Author(s)

MIGUEL ANTONIO DE LUQUE VILLA, ALEXANDER VALENCIA CRUZ

Abstract

The influence area of a project includes environmental impacts caused by the development of the project on abiotic, biotic and socioeconomic components such as air, water, and soil. Knowing the location and extent of this area is essential for the environmental management of a project because it indicates where resources should be invested. This paper proposes a guide for the determination of areas of influence through the dispersion of particulate material in hydrocarbon projects. The present research looked at the unpaved road that leads from Puerto Gaitán (Meta, Colombia) to the Rubiales Field. The Gaussian dispersion model CALPUFF was used to determine the dispersion of particulate matter in the road section that connects Puerto Gaitán and the Rubiales field. 2000 discrete receptors were placed in a perpendicular line in three (3) sections of the road; these receptors were used to determine the concentration behaviour of particulate matter from the centre of the road every 2 m, up to 2000 m on each side. In order to determine the concentration profiles of the particulate matter, the modelling results were plotted in Excel, and a correlation analysis was carried out between the meteorology, the road sections, the emission factors and the particulate matter dispersion. This information was adjusted to different types of probability distributions in order to determine the representative function of the behaviour of the concentrations which included all meteorological data. The distributions with the best fit of the data corresponded to the Beta distribution. A methodology was generated for the calculation of the influence area in unpaved roads for hydrocarbon exploration projects. The methodology was used for the environmental licensing process of the LLA-66 exploration area of the company BC exploration and production of hydrocarbons SL branch Colombia, located in the city of Puerto Lopez in the Department of Meta, Colombia. It was found that the area of influence extended 6 m to each side of the axis of the road.

Keywords

air pollution, influence areas, unpaved roads, hydrocarbon exploration projects, modelling