Oil and Gas Accountability Toolkit
oil

The Public Lab non-profit hosts the **Oil and Gas Accountability Toolkit**, a collection of resources and a coalition of people working around the world on oil and gas issues. This toolkit goes beyond just "tools" to include: * peer support networks * [stories](/blog) of change and of challenges * ways to [build a community of practice](/facilitation) for sustained collaboration on a problem To see a full list of monitoring methods related to oil and gas, [click here](https://publiclab.org/methods#oil-and-gas). ### Coalitions What follows are a range of different topic-specific coalitions we've helped to bring together around a range of oil and gas related issues. We’ve learned more than ever to rely on the creativity and diverse skill-sets of contributors to develop new and unexpected ways of achieving goals. The thousands of people around the world who make up the Public Lab network **bring incredible expertise and a willingness to plug in and tackle problems** and continue to inspire us in their power and capacity. It’s our continuing responsibility to help them recognize and form alliances, and to solve problems together. ### Frac sand mining These resources are built around work supported by the [11th Hour Project](https://11thhourproject.org) which [focused on the issue of frac sand mining](/frac-sand). Since then, a range of projects have evolved to address different aspects of the issue. **** ## Air Monitoring ![microscope](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/880/large/OI000139_2.jpg) ### Microscope The Basic Microscope project on Public Lab was born from people’s interest in being able to visualize particulate matter that is known to be harmful for human and livestock health. Several local community members recognized the challenges in advocating with purely numerical data; when people can’t visualize and directly see threats, it can be easier to ignore. [wikis:microscopes] ### Air sampling Building on work by the Bucket Brigade, we've documented and collected several different techniques for collecting air samples for processing at a lab. [wikis:air-sampling] ### Measuring particles There are many different ways to measure particulate pollution. Read below to find out more. [wikis:particulate-sensing-overview] ### Visual emission monitoring Using your eyes or a camera to monitor emissions is a powerful type of monitoring which has several EPA methods associated with it. [wikis:visual-monitoring] ![Screen_Shot_2018-04-16_at_2.57.43_PM.png](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/024/620/large/Screen_Shot_2018-04-16_at_2.57.43_PM.png) ### Hydrogen Sulfide (above image by @ErikHanley11) [wikis:h2s-overview] ### Odor Reporting [wikis:odor] **** ![stormwater](/system/images/photos/000/024/626/large/Screen_Shot_2018-04-16_at_3.42.04_PM.png) ## Water Monitoring A wide range of sample-based, electronic, and other methods of monitoring water quality have been compiled on Public Lab, reflecting a range of efforts across our community. [wikis:water-monitoring] ![timelapse](/system/images/photos/000/018/073/large/Screenshot_2016-09-19_at_2.32.15_PM.png) ### Photo documentation Public Lab work began with photographic monitoring using [balloons and kites](/balloon-mapping). We've grown our coalition around a number of other ways that powerful visual evidence can be produced through photography. [wikis:photo-monitoring] ### Turbidity A range of techniques has been compiled around turbidity monitoring: [wikis:turbidity] ![datalogger](/system/images/photos/000/020/770/large/Screenshot_2017-06-12_at_3.06.25_PM.png) ### Datalogging A surprisingly broad coalition of projects has developed around Public Lab for logging data from different sources. See the main [Data Logging page](/data-logging) for more. [wikis:datalogger] **** ![soil sampling](/system/images/photos/000/024/627/large/Screen_Shot_2018-04-16_at_3.44.24_PM.png) ## Soil Monitoring We're developing initial soil sampling and monitoring techniques and resources under the "soil testing" topic: [wikis:soil-testing] **** ## Questions [questions:oil-and-gas]...


Author Comment Last activity Moderation
btbonval "@stoft the centroid would be a point (x,y), not a line (x=B for all y). sorry to nitpick verbiage. I got all mathy in this post, figured I'd keep u..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
btbonval "What @stoft described in the first message is usually accomplished using a matched filter in DSP. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_filter " | Read more » over 9 years ago
stoft "I think the term you are looking for is the "centroid" -- think of it as the point where the shape/volume/whatever would be physically balanced -- ..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
btbonval "@warren The line that you describe would be the weighted mean of the dataset (integral divided by two, aka area under the curve divided by two as @..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "@stevie running three samples and averaging them is a great idea. You can see in the labels that I started running 3-5 tests per sample to go for ..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "@stoft Dave, we're getting similar brightnesses between our readings of different oils by varying the concentration and/or light path, which seem t..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "I don't know the word for this kind of thing, but maybe @btbonval does :-) The line divides the graph into two equal areas: " | Read more » over 9 years ago
stevie "Good work here. I like the blowout warning idea. Experimenting with the oil density is def. another good step, but I agree that the distinct variat..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
stoft "Looks promising. Maybe these are obvious but... - Pick 3-5 oils, or oil mixtures, as a reference test set -- low to high density -- then use them f..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Unfortunately some of these lines are covered by others. I guess I should make the key show a wavelength too? " | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "OK, I added a couple more features -- one which bisects a graph with a vertical line where the area of the graph is equally divided -- what's that ..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "Gel caps fluoresce and we can't use them. And styrene is dissolved by oils. and we can't use it either. " | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "Not only excellent research- that last photo has some high-modernist artistic merit! " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "I also tried using a reflective metallic surface behind the cuvette to make the fluorescence brighter: It was hard to see, naked eye or by camer..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
donblair "Oh a whim, I just searched for 'gelatin reagent' and got this: "The Thermo Scientific™ Remel 12.5% Gelatin Reagent, Acidified Mercuric Chloride is..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "OK- complication-- gelatin will fluoresce when hit with UV: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315546387710980 " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "yes-- I used even smaller ones, the #4 caps. they have a nice "snap" closed that seals them when pushed together. gelatin passes UV, I believe. ..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
liz "News from the North Brooklyn Boat Club: Yesterday NYCDEP reported a break in the case. In their words: "We received an anonymous spill report of ..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
donblair "Ah, found a pic: " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
donblair "Woohoo! Mathew, this is brilliant. Could you include a closeup shot of the gel cap w/out liquid -- or I'll just search online -- are they relative..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "that is heartening to see, that is a nice response curve for the oil " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "Hmmm... yeah. The SYBA was a good camera. it has 2x the silicon. I've been searching for 1/3" CCD security cameras-- that would put us back to th..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
joshuaflux "we can get access to kayaks, canoes, and potentially a sailboat. " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Hi, Mat - I've noticed that olive oil fluorescence is much dimmer than crude oil fluorescence, and I shipped you some crude samples this morning. T..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago