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
liz "@joshuaflux , does node have boats that can cross from Beacon to the other side of the Hudson to photograph this site? " | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "seems like auto stores sell oil absorbers. Autozone sells "new pig" brand, and they make an oil-only rag: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accesso..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "I reported a lensing effect from the curved top of the gel caps, and wanted to answer the question of whether the fluorescence could be improved if..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "what are Biro's? " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
amysoyka "How about using empty Biro's? " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
marlokeno "Sure- I'm slow with photos these days; when the malware destroyed my computer, I got the files back ok; but I lost my indexing stuff. Redoing that ..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Hello @marlokeno - would you be willing to post a version of the top photo without a copyright symbol? We would be very interested in using it in a..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "What happens if you unscrew the lens on the laser and put it in front of the LED? can you concentrate the light to make a brighter point? " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "UV laser through a fish oil pill tested here: http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/08-14-2014/sample-container-search#c10038 " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "indeed. Updating now! " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
bsugar "sure thing. maybe add something on this page that says "most recent parts list here" where here is the wiki page. " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Hi, Benjamin - I think we're now going off the parts list on the oil testing kit page: http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit#Parts+list Yes, I..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
bsugar "a confusion about the parts list on the line about the laser: "or http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/350812684726?lpid=82 to buy just one cuvettes" two..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Ooh, 36 articles which cite this one: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=12262006161023041861&as_sdt=40000005&sciodt=0,22&hl=en t..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "I just realized Stevie and I were in Winona back in June-- I wish I'd remembered to look you up. We'll be back in wisconsin in the fall-- I'll sta..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
marlokeno "Sadly, no progress. In May, malware infested my computer, and, when I started removing the malware, it destroyed my files-and also put passwords on..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Crude Oil Set # 1 shows the basic differences between petroleums / crude oils. This set comes with an information sheet and these 6 petroleum / cr..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
sara "Hi Marlokeno, sounds like a great project! Have you made any progress? " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "One thing I didn't understand was that they are listing the input light at longer wavelengths than the fluorescence peaks they're looking for. I wa..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Update: photo of the samples from Crude Oil Set #1: " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "Boom. " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "It occurred to me in talking with @stevie that samples we collect ought to be treated as "unknowns" -- i think these mail-order samples are directl..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
stevie "I did post the ones we were looking at on the page here: http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit#Parts+list Or the direct links to the ones we w..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
warren "Actually @stevie and @natalie are sourcing new bottles right now, maybe you can get in on the order. We're hoping to switch to nail polish bottles,..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago