loaisowwan:
You asked for "several environmental issues in oil and gas activities"
Soil
With any new plant, vast fields are turned under or scraped away completely or paved over. However, all Oil and Gas facilities experience leaks and spills. This results in the contamination of the soil and the loss of habitat for wild animals and the poisoning of the soil for eons to come.
Water
Every plant or facility has leaks and runoff of some kind. The natural run-off from storm water from a facility will carry contaminates. All streams, rivers, lakes and oceans are impacted by contamination from leaks and spills. Most facilities have Storm Water Treatment facilities built in but would you let tour children drink the water from the outfall?
Air
The air above, around and downwind from a plant is contaminated and changed by leaks and spills of chemicals. There is also thermal contamination caused by the heat loss from Furnaces, Boilers and Cooling Towers.
Waste
Every Oil and Gas facility produces Waste. There is Production Waste and Storm Water Waste that needs to be controlled, collected and disposed of in a safe manner.
Product
The product of and Oil and Gas facility does not cease to exist at the property line. It is shipped out of the plant to customers who burn it in cars, trucks, planes, ships, rockets, power plants and on and on. Some of the liquids or gases produced in a primary Oil and Gas facility are sold to become a feed stock for some other down-stream processes and products (plastics, solvents, paints, etc). This often produces other even more deadly by-products and contamination.
Life
There is Human life, Animal life and Insect life. What are all of these liquids and vapors doing to life as we know it? Example, there is the "Colony Collapse" (the death and disappearance of the Honey Bee). What is causing this? If it continues what will happen to the propagation of and the production of the worlds food supply?
What is the answer? Can we stop all Oil and Gas activities, No. We need to recognize and understand the the issues and then do a better job eliminating the leaks, the spills while improving the clean-up.
Sometimes its possible to do all the right things and still get bad results
Mechanical seals and packing boxes are controlled leakage devices. When the product being sealed is not highly toxic or lethal, these devices still allow detectable amounts of the product out to atmosphere. You could study the amount of emissions.
Another aspect to research is varying regulations. Federal, state, and local regulations vary and this makes for interesting discussion.
