Critical Evaluation of Effects of Gas Flaring On The Environment

In order to critically evaluate the effect of gas flaring on the environment using Niger Delta as a case study, the following parameters were collected from the location of study. These includes: Air, Water Sample, and Soil Sample. For the purpose of analysis, the samples were tested for the following, for water quality the physicochemical properties were tested and for hydrocarbon were also tested. For air quality and climatic condition, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide and soot particles, air temperature, relative and absolute humidity, wind s on these samples revealed that the soil, water, some other hydrocarbons within the flare source and the air quality are within the limit of the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMENV), the Department of Petroleu (DPR) and the World Health Organization Standard. From the graphical interpretation, it is pertinent to note that the thermal energy is high in the soil around the flare source, that is at zero meter depth and the temperature decrease as one dug down vertically into the soil. My analysis is in consonant with the work earlier done by Oyenkunle (1991) that crop planted 600m away from flare source suffered 100% lost compared to crop planted 1000 metre away from the flare source which suffered only 10% lost. This confirmed that around the flare source there are high levels of thermal energy. My assertion tallies with IKelegbe (1993) observation that free disposal of gas through flared generate tremendous amount of heat which is felt over an average pollution. It is therefore my submission that the poor nature of plant growth in the region of flaring region is characterized by the toxic and harmful effect of gas flaring on the