFG. There are typically 3 options that can be used. LFG can be collected and processed to use for energy generation production. It can also be cleaned and then sold for other purposes. Most facilities do not generate enough LFG to make this a profitable venture, so the final method of methane reduction is more commonly used: flaring.
Flaring may not make sense at first. By burning methane, carbon dioxide is created. The thought is that by burning the methane, the resultant carbon dioxide is still less damaging than would be from venting the methane itself. Harm reduction is still positive, but it takes us to the point of this post.
By having a 1800F/1000C invisible flame coming from a tall tree-like structure next to a large open space that provides food to rodents, this creates a huge danger to raptors. Large numbers of birds of prey are being incinerated, either going to perch atop the tower, or by pursuing game or defending territory and passing through the flames. The primary victims of flaring are Red Tailed Hawks and Great Horned Owls.
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Bald eagles, kestrels, merlins, and other birds have been documented to have been injured or killed by the flaring. Researchers estimate the number to be higher than the data suggests, due to injured birds flying or running away after receiving injuries. Smaller birds may just become completely incinerated by the extreme heat.
One the raptors, damage can be very extensive. The amount of feather damaged received could take 1-2 years to regrow, if new feather growth is possible. Damage to the follicles that regrow feathers and the burning of the skin itself can prevent feathers from ever regrowing. When some birds only have a lifespan of a few years to begin with, decisions need to be made weighing the outcome of rehabilitation vs euthanasia.
NJ Spotlight News - NJ Landfill Burning Kestrels
NJ Story on Methane Flare Hawk Injuries
The issue has been widely discussed in New Jersey as reports have come out about the horrific injuries to the wildlife. There are no legal requirements for any animal safety measures to be installed. That is not to say they do not exist. There are also systems available that use an enclosed flame. Safety cages have been installed on some open flame systems. US Fish and Wildlife was contacted to try to come up with safety measures, and as there was nothing currently existing to solve this problem, the following article goes into how they developed a solution.
Article about flare cage construction
Landfills do take actions to keep wildlife away for a number of reasons, which can include the safety of the animals. I did find this industry article about how they try to deter wildlife from building their homes in and near the landfills.
Bird Control Best Practices for Landfills
The linked articles are all very informative, but also contain some pretty graphic pictures. If you want to read more, but avoid that, I’d recommend sticking to the 2 here:
This is the EPA intro to Landfill Gas and is just basic info to familiarize yourself with LFG, where it comes from, and some nice charts about gas emissions.
This is the story of the safety cage construction. This article is largely positive in tone compared to most of the others, and focuses mainly on solutions instead of the problem part of things. It does have one photo of a Kestrel with a burned tail and wings. It is not a pleasant picture, but it is about as mild as can convey the serious damage that can occur from a flaring injury. If you can handle that, this article is definitely recommended reading.
Nat Geo Article on Methane FlaresNatGeo Article, mostly focused on the work by The Raptor Trust in New Jersey. (A great place to visit, by the way!) It says there’s an injured bird pic in this, but it doesn’t load for me on the linked Archive.org post.
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