What is methane? 

• Methane is a colorless, odorless gas

• It comes from natural sources, like animal digestion and wetlands, but also from humans during oil and gas production. 

• Natural gas is mostly made up of methane, so a lot of the electricity you use is generated by burning methane. 

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What are their health effects? What’s a safe amount?

• Methane is non-toxic but extremely flammable. 

• Methane in only dangerous in the air if the concentration is high enough to block out oxygen.

• Methane leaking into drinking water is a common problem in the US, but this has not been observed in Louisiana

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What can the monitoring station tell us about methane in River Ridge?

•  The Jefferson Parish air monitoring station consistently picks up around 1-2 parts per million (PPM) of methane, sometimes at the 10-15ppm level. 

• This level is harmless, so yo don't have to worry about methane.

• However, these levels are way higher than average, sometimes spiking to 20 times normal levels. 

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Where's all this excess methane coming from? 

• Methane comes from gas and oil plants, so some of it is being produced at Cornerstone Chemical 

• Methane has been observed at very high levels in Jefferson Parish Landfill

• The fact that we are seeing higher than average levels of methane proves that pollution from these sources are traveling to the River Ridge and Harrahan communities. So even though methane itself is harmless, it is further proof that the thousands of chemicals produced in these areas 

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