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
stoft "Yes, I understand the wish for simple, cheap and insensitive to construction or handling -- but I'd like to propose some alternative, yet associate..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Let me also add that I think added stability of OTK attachment to the spec would be great! But I just don't see it as something we have to prioriti..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
gretchengehrke "Thanks for a lot of good thoughts to consider. I agree that the optical paths need to be rigid, both from the slit to the DVD and from the DVD to ..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Ack, seems like embeds in comments still isn't working. I'll update with just the picture. " | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Sorry, I've been coding. Some more thoughts: In the graph I posted of the basic, upgraded, and hi-res spectra, I realize it's hard to say what's m..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
stoft "Thanks - Lots of great feedback. - First, remember that we are dealing with light with extremely short wavelengths -- which is why most optical exp..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Interestingly, also -- this post now shows up as the top hit for "bimodal lambda-max" on DuckDuckGo.com and in the top six for Google: https://enc..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "I love this test - the possibility of distinguishing mixed oils, even in a basic sense, is amazing. Have you done a 1:2 mix test for comparison? " | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "For #4-6, I'm not sure I agree. The rigidity of the attachment of the Oil Testing Kit to the spectrometer itself only has an effect on amplitude, a..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Hi, Dave - thanks for the input, as always. As to #1, absolutely, as even a small movement can change the position of a spectrum. Do you feel that..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
Guillaume123 "Reply to ctoft musings, Your (ctoft) experiments with the PLab 3.0 spectrometer and PLab oil-test kit prototypes demonstrated the requirement to b..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
mathew "wow! that's a real clear match! " | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "@ygzstc - pointing you at this note since you've ordered some very bright UV LEDs. Oops, missed your comment mathew - we'll have to try that, thou..." | Read more » over 9 years ago
warren "Did it help to let the water evaporate before wringing? " | Read more » over 9 years ago
liz "can i just say i am still really into this " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "I've been wondering about mailing these oil samples. Motor oil is fine, becuase its flash point is high. most "neat," or consumer commercial prod..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
gretchengehrke "SyncPoint, that is great to hear! Do you have supplies through specific vendors? " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
SyncPoint "This is my first post, so i will make this brief. I am a Petroleum Geology student with acces to most of the world's oil crude's (brent, hanifa etc..." | Read more » almost 10 years ago
liz "this is so great! a very important step forward! " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
patcoyle "Ingenious, seems like a great approach. " | Read more » almost 10 years ago
mathew "I love their HTML 5 video stuff in there. really nice. The fold-up GIF is also stellar. " | Read more » about 10 years ago
warren "Looks amazing. I recently saw some neat ideas for cardboard construction from Nadya Peek and James Coleman, and also was just impressed at their do..." | Read more » about 10 years ago
mathew "PDFs for images in previous comment. specbox-top-newtab2.pdf spec-box-bottom-newtab2.pdf " | Read more » about 10 years ago
mathew "a lot of small revisions based on the die-cuttable tabs. " | Read more » about 10 years ago