Monthly Archive for December, 2011

How Canada’s Become a Home for Some of the Biggest Fracking Projects

Published on 12/31/2011 in contaminated water, fracking, natural gas drilling, policy and wastewater. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.boiseweekly.com

“Early last year, deep in the forests of northern British Columbia, workers for Apache Corp. performed what the company proclaimed was the biggest hydraulic fracturing operation ever.

The project used 259 million gallons of water and 50,000 tons of sand to frack 16 gas wells side by side. It was “nearly four times larger than any project of its nature in North America,” Apache boasted.

The record didn’t stand for long. By the end of the year, Apache and its partner, Encana, topped it by half at a neighboring site.

As furious debate over fracking continues in the United States, it is instructive to look at how a similar gas boom is unfolding for our neighbor to the north.

To a large extent, the same themes have emerged as Canada struggles to balance the economic benefits drilling has brought with the reports of water contamination and air pollution that have accompanied them.

The Canadian boom has differed in one regard: The western provinces’ exuberant embrace of large-scale fracking offers a vision of what could happen elsewhere if governments clear away at least some of the regulatory hurdles to growth.”

Read more: Alternet

 

lily victoria

Ford Targets 30 Percent Water Reduction Per Vehicle

Published on 12/30/2011 in management, products, solutions and outreach and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

PR Newswire: news distribution, targeting and monitoring“Ford enters 2012 with plans to further reduce the amount of water used to make vehicles and continue showing efficiency is not only inherent in its vehicle lineup, but also in its manufacturing practices.

“A new goal calls for Ford to cut the amount of water used to make each vehicle 30 percent globally by 2015, compared with the amount of water used per vehicle in 2009.

“Ford is also developing year-over-year efficiency targets as part of its annual environmental business planning process and has established a cross-functional team spanning several divisions to review water usage more holistically.

“Water remains one of our top environmental priorities and our aggressive reduction target helps ensure continued focus on this critical resource,” said Sue Cischke, group vice president, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering.

“Ford’s latest water reduction initiatives are designed to build on the success the company has had with its Global Water Management Initiative that launched in 2000. Between 2000 and 2010, Ford reduced its global water use by 62 percent, or 10.5 billion gallons. That’s the equivalent of how much water 105,000 average American residences use annually, based on figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“If Ford meets its goal of reducing the amount of water used by 30 percent between 2009 and 2015, the amount of water used to make a vehicle will have dropped from 9.5 cubic meters in 2000 to approximately 3.5 cubic meters in 2015. One cubic meter is equal to 264.2 gallons of water.”

Read more: PR Newswire

chrismorrow

California’s Delta Ecosystem Is Healthier, For Now

Published on 12/29/2011 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, invasive species, management, policy, rivers, species extinction and tap water. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nytimes.com

“High flows of water from the melting of deep snow in the Sierra provided enough for both the tiny fish known as the delta smelt, long considered on the brink of extinction, and for the farming communities that have chafed under legal rulings requiring them to give up water to keep the smelt and its ecosystem going.

Mike Taugher reported in The Contra Costa Times that an index reflecting the smelt’s abundance had seen a 10-fold increase, from a score of 29 in 2010 to 343 in 2011. The index was at its highest level in a decade, though still less than a quarter of the levelsrecorded in 1970 and 1980.

The high water levels were not necessarily the main or the only cause of the rebound — a representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council said that changes they had pushed for in the management of the estuary could also be responsible. But there was no question that the populations of fish besides the smelt — particularly the striped bass population — also did well, although shad did not.”

Read more: New York Times

 

lily victoria

As Kalimantan Coal Rises, Its Major Rivers Disappear

Published on 12/28/2011 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, hydrology and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.flickr.com

“Rivers in East Kalimantan are threatened by the growing coal mining industry, an environmental activist warned on Monday.

The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), an NGO in the province, said 27 branch rivers have disappeared, either buried or diverted in the interest of the coal mining industry. As a result, major rivers such as Mahakam river have been polluted, and local residents have increasingly lost natural freshwater sources.

“Mining activities have many impacts,” said Jatam coordinator Kahar Al Bahri. “Our records show 27 tributaries of main rivers are now gone because of mining interests. Water quality is degrading and ultimately that reduces food production.”

Kahar also said mining excavations have left large holes that in the last two years have caused accidents killing at least 13 people in Kutai Kartanegara and Samarinda districts.

Excavation sites abandoned by 57 mining firms in Samarinda had 100 bore holes measuring 1,200 hectares, while 213 companies in Kutai Kartanegara left 32 holes measuring 836 hectares.”

Read more: Jakarta Globe

lily victoria

Melting Glaciers Mean Double Trouble for Water Supplies

Published on 12/26/2011 in climate change, dams, glaciers, hydrology, lakes, peak water and world water supply. 0 Comments

Retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

Glacial Water

“But glaciers act as natural reservoirs, storing water in the winter and doling it out in the summer as the ice slowly melts.

“If most of it disappears, there will be extreme consequences for most of these regions,” Clarke said. “The stream flow will change, the timing of peak stream flow will change, and the temperature of streams will change.”

Even the total volume of runoff will change, added Michel Baraer, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, because glacial ice keeps the water locked away in a form in which it doesn’t easily evaporate.

Thus, even if precipitation remains the same in the high mountains, more of the water will be in liquid form, which evaporates more quickly.

Building dams also will not solve the problem of decreasing runoff. “Evaporation from reservoirs is much higher than sublimation [conversion of solid into gas] from glaciers,” Baraer said. “Dams will never, ever, replace the [natural] hydrological systems that are in place today.”

Peak Water?

Already, Baraer said, Peru is on the verge of facing water shortages. That’s because one of the largest rivers coming off the high Andes glaciers, the Rio Santa, is already running low on glacial melt, he said.

Previously, scientists had thought the problem lay several decades in the future.

But based on satellite measures of ice cover and water-flow at gauging stations in the river, his team has concluded that the Rio Santa has already hit “peak water”—the point at which glacial runoff plateaus and then begins to decline.”

 

Read more: National Geographic

 

lily victoria

Sudan riot police break up dam protest

Published on 12/22/2011 in dams, displacement of people, hydropower, policy, privatization and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.starafrica.com

“Police then forcefully moved in and detained an unknown number of the demonstrators.

Their protest came exactly one month after about 1 000 people displaced by the dam began a sit-in over the government’s alleged failure to compensate them with replacement homes as promised.

They are continuing their sit-in at Al-Damer, a town around 300km north of Khartoum.

Completed in 2009 at a cost of more than $2bn, the Chinese-built Merowe dam doubled Sudan’s power generation capacity.

But it also displaced 15 000 families, who were ordered to leave their homes three years ago to make way for the dam and the huge reservoir that formed behind it.

Protests by villagers opposed to the project broke out in 2006, leaving three people dead and dozens injured.

Khartoum sits on the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. The government has aggressively sought to tap the power of the river waters, a valuable resource that could help offset the loss of oil revenues when South Sudan separated in July.”

Read more: news24

 

 

lily victoria

UN reports improved access to safe drinking water, but poorest countries still lagging

Published on 12/21/2011 in contaminated water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

“The internationally stated goal of improving access to safe drinking water across the globe is likely to be achieved well ahead of the 2015 deadline, but large numbers of people in the world’s least developed regions will still not benefit, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.Reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by half  is one of the global targets under the internationally-agreed poverty and social development vision known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have a 2015 achievement deadline.
“The new study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN World Health Organization (WHO),entitled Drinking Water Equity, Safety and Sustainability, shows that between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of the world’s population with access to improved drinking water sources increased from 77 per cent to 87 per cent.
“Globally, more than eight in 10 people without improved drinking water  sources live in rural areas. “The good news is that almost 1.8 billion more people now have access to drinking water compared to the start of the 1990s,”said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s associate director and water and sanitation chief. “The bad news is that the poorest and most marginalized are being left behind.” However, the report stresses, even though significant progress has been made, at the current rate, 672 million people will still not be using improved drinking water sources in 2015. There are still many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia and South-East Asia that are not on track to meet the target, according to the report.”
Read more: ftpapp

 

sammykayed

Russia oil spills wreak devastation

Published on 12/21/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, lakes, oil, rivers, wastewater and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Retrieved from: www.newsminer.com

“This is the face of Russia’s oil country, a sprawling, inhospitable zone that experts say represents the world’s worst ecological oil catastrophe.

Environmentalists estimate at least 1 percent of Russia’s annual oil production, or 5 million tons, is spilled every year. That is equivalent to one Deepwater Horizon-scale leak about every two months. Crumbling infrastructure and a harsh climate combine to spell disaster in the world’s largest oil producer, responsible for 13 percent of global output.

Oil, stubbornly seeping through rusty pipelines and old wells, contaminates soil, kills all plants that grow on it and destroys habitats for mammals and birds. Half a million tons every year get into rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean, the government says, upsetting the delicate environmental balance in those waters.

It’s part of a legacy of environmental tragedy that has plagued Russia and the countries of its former Soviet empire for decades, from the nuclear horrors of Chernobyl in Ukraine to lethal chemical waste in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk and paper mill pollution seeping into Siberia’s Lake Baikal, which holds one-fifth of the world’s supply of fresh water.”

Read more: AP

 

lily victoria

EU launches 10m.-euro Gaza desalination project

Published on 12/21/2011 in desalination, oceans, peak water, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Retrieved from: www.businessweek.com

“The European Union has launched a 10 million euro project to erect a desalination facility over the next three years in Gaza, to combat what the governing body calls “the humanitarian water crisis” in the territory.

Acting EU representative to the West Bank and Gaza, John Gatt-Rutter, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Palestinian Water Authority head Shaddad Attili last week, as well as with members of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility and UNICEF.

The facility, according to the EU, will be a “medium-term intervention” and will provide safe drinking water to approximately 75,000 inhabitants of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

“As the EU has reiterated in the past, the continued policy of closure in Gaza has damaged the natural environment, notably water and other natural resources,” Gatt- Rutter said. “I hope that this intervention can bring real change for some Palestiniansliving under unsustainable conditions in the Strip.”

Attili praised the EU’s decision to provide these funds.

“The facility is one component of a rolling program of interventions designed to tackle Gaza’s acute water problems and save its underground aquifer from imminent collapse,” he said Sunday.

Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan likewise praised the EU’s decision to fund the plant, saying Monday the Israelis have been saying everywhere they want thePalestinians to build it.”

Read more: The Jerusalem Post

lily victoria

Fingerprinting mercury pollution

Published on 12/20/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, groundwater and nuclear power. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

PhD candidate Laura Sherman setting up a rain collector in Crystal River, Florida.

Retrieved from: MichiganRadio.org

“Mercury is a neurotoxin. The Environmental Protection Agency says mercury can be especially harmful for babies and kids. Mercury can affect their developing brains and harm their memory, attention, language and motor skills.

“Mercury is naturally-occurring. Volcanoes emit mercury and so do hot springs, like the ones in Yellowstone National Park.

“But the EPA points out… the largest manmade source of mercury emissions in the U.S. comes from coal-burning power plants.

“Joel Blum is a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan. Blum says when power plants burn coal, mercury is emitted as a gas.

“In order to become toxic, it has to be transformed into a particular form known as methylmercury which is something that happens in the environment.”

“So… mercury falls from the atmosphere, and is converted to methylmercury in the water. That toxic form builds up in fish… and it can build up in us when we eat fish.

“But for years… there’s been a big debate about where that mercury goes when it’s released from a power plant smokestack.

Read more: Michigan Radio

chrismorrow