Evaluation of Effects of Gaseous Emissions from Gas Flare Sites on Air and Rain Water Quality in Afam, Oyigbo Local Government Area Rivers State

Study examined effect of gaseous emissions from gas flare sites on air and rainwater quality in Afam, Oyigbo LGA, and Rivers State, Nigeria.Primary data involved air and rain water quality sampling using monitoring equipment.Air quality sampling was carried out for eight hour period daily (morning;7am to 11 am) and evening (12pm to 4pm) for 3 days within a distance of 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m and 1000m away from gas flaring site.Sampled air quality parameters were CO, SO 2 , NO 2 , CH 4 , VOCs, H 2 S and PM 2.5 ; while weather parameters were temperature, heat index, relative humidity, wind speed direction.Rainwater samples were collected directly from rain sources during rain fall in Afam community around Afam gas flaring site.Composite sampling technique was deployed for air quality monitoring while systematic sampling methods was deployed for rainwater sampling using maximum standards for contaminated water analysis.Laboratory test for water samples were for physico-chemical and carcinogenic properties of pH, conductivity, TDS, salinity, DO, sulphate, nitrate, hydrogen carbonate, chloride, total hydrocarbon content (THC), BOD, Cu, Cr and Fe.Descriptive statistics explained the values of air and rain water quality.Hypotheses 1 and 3 were tested using ANOVA; hypothesis 2 was tested using Pearson Correlation; hypothesis 3 was tested using the one Sample Ttest.Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS version 24.0.Results showed that concentration of gaseous pollutants and content of rainwater quality parameters varied among sampling distances away from gas flaring site.Heat index and relative humidity significantly correlates with CO (r=0.579 and 0.585 at p=0.05), SO 2 (r=0.754 and 0.478 at p=0.05), VOC (r=0.566 and 0.576 at p=0.05), and H 2 S (r=0.595 and 0.536 at p=0.05).Mean concentration values of air quality parameters were higher than WHO standards except for mean concentration of CH 4 which showed concentration values (0.27ppm and 0.23 ppm) higher than WHO standards at 200m away from gas flare site.Rainwater quality parameters recorded mean content values within WHO acceptable limit except for Cr.Results further revealed significant effects of gaseous emissions from Afam gas flare site.Study recommends amongst others; that governments should as a matter of urgency ensure that multinational oil companies adhere to environmental standards for controlling and managing oil exploration activities leading to gas flaring in the study area.