Monthly Archive for March, 2011

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Feds privatize Canadian water with AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement

Published on 03/25/2011 in policy, privatization and water rights. 2 Comments Tags: canada's water rights, water policy, water privatization, Water rights.

“The record-setting $130-million NAFTA settlement with AbitibiBowater has effectively privatized Canada’s water by allowing foreign investors to assert a proprietary claim to water permits and even water in its natural state, said trade lawyer and Council of Canadians board member Steven Shrybman, in a presentation to Parliament today.

“”It would be difficult to overstate the consequences of such a profound transformation of the right Canadian governments have always had to own and control public natural resources,” said Mr. Shrybman in his presentation to the Standing Committee on International Trade, which is studying the AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement from last August.

“”Moreover, by recognizing water as private property, the government has gone much further than any international arbitral tribunal has dared to go in recognizing a commercial claim to natural water resources.”

“In 2008, AbitibiBowater, a Canadian firm registered in the United States, closed its pulp and paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor, NL. The company asserted rights to sell its assets, including certain timber harvesting licenses and water use permits. These permits were contingent on production. More importantly, under Canada’s constitution, they are a public trust owned by the Province, not by private firms. So the Newfoundland government moved to re-appropriate them as it has a right to do under Canadian law. AbitibiBowater sidestepped the courts to challenge the Newfoundland government.”

Texas agency: Gas driller didn’t contaminate water

Published on 03/25/2011 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater, natural gas drilling, policy and tap water. 1 Comment Tags: contaminated water, corruption, fracking, groundwater, natural gas drilling, texas water, water policy.

Photo retrieved from: i.ehow.co.uk

“Texas regulators determined Tuesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was wrong when it concluded a gas driller had contaminated domestic water wells in North Texas.

“The unanimous decision by the Railroad Commission of Texas marked the latest battle between state agencies and the EPA in a long, drawn out war that has evolved from disputes over environmental issues into a fierce debate about states’ rights. The Railroad Commission blasted the EPA, accusing it of shoddy testing methods and jumping to conclusions.

“”I see this as sort of a cavalier attempt by the federal government to reach its arms into our state’s jurisdictions,” said Commissioner Michael Williams, who is resigning his post on April 2 to run for U.S. Senate as a Republican.

“The government, he told the Associated Press, wants to “adversely affect the domestic energy industry.”

“The commission’s decision means Range Resources can continue its natural gas operations in Parker County, just west of Dallas, and is not obligated by the state to provide the impacted families with clean water.”

Divvying Up the Water Down Under

Published on 03/25/2011 in agriculture, drought, management, water conservation, water rights and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: california's water supply, San Joaquin Valley.

Photo retrieved from: www.nytimes.com

“California farmers have been through several years of scarcity, because of both a drought and court-ordered diversions to protect endangered fish. Fields went fallow and jobs were lost. (And for California fishermen, the better parts of two recent salmon seasons were a total loss because the salmon runs that depend on the major river in the central valley were decimated.)

Last week Mr. Gregson was a featured speaker at the Intelligent Use of Water Conference in Clovis, a small town near Fresno, Calif. The conference generally focused on farmers’ concerns. While Australia’s new water regime is beloved by policy wonks, most California farmers are not enamored of it. (Some of the remarks, including Mr. Gregson’s, can be reviewed here.)

Australian farmers once felt the same way. What happened? An epic 12-year drought, which just ended, according to Juliet Christian-Smith, a senior researcher at thePacific Institute, a water-centric think tank in Oakland, Calif. “Given the extreme circumstances, the water reduction effort made some far-reaching changes to water rights,” she said. “The context is quite different than California at the moment.”

In Australia, each right to use water within a specific basin is awarded as a percentage of all available water in a given year. Priority is given to permanent crops like nut trees or grapes, although even these can run short of water when severe drought hits. Water-intensive annual crops like rice and cotton are the first to be abandoned in dry years.

But in California, rights to use specific amounts of water are assigned on a priority basis in a system analogous to mining claims. Whoever puts that water to use first gets to keep all of the allocation until it runs out.”

Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh: Does Obama Support Removal of 100,000 Villagers?

Published on 03/25/2011 in agriculture, contaminated water, displacement of people, greenwashing, groundwater, mining, policy and privatization. 0 Comments Tags: Bangladesh water supply, wetlands.

Photo retrieved from: www.gurumia.com

“When thousands of Bangladeshi take to the streets again on March 28th as part of a decade-long battle to halt a devastating British-owned open-pit coal mine, the world will not only be watching whether Bangladesh’s government will honor a coal ban agreement from 2006 or resort to violence.

In light of disturbing WikiLeaks cables, American and worldwide human rights and environmental organizations will also be questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemnedmassive open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers and ravage desperately needed farm land and water resources.

The short answer, from US Ambassador James Moriarty’s leaked memos:” “Asia Energy, the company behind the Phulbari project, has sixty percent US investment. Asia Energy officials told the Ambassador they were cautiously optimistic that the project would win government approval in the coming months.

Two years ago, an independent review of the coal mine by a British research firm warned:

“Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world’s largest wetlands. The project’s Summary Environmental Impact Assessment, and its full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are replete with vague assurances, issuing many promises of future mitigation measures.”

Doctors key to reducing drugs in drinking water, study says

Published on 03/25/2011 in contaminated water, management, products, riparian zone, tap water and wastewater. 0 Comments Tags: drinking water, EPA, Medicine, peak water, Pills, Prescriptions, Touro University, Water.

Retrieved from: OCregister

“According to a new paper from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Institute for Environmental Medicine at Touro University Nevada Physicians are over prescribing medicine.

“When a prescription is written, the focus understandably defaults to the patient’s immediate health status and the anticipated treatment outcomes,” says the study. “Rarely considered are the longer-term ramifications involving the entire scope of the medication’s interconnections with the environment at large.”

“If doctors prescribed drugs more prudently and responsibly — and patients took them more prudently and responsibly — it would go a long way toward reducing the mysterious pharmaceutical stew that bathes much of the planet, say the authors.

“By now it’s well-established that the drugs we put in our bodies and the creams we smear on them wind up back in the water we drink. We don’t metabolize all the pain-killers and birth control pills and antibiotics and antidepressants we take; standard sewage treatment was just never designed to remove this stuff.

“More than 60 active pharmaceutical ingredients have been reported in samples of finished drinking water worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, which maintains that half of all medications worldwide are incorrectly prescribed, dispensed or sold.”

Taiwan To Remove Dam To Restore Habitat For Precious Fish

Published on 03/24/2011 in dams, rivers, species extinction and water conservation. 0 Comments Tags: wildlife habitat.

Photo retrieved from: www.focustaiwan.tw

“A check dam in Shei-Pa National Park in central Taiwan will be removed in May to help restore the habitat and passageway of the country’s precious Formosan landlocked salmon, park director Chen Mao-chun said Tuesday on World Water Day.

Check dam No. 1 of the Chichiawan Creek, one of 10 built on the river to reduce channel erosion and prevent sediment from filling a downstream reservoir, creates a barrier that prevents the fish from migrating upstream, Chen said, but that is now set to change.

According to Wang Ching-ming, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University who has studied the species for 25 years, the dam’s removal will be as precious and significant for Taiwan’s ecology as “man’s first step on the moon.”

He said the dams have blocked and separated the landlocked salmon’s habitat, preventing them from mixing among different groups and causing water quality in the separate areas to be uneven.

That lack of exposure to different salmon is believed to have diminished the genetic diversity of the species and increased its chances of extinction.

Environmental and ecological changes have also narrowed the habitat of the fish to 1,700-1,900 meters above sea level, from a previous range of 1,500-2,000 meters, Wang said, making the breakdown of barriers within the habitat even more important.”

Droughts to Worsen in East Africa, With Implications for U.S. Food Aid

Published on 03/24/2011 in agriculture, climate change and drought. 0 Comments Tags: africa's water and food supplies.

Photo retrieved from: www.earthtimes.org

“The researchers, who reported their conclusions in the journal Climate Dynamics, used data spanning six decades to show that rising sea surface temperatures from emissions of human origin have created an intensification of air circulation in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, also known as the “Walker cell.”

This strengthening has caused the circulation to swell westward toward the African coast, boosting heat transfer in the atmosphere and triggering greater rainfall and cloud cover over the Indian Ocean over the past 30 years.

For East Africa, this has spelled trouble — perhaps counterintuitively.

The study finds that warm and dry winds have moved west toward Africa’s coast, inhibiting rainfall, particularly in parts of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia from March to June, one of the main growing seasons.”

Tokyo tap water not safe for infants

Published on 03/23/2011 in contaminated water and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: Japan Nuclear Crisis, peakwater, Radiation in water, Tokyo, Water.

Retrieved from: Telegraph

“Some samples contained more than double the legal limit of the hazardous substance radioactive iodine.

“The discovery increases fears of food and water safety nearly two weeks after the devastating earthquake and tsunami which killed thousands and damaged a nuclear plant in Fukushima, leading to a radiation leak.

“Residents of cities in Japan northeast earlier had already been advised not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer. Until Wednesday, levels found in Tokyo tap water had been minute, according to officials.

“A water treatment centre in central Tokyo that supplies much of the city’s tap water found that some water contained 210 becquerels per litre of iodine 131.

“city official said: “Under government guidelines, water containing a radioactive substance of more than 100 becquerels per kilogram should not be used for milk for babies.”

“Earlier in the day, Naoto Kan, the prime minister, instructed the governor of Fukushima prefecture to order residents not to eat leaf vegetables grown in the prefecture after radioactivity far beyond legal limits was found in 11 varieties.

“Some 82,000 becquerels of cesium were found in a variety of vegetables, 164 times the legal limit, as well as 15,000 becquerels of radioactive iodine, more than seven times the permissible level.”

Arizona Issues Permits For Three Uranium Mines Near Grand Canyon

Published on 03/23/2011 in contaminated water, displacement of people, mining and rivers. 2 Comments Tags: grand canyon, mining of uranium, Supai people.

Photo retrieved from: www.intercontinentalcry.org

“Arizona issues uranium mining permits that endanger water supply in Southwest

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — As the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, revealing the true danger of nuclear power, Arizona approved uranium mining in the Grand Canyon in a sacred place where prayers are said for the protection of the world.

Gathered at sacred Red Butte in the Grand Canyon to oppose uranium mining here in 2009, Supai said this is a sacred place where they go to offer prayers for the wellbeing of the world.

Speaking of the Supai responsibility to protect the land, water, and air here from the poisons of mining, Supai Waters said, “If we do let this happen, we would be the murderers of the world. We cannot let that happen.”

Supai Waters said that protection of the Grand Canyon also affects the weather patterns and climate of the earth.”

At Fault On The Nu River

Published on 03/23/2011 in dams, hydropower, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: China's water supply, Earthquakes, nu river dams project, nuclear industry.

Photo retrieved from: www.haohaoreport.com

“With the ongoing crisis at its earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan is paying a heavy price for ignoring “large-scale environmental evaluations”. This is the assessment of two prominent Chinese geologists, Xu Daoyi and Sun Wenpeng, who told chinadialogue that the incident holds important lessons for China.

The two experts argue that the Japanese authorities underestimated the potential impact of deep-ocean faults and earthquakes on power plants. As a result, they failed to locate their atomic energy facilities on the country’s less vulnerable west coast and, ultimately, to avoid the radiation crisis the world has watched unfold over the past week.

There are worrying parallels in China, said Xu and Sun. But rather than focusing on the nuclear industry, their gripe is with their country’s hydropower sector – and, more specifically, thecontroversial plans to build a cascade of dams on the Nu River, China’s last great waterway without large-scale hydropower and the focus of an animated public campaign.”