Archive for the 'oil' Category

MENA Changing Drastically & NASA Has The Pictures To Prove It

Published on 05/07/2012 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, climate change, contaminated water, dams, drought, groundwater, hydrology, lakes, oil, peak water, policy, rivers, tap water, water diversions, water shortage and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , .

“Lake shrinkage in Iran

Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

Left: August 1985. Right: August 2010.

Iran’s Lake Oroumeih (also spelled Urmia) is the largest lake in the Middle East and the third largest saltwater lake on Earth. But dams on feeder streams, expanded use of ground water, and a decades-long drought have reduced it to 60 percent of the size it was in the 1980s. Light blue tones in the 2010 image represent shallow water and salt deposits. Increased salinity has led to an absence of fish and habitat for migratory waterfowl. At the current rate, the lake will be completely dry by the end of 2013.

Urban Growth in Morocco

Retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

Left: July 2, 1985. Right: June 24, 2011.

The Moroccan cities of Agadir, Inezgane and Tikiouine are close to the Atlantic coastline (seen in blue in the images), and stretch into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Agadir was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1960. Reconstruction has focused on tourism, turning this area into a winter destination. The 1985 image shows the area 25 years into the rebuilding. By 2011, the urban areas reach into the Sahara Desert. Growth has been influenced by the expanding fishing industry and modern commercial ports.”

Read more: Green Prophet


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Sudans conflict leaves 37,000 desperate for water

Published on 04/27/2012 in groundwater, oil, peak water, privatization, water shortage, water wars and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“There is simply not enough ground water available to sustain the growing number of people who need it,” “said Pauline Ballaman, head of Oxfam’s operations at the camp. “Women have to queue for hours in the burning sun just to collect a fraction of the water they need, and the situation is getting more desperate by the day. The only solution is for people to be moved urgently.”

Oxfam says this large number of refugees fled to the camp since December and more are on their way.

South Sudan split from Sudan last year as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war in Africa’s largest nation. The war left 2 million people dead and ended with the peace agreement that included an independence referendum for the south.”

Read more: CNN

 

lily victoria

US government releases ‘fracking’ gas rules

Published on 04/19/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, management, oil, peak water and policy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: wtfrack.org

“The US government has released long-awaited rules on “fracking”, the process  used to unlock oil and gas deposits hidden deep in rock formations that has revolutionised  the domestic energy sector.

From 2015, oil and gas companies will be required to capture methane and  other pollutant gases that are byproducts of fracking, which involves pumping a  mixture of water and chemicals at high pressure to crack the surface of rock  formations.

The guidelines, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, represent the  first federal clean air standards for fracking, the technology that has  underpinned the breakneck growth of the shale oil and gas sector and holds out  the hope of eventual energy independence for the US.

But they grant energy companies more than two years to meet the new  standards, and do not cover wastewater produced by fracking, an  increasing focus for critics of the industry.”

Read more: Financial Times

Sami Oueida

Oil and Gas Boom in Indian Country! Tribal Leaders and EPA Meet in Denver

Published on 04/16/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater, hydrology, natural gas drilling, oil, policy, privatization, tap water and wastewater. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: wwwictmn.com

“Protecting the Environment

With so much money pouring onto tribal lands, “it’s like trying to stop a freight train,” Stockbridge said, and “the environment may be steamrolled” without early planning. At Fort Berthold, they can’t get enough rigs in to drill rapidly enough, and the operations require “a phenomenal amount of water,” he said.

Environmental concerns will have to “get ahead of the game” because of the “astronomical” amounts of money involved, he said.

Gerald Wagner, Blackfeet Nation environmental service director and vice-chairperson of the ROC, said his tribe is looking for the “environmental protection component” although the tribe does have protection ordinance. Nevertheless, the tribe is looking for the “best protection of our resource” and said he is concerned about effects to the aquifer, which may be only 10 feet from drilling activity.”

Read more: ICTMN.com

lily victoria

Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Sewage Solutions

Published on 04/16/2012 in desalination, groundwater, oil, policy, tap water, wastewater and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.greenprophet.com

“The environment is politics and in the Middle East this is ever so stark, ravaged by internal socio-religio-political conflicts and international wars. Wars internally and externally are based on oppression, division, exclusion, land theft, and expropriation of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The Middle East is the globe’s oil capital. Those who want to own it are traditional colonial powers who will do anything and promise anything from political freedom to militarisation to democracy to get at it; it’s why war and conflict still proliferate in the region.

Easily forgotten in all the wars and conflicts are survival basic resources such as water. Water for thirst, water for industry, water for agriculture and water for sanitation. The Middle East’s oil-rich countries are able to cross-subsidise oil-money for purchases of food crops or agri-land for growing food to be imported into the region. This is neither environmentally sustainable nor economically.

Things will run dry, monetary-wise and resource-wise, so hard rapid environmental resource conservation must dictate all immediate and future plans.

Accessing ancient geological aquifers for stored groundwater slowed down with lack of sustainable use and management of resources. When groundwater supplies started dwindling, desalination became the next option, the primary social-water-feeder.”

Read more: Green Prophet

 

lily victoria

Earthquake Outbreak in Central U.S. Tied to Drilling Wastewater

Published on 04/12/2012 in management, natural gas drilling, oil, uncategorized, wastewater and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Earthquake Outbreak in Central U.S. Tied to Drilling Wastewater “A spate of earthquakes across the middle of the U.S. is “almost certainly” manmade, and may coincide with wastewater from oil or gas drilling injected into the ground, U.S. government scientists said in a new study.

“Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey said that for the three decades until 2000, seismic events averaged 21 a year in a central U.S. region. They jumped to 50 in 2009, 87 in 2010 and 134 in 2011.

” ‘Our scientists cite a series of examples for which an uptick in seismic activity is observed in areas where the disposal of wastewater through deep-well injection increased significantly,’ David Hayes, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, said in a blog post yesterday, describing research by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.

“In hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — water, sand and chemicals are injected into deep shale formations to break apart underground rock and free natural gas trapped deep underground. Much of that water comes back up to the surface and must then be disposed of.

“The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to release rules on air pollution from gas wells and on the treatment of wastewater. Other state and federal rules could force more disclosure of the chemicals used by the drilling companies.”

Read More: Bloomberg

Chippie Kislik

Dodging Disaster in Lot 129

Published on 04/02/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, greenwashing, oil, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.alianzaarkana.org

“Now, a new grassroots movement is being launched by the people to block the newest threat to water and life in the Amazon.  The U.S. oil giant, ConocoPhillips, and its collaborators have plans to develop yet another toxic oil project, known as Lot 129,  in one of the most remote and pristine places of the Amazon Rainforest and, therefore, in the world.

Conoco Phillips and its Canadian consortium partners Gran Tierra (20%) and Talisman Energy (35%)  are poised to start digging at least 18 exploratory wells, dozens of helipads, trails, roads and workers’ camps within and along the boundaries of the Alto-Nanay-Pintuyacu-Chambira National Conservation Area and the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve, and in areas overlapping titled ancestral territories of numerous indigenous peoples. This includes a delicate eco-zone known as “Bosques humedos del Napo,” which was recognized as a Ramsar site of internationally significant wetlands.”

Read more: Alianza Arkana

 

lily victoria

Senate rejects expediting Keystone pipeline

Published on 03/11/2012 in oil and policy. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.texasgopvote.com

“Republicans–along with the oil industry, which is running a nationwide advertising campaign about energy supplies — have been attacking Obama on the campaign trail for failing to fully exploit traditional oil and gas resources while Americans are financially stretched. Democrats and their environmental supporters counter that the president must weigh the benefits of fossil fuels against their environmental impact and the importance of promoting renewable energy.

The dispute came to a head Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill, as the Senate considered two competing amendments to a federal transportation bill addressing the Keystone XL pipeline extension, which would carry heavy crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to gulf coast refineries. The project requires pipeline’s builder, TransCanada, to get a federal permit from the State Department because it crosses an international border; Obama rejected the permit in January when faced with a congressionally-mandated deadline of Feb. 21.”

Read more: The Washington Post

 

lily victoria

Fracking Could Cause a New Global Water Crisis

Published on 03/07/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, greenwashing, groundwater, natural gas drilling, oil, peak water, policy, riparian zone, tap water, wastewater and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.commondreams.org

“Numerous communities where fracking has occurred in the U.S. have had their public water resources contaminated as a result of fracking. One community the report highlights is Dimock, Pennsylvania:

In 2009, Pennsylvania regulators ordered the Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation to cease all fracking in Susquehanna County after three spills at one well within a week polluted a wetland and caused a fishkill in a local creek. The spills leaked 8,420 gallons of fracking fluid containing a Halliburton-manufactured lubricant that is a potential carcinogen. Fracking had so polluted water wells that some families could no longer drink from their taps. Pennsylvania fined Cabot more than $240,000, but it cost more than $10 million to transport safe water to the affected homeowners. In December 2010, Cabot paid $4.1 million to 19 families that contended that Cabot’s fracking had contaminated their groundwater with methane. In 2012, the U.S. EPA began providing clean drinking water to these families after Cabot had been released of its obligation to do so by the state of Pennsylvania.”

Read more: Common Dreams

lily victoria

Native Indian tribes facing ‘extinction’?

Published on 03/04/2012 in contaminated water, greenwashing, mining, oil, policy and privatization. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nytimes.com

“The push to exploit natural resources is having a huge impact on native Indian communities across Latin America.

All too often, they say, their interests and preserving their way of life end up coming second to energy companies and the pursuit of profits.

Serving as the most notorious example for indigenous groups is that of the oil giant, Chevron, which last year was fined an unprecedented $18bn.

The company was found guilty of heavily polluting large parts of Ecuador’s rainforest. But it is fighting the ruling in the international courts, and so far has not paid a single cent of the fine.

And it is not just oil. Mining is also a source of tension for Indian tribes around the region in countries like Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.

In Ecuador, the Kichwa people in the town of Sarayaku are fighting the government whom they accuse of granting drilling rights to an Argentine oil company without their consent.”

Read more: Aljazeera

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