tagged w/ Water Pollution
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There will definitely not be any Dow Chemical branding on the [stadium] wrap before, during or after the Olympic Games," announced a spokeswomen for the London 2012 organizing committee.
The October 18 development marks progress in a global campaign to shame Dow into admitting accountability to victims of the Union Carbide pesticide plant explosion in Bhopal in 1984. Dow merged with UC in 1999, yet has denied liability for the ongoing suffering of tens of thousands.
In 2010, Dow signed a 10-year deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as "Worldwide Olympic Partner." IOC rules forbid advertising on game venues, but Dow is paying for the $11 million fabric wrap encircling the stadium, and had planned to emblazon its logo on five "test panels" in preparation for the games.
As GroundTruth reported in October, victims of the Bhopal disaster, including the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, have been working with Members of Parliament in Britain to remove Dow as sponsor of games. Pulling the logo signals that public outrage and political pressure is having an impact.
Some in India's government, the Sports Ministry, and the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) have joined in the campaign. IOA acting president VK Malhotra told The Times of India that removal of Dow's logo is not enough: "Our demand is that Dow should be removed as a sponsor and we have expressed strong reservation with the Olympics. We are sending our communication to Dow as well as IOC on this regard."
More at the linkThere will definitely not be any Dow Chemical branding on the [stadium] wrap before,... more
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The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the coast of Nigerian coastal and fishing communities were on Thursday put on alert after Shell admitted to an oil spill that is likely to be the worst in the area for a decade, according to government officials..
An oil spill on the shores of the Niger Delta swamps. Shell has said the recent oil spill is likely to be worst in a decade. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images The company said up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday while it was transferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta.
All production from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day, was last night suspended. "Early indications show that less than 40,000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running," said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.
Satellite pictures obtained by independent monitors Skytruth suggested that the spill was 70km-long and was spread over 923 square kilometers (356 sq miles).
But a leading Nigerian human rights group said Shell's figures about the quantity of oil spilled or the clean-up could not be relied on. "Shell says 40,000 barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them because past incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts and impacts of its carelessness," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, based in Lagos.
"We are alerting fisher folks and coastal communities to be on the look out. It just adds to the list of Shell's environmental atrocities in the Niger delta."
The spill, one of the worst off the coast of Nigeria in 10 years, is particularly embarrassing for Shell, coming only four months after a major UN study said it could take Shell and other oil companies 30 years and $1bn to clean spills in Ogoniland, one small part of the oil-rich delta. The company also admitted responsibility in August for two major spills in the Bodo region of the delta that took place in 2008, but has yet to pay compensation.
Shell, which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, claims that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure. But this is disputed by communities.
Yesterday Shell said it had also closed a Gulf of Mexico deep drilling operation after spilling 319 barrels of contaminated fluids.The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the... more
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Recent debate over the Keystone XL oil pipeline has turned a spotlight on Canada's controversial and oil-rich tar sands, which would be the source of crude oil flowing through the pipe to the Gulf of Mexico. Tar sands oil has faced stiff criticism from environmental groups, which say that it's far dirtier than its Middle Eastern counterpart despite claims from the Canadian government and industry groups that they keep a close eye on environmental impact.
But long before the Keystone XL became a cause célèbre, tar sands oil was already ubiquitous in America: It goes to fuel our cars and corporations' trucking fleets, and it's used in the production of products from aluminum cans to asphalt. Starting last year, San Francisco-based environmental advocacy group Forest Ethics launched a campaign to encourage American companies to boycott tar sands oil and, specifically, the refineries that process it (below).
Using data from the federal Energy Information Administration (which tracks imports of unprocessed crude oil), Forest Ethics compiled a list of nearly 50 US refineries that handle tar sands oil (MoJo made the above map based on that list). In these refineries, the heavy, molasses-like "bitumen" from the tar sands undergoes heating, blending, and other refining steps and comes out as useable fuel, ready to be pumped into a long-haul semi. What the map shows, Forest Ethics campaign director Aaron Sanger said, is that "unless you take action to take tar sands oil out of your footprint, you've got it in your footprint."
By "you," of course, Sanger doesn't mean you, dear reader: When you fill up at the local gas station, there's really no way to know from which refinery your fuel is coming. (Chances are it has been blended from several before reaching the pump.) Instead, he's referring to companies whose in-house or contracted trucking fleets buy fuel in bulk directly from refineries or through a broker (known as a "jobber" in industry parlance). Forest Ethics has persuaded 14 such companies, including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and LUSH Cosmetics, and Chiquita, to downsize their transportation footprint, in part by avoiding fuel from any of the refineries on the map.
"You and I as individuals don't have much leverage over the fuel sources," Sanger said. "But big companies do."
At stake is a serious chunk of change: The tar sands industry was worth $13.4 billion in 2009 (down from $20.5 billion in 2008), and oil from Alberta, the western Canadian province the tar sands call home, made up 15 percent of American crude imports, according to statistics from the Albertan government.
Consequently, applying that leverage is no easy task. Over the last couple years, Sanger and colleagues have reached out to 200 big companies, and in every instance when one agreed to investigate its fuel sourcing, there was tar sands oil in the mix, he said. TA Travel Centers, a major "over-the-road" fuel supplier to trucking fleets, found that it buys fuel directly from a quarter of the refineries on the map. For companies on the Forest Ethics list like Walgreens, cutting tar sands oil out means negotiating with fuel brokers and/or truck refilling stations and the possibility of not renewing contracts with those who are unable or unwilling to avoid tar sands oil. Sanger said that Trader Joe's, for example, has made avoidance of tar sands oil a contractual obligation for its distributors.
More at the linkRecent debate over the Keystone XL oil pipeline has turned a spotlight on... more
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The verdict as well as closing remarks will be given December 6, 3:30 PM Bangalore India time. That should be around 5AM standard EST here for anyone interested in seeing justice done. I wll report on any other information I get about this.
I hope this is only a first step to bringing accountability to these purveyors of global toxicity and death.The verdict as well as closing remarks will be given December 6, 3:30 PM Bangalore... more
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Atrazine. It's in our lakes, streams and drinking water at levels that make a difference to human health. Scientists link exposure to increased risk of birth defects, infertility and possibly cancer.
Who's responsible? The Syngenta corporation — the world's largest pesticide company. They're working overtime to promote and protect their flagship product in the U.S., despite the fact that it's long been banned in their home county of Switzerland. Syngenta has intimidated scientists, pressured regulators and paid an economist to manufacture faulty studies — all to keep an unnecessary product on the market.
Contaminating U.S. waterways
Atrazine is found more often than any other pesticide in U.S. groundwater. The weed killer is one of the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. — and the world. More than 76 million pounds are used in this country each year, mostly on corn fields. Smaller amounts are used on other crops too, from sugarcane to cauliflower to Christmas trees.
Atrazine is good at killing weeds in part because of its stability; it can stick around for up to 100 days in the soil. This also makes it a pollution problem. Once it leaches into groundwater, it can remain there for decades.
Families in the Midwest who get their drinking water from shallow wells are especially vulnerable.
Found in water throughout the Midwest, atrazine shows up in wells in agricultural communities and in pristine lakes and rivers. Drinking water contamination levels typically spike in spring and early summer, as rains flush the freshly applied herbicide. One recent study shows that atrazine also evaporates into the air after application, in a process called volatilization drift. It can then settle back into waterways.
USDA scientists found the herbicide in 94% of the drinking water tested in 2008.
Health effects in the heartland
Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor. This means that micro-doses can have large, irreversible effects that we are just beginning to understand. New studies link low-level exposure to birth defects, delayed puberty and infertility — all of which are on the rise. Higher cancer risk and environmental toxicity are also of concern.
Birth Defects: Infants concieved during atrazine spray season are more likely to be born with birth defects. Research shows that even low levels of exposure during pregnancy may be problematic; the third trimester appears to be most critical.
Infertility: Documented reproductive harms include male infertility, increased risk of miscarriage, and low infant birth weight.
Cancer: Atrazine may increase risk of breast and prostate cancer. Though some studies have not found a link, the recent President's Cancel Panel Report calls atrazine a possible carcinogen.
Scientists report that for atrazine, timing of exposure may be more important than exposure levels, and interaction with other pesticides may make health harms more severe.
Evidence of environmental effects is also strong and growing. Recent studies show that atrazine causes genetically male frogs to become anatomically female through a "chemical castration" effect.
More at the linkAtrazine. It's in our lakes, streams and drinking water at levels that make a... more
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"We're going to show [Chevron] that they can't come here and create
whatever environmental mess they want."
Those were the words of Carlos Minc, Rio de Janeiro state's environment secretary, in response to Chevron's oil spill off the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Judging from his statements to the press, Minc has grown increasingly frustrated with Chevron's actions following the spill.
Anyone familiar with the ongoing battle to bring Chevron to justice in Ecuador knows that the company will do everything it can to protect its profits even at the expense of the planet and human health. Brazilian officials are determined to make Chevron pay for the impacts of its reckless business operations. Send key environmental officials in Brazil a message now to let them know you've got their back.
It isn't just Chevron's response to the spill that has been criticized. Before and after the spill occurred, Chevron showed shockingly little concern about the risks involved. The company reportedly drilled deeper than it was licensed to, and had to borrow sonar equipment to even locate where the leak was occurring. Chevron was completely unprepared for an oil spill – or perhaps I should say, completely unconcerned. Production and profits are all that really matter to Chevron.
No wonder Carlos Minc has also been quoted saying: "We believe the accident could've been avoided. There was an environmental crime. [Chevron] hid information and their emergency team took almost 10 days to start acting."
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency says more than 110,000 gallons of oil have spilled into the Atlantic Ocean. Write to Carlos Minc and other key Brazilian environmental officials now and urge them to hold Chevron accountable for every last drop.
For a cleaner future,
Mitch Anderson
Corporate Campaigns Director
P.S. AlterNet recently named Chevron the #1 "Most Toxic Energy Company," a label the company richly deserves. Even while it refuses to pay to clean up its messes in Ecuador and around the world, Chevron is spending huge sums of money to influence public policy in a preemptive bid to never be held accountable for the damage it does to the planet. Share this story to help expose Chevron and other energy companies that are polluting our political process.
More at the link"We're going to show [Chevron] that they can't come here and create... more
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The banks of China’s Yangtze River are crowded with chemical factories, which dump massive amounts of toxic waste water into the river, affecting hundreds of millions of people who rely on the river for drinking water. Nevertheless, a Chinese official recently stated that the Yangtze’s water quality “overall is good and can be used safely.”
According to a recent Economics Information Daily report, latest data from the Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Bureau says that the total polluted water discharged into the Yangtze exceeded 33.9 billion tons this year and is increasing at a rate of 2 percent per year.
Data released by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection last December said there are over 400 thousand chemical factories, five major steel manufacturing centers, and seven major oil refineries along the banks of the Yangtze.
The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia, measuring 6,300 km. It contains 40 percent of China’s water resources and flows through 11 provinces and regions, with around 550 million people living on its banks.
He Chunyin, director of Jiangsu Environmental Protection Bureau, told Ningbo Daily, the majority of cities along the Yangtze get their drinking water from the Yangtze. If the river is polluted, then there is no other water source. Many new chemical factories are now operating in the middle and western regions of China, but since these regions are less developed, there is not much regulation. Consequently, the polluted water will be discharged into the river, affecting the downstream, he said.
snip
Official Denial
With such massive pollution, water quality has become an issue of major concern for the Chinese public while officials are trying to play it down or turn a blind eye.
Zang Xiaoping, deputy director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Bureau, told Wuhan Evening News there wasn’t much to be worried about. The annual flow of the Yangtze River is nearly 1 trillion tons. 30 billion tons of polluted water will not cause much harm, except create some sectional pollution, he said.
“Overall water quality is good, and can be safely used,” he said.
Chinese netitizens have a different view.
A post on the club.kdnet forum said: “The annual water flow of the Yangtze River is around 951.9 billion, compare to 33.9 billion ton of water: 339/9519 = 3.56 percent. Isn’t this pollution level too high?”
Another person said, “So 3 percent of polluted water, that means 15 ml in a water bottle, how is that safe?”
Bribing Inspectors
In April, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection jointly issued China’s environmental macro strategy research report. The report said that nearly half of China’s drinking water does not meet drinking water standards. 190 million people are drinking water with excessive levels of harmful substances. More than 90 percent of cities’ groundwater supply is contaminated.
The many kinds of pollutants also make water purification very difficult. An employee at a water plant in southwestern China told The Epoch Times, there are over 60 different types of chemicals in the drinking water, making it very hard to purify. However, due to the scarcity of water resources and water reserves, even if the water is not fit for drinking, as long as there is no acute major chemical poisoning situation, authorities will not shut down water supplies due to fear of causing social instability.
Another staff in charge of water quality testing told The Epoch Times, whenever people come from the water quality test center to inspect water quality, the water plant will give them special treatment. Every inspector gets a red envelope with money in it.
“So as long as no major incident happens, everyone will keep one eye open, and one eye closed,” he said.The banks of China’s Yangtze River are crowded with chemical factories, which... more
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When whale biologist and Ocean Alliance founder Roger Payne began his career, the chief threat to whales was commercial whaling.
At that time, in the late 1960s, Payne estimates that 33,000 great whales were killed annually across the globe. That number has dropped significantly, due to the 1986 International Whaling Commission's moratorium on whaling. Although a number of countries continue to hunt whales, including Norway, Iceland and Japan — which many critics say cloaks its whaling practice under the auspice of scientific research — Payne believes that, at least for now, commercial whaling will not bring these cetaceans to the brink of extinction.
Instead, he worries about another threat: Pollution.
Payne bases this concern on Ocean Alliance's own research.
The conservation organization, launched in 1971 — and now, under Iain Kerr as its CEO, looking to move its headquarters to Gloucester on the grounds of a restored and renovated Tarr & Wonson Paint Factory — has been studying whales since its inception. Payne, himself, came into the spotlight when he co-discovered in 1967 that humpback whales "sing"¬ù to each other.
Arguably, the organization's most significant work is its massive, five-year study that measured the baseline levels of contaminants in whales around the world.
"People have known since the early '60s there was a real problem from pollutants," Payne says. "But no one had a global view of it. This was the first global view."
So, from 2000 to 2005, Ocean Alliance's 93-foot vessel, the Odyssey, snaked its way around 21 countries and 118 ports. During that time, Ocean Alliance's team gathered whale and marine life samples across the world, including more than 950 sperm whale biopsy samples.
"We looked at sperm whales because they are living at the same level of the food chain which humans are living at,"¬ù explains Payne. "So what is happening in the sperm whale is probably similar to what is happening with people."
For Ocean Alliance, the results of the survey were alarming.
"We go around the world," says Payne, "We look at sperm whales. We measure the background contaminants in them. And we discover — to our absolute horror — the concentration of a number of things."
Not only were the sperm whales exposed to common pollutants such as lead and mercury and a variety of metals such as gold and silver; they were also exposed to a wide range of chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, and fire retardants.
Moreover, one pollutant proved to be the biggest surprise: chromium.
"It was the most dramatic finding," he continues. "Chromium in its hexavalent form is a terrible carcinogen. It was the subject of the film 'Erin Brockovich.' And that is what we find in sperm whales all around the world."
Kerr, who captained the Odyssey for 10 years and is Ocean Alliance's CEO, says the study demonstrated that marine life is being hit hard on two levels.
"On the left hand, you have these compounds that are naturally occurring, but they have never occurred in the concentrations that we are now experiencing," Kerr says. "And on the right hand ,there are groups of compounds that have never existed naturally. In both cases, animals have no way to deal with them."
Enter Ocean Alliance's new study, sort of a Phase 2. This time, Ocean Alliance is teaming up with John Wise, head of the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology at the University of Southern Maine.
Wise is a known commodity at Ocean Alliance; he and his wife, scientist Sandy Wise, analyzed the sperm whale biopsy samples from the alliance's 2000 to 2005 research.
Ocean Alliance turned to Wise because his lab studies the effects of environmental pollutants on human DNA. So how does that translate to whales?
"Our interest in DNA is that all life is dependent on it," Wise explains. "In humans, if you damage DNA you can get cancer and developmental abnormalities in children. We think in wild animals certainly the same is true, though most species don't live long enough for cancer to be a concern. The concern is pollutants in the environment are damaging DNA. And preventing the ability of the species to reproduce."
The scientists are 14 months into what Wise hopes will be a 10-year investigation. At this turn, they won't be sailing around the globe — they'll be closer to home.
Ocean Alliance and Wise will be honing their scientific eye on humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine, including those off the Gloucester coastline.
Because humpbacks live nearer to shore than sperm whales, they allow for easier and longer observational studies. So over time, for example, the team can note which female whales are reproducing, which are not — and it can answer some specific questions, like:
What are the long-term effects of pollutants on whales? Could pollutants cause developmental abnormalities? And — for a whale species already compromised in numbers — could something like chromium cause serious reproductive disorders?
Already this autumn, Payne, Kerr and Wise have led three expeditions out to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary searching for humpbacks to biopsy.
The trips have been launched from the Gloucester Marine Railways, where Ocean Alliance's 90-foot boat, the Caribana, is docked. The vessel was donated to the group this past year and is captained by Joe Boreland, who was, coincidentally, a relief captain on the Odyssey expedition and has been working for the nonprofit intermittently since 1995.
It's unclear if Ocean Alliance will be making any more expeditions this season. But both Ocean Alliance and the Wise Laboratory are heading to the Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Tampa, Fla., later this month.
There, they'll be delivering data on another study they are conducting, this time examining the effects of the 2010 BP oil spill on marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico.
What exactly do these studies on whales and other marine mammals mean for human health?
Payne stresses that the research cannot be underestimated.
"You can say that it is probably the biggest public health threat that has ever threatened human beings," he says. "About a billion people are dependent on fish as primary source of protein. And this, I would assume, would shorten the lives of these billions of people — the fact they are taking in all these contaminants when they take in such meals."
More at the linkWhen whale biologist and Ocean Alliance founder Roger Payne began his career, the... more
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Severe drought conditions are making the process of getting clean water for oil and gas exploration longer and more expensive for Oklahoma's booming energy industry.
Several of the state's largest oil and gas companies are looking at ways to conserve and reuse water.
Devon Energy Corp. is building a plant near Geary and Calumet in Canadian County to store and reuse produced water from its natural gas wells in the Cana Woodford shale.
The company began planning the water reuse plant before the onset of the severe drought in western Oklahoma, said Jim Heinze, Devon's manager of operations for the Anadarko Basin. Once operational, it will help alleviate some of the company's demands for water in the area, he said.
"We haven't delayed any work (because of the drought)," Heinze said. "What it has caused us to do is go longer distances to transfer the water to where we need it."
The plant will include a lined reservoir that can hold up to 500,000 gallons of the flow-back water that comes out of natural gas wells during the drilling process. The water will then be filtered and trucked back to well sites in the area to be reused in hydraulic fracturing. Eventually, a system of pipelines will link the water re-usage plant and the well sites, reducing the need for trucks.
The company anticipates the first phase to become operational during the first quarter of 2012, but getting the pipeline system in place will take longer.
Oil and gas exploration companies obtain the water for drilling and hydraulic fracturing through a variety of sources, including purchasing it from farm ponds on private land. A small but growing amount of groundwater is also being used for oil and gas production in the state.
So far in 2011, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has granted 1,548 short-term permits to use about 13,000 acre feet of water for the oil and gas industry.
Although the amount is growing, the oil and gas industry still only uses a small percentage of the state's groundwater, said Brian Vance, director of information for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
The amount of groundwater the industry uses in the state is very small percentage of the 12,842 long-term permits for about 6.3 million acre-feet of water for all uses the water resources board tracks, he said. About 86 percent of the state's water usage is accounted for by cities, industrial and irrigation purposes, and thermoelectric power.
The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association estimates the oil and gas industry will still only account for about 5 percent of the state's water usage by 2060.
One of the things Continental Resources Inc. has done to conserve water during the drought is to simply use less of it in the hydraulic fracturing process in western Oklahoma, said Rick Muncrief, senior vice president of operations for Continental Resources.
"We're reducing the amount of water we use, just as a matter of necessity," Muncrief said.
Continental Resources' operations in drought-stricken western Oklahoma are still in the exploratory phase. Most of the company's wells are far apart, making water re-usage and recycling efforts in the area uneconomical for the company, he said.
"It's still a work in progress," Muncrief said.
The company typically buys its water from farmers and ranchers, but the drought has made water more expensive and harder to obtain, he said.
The drought in Oklahoma has not had a significant effect on Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s operations in the state, but it has caused some of the company's surface water sources to be scarce in the region, delaying some well completions, said Craig Manaugh, Chesapeake's vice president of operations for the company's northern division.
The company is in the process of recycling and reusing water in its operations in Oklahoma, and has even experimented with using 100-percent recycled water in some of its hydraulic fracturing jobs.
While oil and gas companies typically need relatively clean and fresh water for completing wells, Chesapeake is also experimenting with using brackish water that contains high levels of chlorides. The brackish water can be culled from natural sources, typically below the freshwater base.
"While this water is not safe to drink, it can be used effectively in our operations, for the completion process," Manaugh said.
More at the linkSevere drought conditions are making the process of getting clean water for oil and... more
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Earlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute a 60-second video for the Future We Create virtual conference on water sustainability the company launched yesterday. As a vocal advocate for strict regulation of toxic chemicals -- especially for food and farming -- I was surprised the company would approach me. Dow is the country's largest chemical maker, and profits handsomely from developing some of the world's most polluting products, many of which are widely used in industrial and consumer goods as well as agriculture.
In the video I submitted, which you can watch below, I stress that one of the greatest threats to clean water is chemical contaminants -- and that Dow Chemical has a long history of water pollution. The PR representative emailed to say "unfortunately we can't use your video," but that she would be happy to include me, still, if I would consider re-recording it. When we discussed what that would mean she said, no "fingerpointing"; they wanted a "positive, inclusive discussion."
I believe in inclusiveness and engagement, but I also believe we must pursue those principles within a context that is honest. To do otherwise is to participate in what is popularly called "greenwashing," painting a veneer of environmentalism on an otherwise unchanged product or practice -- a corporate strategy many of us are all too familiar with.
In this spirit, I felt it would be disingenuous to engage in a conversation about water sustainability, for a campaign paid for by Dow Chemical, without pointing out the direct relationship between Dow's core business products -- a source of its $8 billion in profit last year -- and toxins in our environment.
At the same time Dow launches this initiative, the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities who contend that their water has been polluted by the company, including from its hometown manufacturing plant in Midland, Mich. In 2007, the EPA detected the highest level of dioxin ever discovered in the country's rivers or lakes in waterways near Dow's global headquarters. Dioxin levels in some places were 1,000 times higher than the residential standard, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A recent study found women living in Midland, as well as Saginaw and Bay counties, have significantly higher rates of breast cancer; dioxin was to blame. A class action lawsuit is pending.
"In the backyard of Dow's corporate headquarters, the company for decades through philanthropy, public relations, and politics has made the choice to push back at every regulatory level instead of addressing their dioxin contamination of 52 miles of freshwater and Lake Huron," said Michelle Hurd Riddick of the Saginaw Bay grassroots environmental organization, Lone Tree Council. "The company has mastered the art of greenwashing while poisoning a whole watershed and getting away with it."
Community members in another Midland -- Midland, Texas -- filed suit earlier this year against Dow and three other companies for contaminating groundwater there with hexavalent chromium. Barred from use in the European Union because of its toxicity, hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen. The EPA's own hazard report notes that exposure, including through contaminated drinking water, "may produce effects on the liver, kidney, [and] gastrointestinal and immune systems."
Dow also continues to drag its heels and fight regulators in order to continue production of some of its most toxic and water-polluting products.
In 2000, for instance, the EPA announced it was phasing out approval of Dow's insecticide, and potent neurotoxin, Dursban, for new home construction in the United States because the product is linked to serious illnesses and even death in children. Five years later, the chemical was still in use in U.S. homes. And in 2003, Dow settled a $2 million lawsuit with the state of New York, the largest penalty ever in a pesticide-related case, for repeatedly violating an agreement about proper advertising of Dursban and making misleading safety claims.
Dow is also a leading manufacturer of Bisphenol-A (or BPA), used in numerous consumer products such as baby bottles, children's toys, and the linings of food cans. It's a particularly dangerous chemical, with proven toxicity even in low doses, especially in utero. The National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program has found the chemical may increase the risk of certain cancers and alter brain development. The chemical, a synthetic estrogen, has also been linked to reproductive and hormonal problems. New research is showing that a vast majority of Americans is exposed to low concentrations of BPA not only through consumer products, but from surface water, too.
More at the linkEarlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute... more
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EXTRACT: "Though glyphosate is the mostly widely used herbicide in the world, we know very little about its long term effects to the environment," says Paul Capel, USGS chemist and an author on this study. "This study is one of the first to document the consistent occurrence of this chemical in streams, rain and air throughout the growing season."
Technical Announcement:
Widely Used Herbicide Commonly Found in Rain and Streams in the Mississippi River Basin
Released: 8/29/2011
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communications and Publishing
12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119
Reston, VA 20192 Paul Capel
Phone: (612) 625-3082
Kara Capelli
Phone: (571) 420-9408
Glyphosate, also known by its tradename Roundup, is commonly found in rain and rivers in agricultural areas in the Mississippi River watershed, according to two new USGS studies released this month.
Glyphosate is used in almost all agricultural and urban areas of the United States. The greatest glyphosate use is in the Mississippi River basin, where most applications are for weed control on genetically-modified corn, soybeans and cotton. Overall, agricultural use of glyphosate has increased from less than 11,000 tons in 1992 to more than 88,000 tons in 2007.
"Though glyphosate is the mostly widely used herbicide in the world, we know very little about its long term effects to the environment," says Paul Capel, USGS chemist and an author on this study. "This study is one of the first to document the consistent occurrence of this chemical in streams, rain and air throughout the growing season. This is crucial information for understanding where management efforts for this chemical would best be focused."
In these studies, Glyphosate was frequently detected in surface waters, rain and air in areas where it is heavily used in the basin. The consistent occurrence of glyphosate in streams and air indicates its transport from its point of use into the broader environment.
Additionally, glyphosate persists in streams throughout the growing season in Iowa and Mississippi, but is generally not observed during other times of the year. The degradation product of glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), which has a longer environmental lifetime, was also frequently detected in streams and rain.
Detailed results of this glyphosate research are available in "Occurrence and fate of the herbicide glyphosate and its degradate aminomethylphosphonic acid in the atmosphere," published in volume 30 of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and in "Fate and transport of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in surface waters of agricultural basins," published online in Pest Management Science. Copies of the reports are available from the journals or from Paul Capel ( capel@usgs.gov).
Research on the transport of glyphosate was conducted as part of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. The NAWQA program provides an understanding of water-quality conditions, whether conditions are getting better or worse over time, and how natural features and human activities affect those conditions. Additional information on the NAWQA program can be found online.
http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/
http://eii.org/eijournal/spring05/images/spraying.jpgEXTRACT: "Though glyphosate is the mostly widely used herbicide in the world, we... more
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A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:
•Within two days all ground plants were dead;
•Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
•“Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.
“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”
For the past twenty-five years, the Forest Service has not applied any environmental restrictions on private extraction efforts, even in wilderness areas. As a result, forests, like the Monongahela, which sits astride the huge Marcellus Shale gas formation, have struggled with many adverse impacts of widespread drilling. By contrast, the nearby George Washington National Forest (NF) has recently proposed to ban horizontal drilling, a practice associated with hydrofracking, due to concern about both the ecosystem damage and also the huge amount of water required for the fracking process. Two subcommittees of the House of Representatives will hold a joint hearing this Friday to examine the George Washington NF’s singular pro-conservation stance.
“Unfortunately, the Forest Service has drilled its head deeply into the sand on oil and gas operations harming forest assets,” Ruch added, noting the National Wildlife Refuges also lack regulations to minimize drilling impacts. “The Forest Service needs to develop a broader approach than asking each forest supervisor to cast a lone profile in courage or cowardice.”A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West... more
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Hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River after an ExxonMobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured, sending a plume 25 miles downstream and forcing temporary evacuations, officials said. The break near Billings in south-central Montana fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts Saturday to close intakes.
The river has no dams on its way to its confluence with the Missouri River just across the Montana border in North Dakota. It was unclear how far the plume might travel. Cleanup crews deployed booms and absorbent material as the plume moved downstream at an estimated 5 to 7 mph. "The parties responsible will restore the Yellowstone River," Mont. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said.
(See a timeline of the BP Oil Spill.)
A 600-foot-long black smear of oil coated Jim Swanson's riverfront property just downstream from where the pipe broke. "Whosever pipeline it is better be knocking on my door soon and explaining how they're going to clean it up," Swanson said as globules of oil bubbled to the surface. "They say they've got it capped off. I'm not so sure."
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Pam Malek said the pipe leaked an estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil for about a half-hour before it was shut down. Other Exxon officials had estimated up to 42,000 gallons of crude oil escaped.
Duane Winslow, Yellowstone County director of disaster and emergency services, said the plume was dissipating as it moved downstream. "We're just kind of waiting for it to move on down while Exxon is trying to figure out how to corral this monster," Winslow said. "The timing couldn't be worse," said Steve Knecht, chief of operations for Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, who added that the plume was measured at 25 miles near Pompeys Pillar National Monument. "With the Yellowstone running at flood stage and all the debris, it makes it dang tough to get out there to do anything."
Brent Peters, the fire chief for the city of Laurel about 12 miles west of Billings, said the rupture in the 12-inch diameter pipe occurred late Friday about a mile south of Laurel. He said about 140 people in the Laurel area were evacuated early Saturday due to concerns about possible explosions and the overpowering fumes. He said they were allowed to return at about 4 a.m. after fumes had decreased.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081294,00.html#ixzz1R3VnJzCu
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2011/20110702_yellowstoneriver.jpgHundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River after... more
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When the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, the need was desperately apparent. Rivers were catching on fire. Pollution choked waterways. Most rivers and streams weren't safe to swim in. For some reason, Rep. Nick Rahall is supporting an effort by the coal industry and other major polluters to turn the page back to those days.
Enforcement of the Clean Water Act has kept billions of pounds of toxic chemicals and other pollutants out of America's waterways.
A bill quietly working its way through Congress, H.B. 2018, the "Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011," would undo decades of progress and render the Clean Water Act all but useless.
The bill -- supported by both Rahall and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito -- strikes at two vital provisions of the Clean Water Act. First, it would strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the ability to make states improve deficient water quality standards. The EPA could no longer withdraw approval of state programs, limit financial assistance or object to specific permits because of inadequate water quality standards enforced by the state.
An analysis of the legislation by the EPA says, the bill would prohibit the agency from revising water quality standards without buy-in from the state "even in the face of significant scientific information demonstrating threats to human health or aquatic life."
Second, the bill essentially allows a state to overrule a determination by EPA scientists that a dredge and fill permit could harm municipal water supplies, fishing, wildlife or recreation areas.
This bill would turn the Clean Water Act on its head, giving states the right to allow less stringent protection of the nation's waterways.
Together, these two provisions would lead to a race to the bottom in places like West Virginia where industry holds substantial sway over state regulatory agencies. The entire point of the Clean Water Act is to ensure a nationwide clean water standard because the waters of this nation are a shared resource.
more at the linkWhen the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, the need was desperately apparent. Rivers... more
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A bill allowing pesticide manufacturers and users to avoid the Clean Water Act permitting process passed in the Senate Agriculture Committee today.
If passed in the Senate, bill H.R. 872 lets farmers spray pesticides near public waters without having to meet Clean Water Act permitting requirements.
A 2007 EPA rule allowing all pesticides listed in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to be exempted from Clean Water Act permitting requirements was reversed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009.
The amendment, on its way to the Senate floor, reinstates the exemptions, effectively skirting the legal battles over whether pesticide residue is a chemical waste that can be regulated as a pollutant under the Act.
Growers, ranchers and others have highlighted the regulation as an example of unnecessary federal bureaucracy, while environmentalists supported it as a hedge against over-use of chemicals that may be perilous to aquatic life and to drinking water.
“The Committee sided with the pesticide industry and against our health and the health of our waters by eliminating all Clean Water Act protections of our rivers, lakes and streams against pesticide pollution,” said Natural Resources Defense Council staff attorney Mae Wu.
FIFRA is a federal pesticide law used by the Environment Protection Agency to evaluate whether the pesticide a manufacturer wants to sell is safe. A manufacturer cannot sell or use a pesticide until the EPA registers it. Manufacturers, such DOW, Monsanto and DuPont, have to prove their pesticide will not cause “unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.” The EPA takes these results into account before giving the OK.
The Clean Water Act is more specific, requiring a pesticide user intending to spray into or near a body of water to apply for a permit. The permit requires the pesticide user to consider alternatives before spraying.
The Clean Water Act aims to minimize pesticide use, whereas FIFRA allows companies to use the maximum amount of a pesticide that would not cause unreasonable and adverse effects.
Under FIFRA, if the EPA OKs a pesticide, and that pesticide is used near water, no Clean Water Act permit has to be issued.
“FIFRA is weak when holding companies accountable,” said Mae Wu. “With the Clean Water Act, if you violate a permit, spray pesticides near water and unintentionally kill a species , then you can be sued.”
Wu said if H.R. 872 passes, “companies can do whatever they want” and no longer will have to answer to Clean Water Act requirements.
Monsanto and DuPont officials were not immediately available for comment.
Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a press release in March that H.R. 872 would eliminate “another regulatory hoop” for people who apply legally registered pesticides.
More at the linkA bill allowing pesticide manufacturers and users to avoid the Clean Water Act... more
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In March 2006, a rare continuous approximately 40 days of rainfall occurred in the Hawaiian Islands, causing massive coastal flooding, and eventually leading to one of the biggest short-term fecal discharges in the history of Hawai'i when approximately 50 million gallons or more of raw sewage was dumped into the Ala Wai canal after a sewer line busted, threatening to back up hotels and homes in human waste. Instead, the raw sewage flowed to Waikiki beach, and to South Shore O'ahu's infamous surf break 'Ala Moana Bowls'. One surfer even died of flesh eating bacteria after falling into the canal nearby the sewage discharge site.
The film was produced in 2006 by Pikoi Ke Kaula Kualena a few months after the sewage spill occurred in Waikiki. Shortly after filming finished, the film stalled in production, and now five years later, is being released for the first time.
The short film documentary investigates the response and conflicts by government officials regarding a lack of on-site warning systems during federal guideline exceedances of fecal bacteria concentrations in Waikiki surface waters polluted with human and animal feces. This film compares and contrasts claims made by the State of Hawaii Department of Health over the last few decades regarding natural versus human and animal sources of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended fecal bacteria indicator Enterococcus in surface waters of tropical islands, with a focus on the response related to the 2006 sewage spill during 40 days and 40 nights of rain. In conclusion, the film ties in the most current internationally peer reviewed research that shows significant associations between stream deforestation, urbanization, ungulate and human presence, and excessive recreation with increased incidence rates of fecal bacteria in surface waters of tropical islands.
Regardless of the politics and science behind increased rates of fecal matter in surface water of Waikiki and the lack of a thorough epidemiology study to causally connect water pollution with illness rates on any tropical island, the film most importantly, provides sustainable solutions using plant based remedies to improve surface water contamination and public health.
Music in the film was composed by brotha.deep, Wayne Cobham, Osmar Cobo, and, contains the title track 'Surfing Medicine' from the charity album 'Surfing Medicine: Volume I' by Joe Isaacs of the Soul Vendors. The film was directed and edited by Surfing Medicine International.
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Surfing Medicine International, 501(c)(3)
"Fostering and creating international collaboration between traditional healers and surfers to develop sustainable medicinal plant systems for coastal communities"
Official Website: www.surfingmedicine.orgIn March 2006, a rare continuous approximately 40 days of rainfall occurred in the... more
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Gram-negative bacterial strains with NDM-1 (New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1) gene, also called the superbug, have now been detected in drinking water and seepage water samples collected from several sites in New Delhi. Seepage samples were collected from water pools found in streets or rivulets.
The findings have been published online today (April 7) in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
The NDM-1 gene enables Gram-negative bacterial strains to become resistant to carbapenem, a powerful antibiotic. Bacteria that carry the antibiotic resistant gene were found in two drinking-water samples and 51 seepage water samples.
The two drinking-water samples were collected from west of the Yamuna River in the district of Ramesh Nagar and from south of the Red Fort, respectively. The seepage samples that tested positive for the NDM-1 gene were collected close to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Gol Market and other sites.
No panic situation
Since none of the tap water samples had stable plasmids, “the situation has not yet [become] utterly miserable,” writes Mohd Shahid in an accompanying Comment piece in the journal. Dr. Shahid is from the Department of Medical Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Aligarh Muslim University, U.P.
In all, the researchers had collected 50 drinking-water samples (public tap water samples) and 171 seepage samples from sites within a 12 km radius of central New Delhi.
70 sewage effluent samples from Cardiff Wastewater Treatment Works were also collected as control samples.
“Some samples contained multiple NDM-1 positive species,” the authors write. “20 NDM-1 positive strains were present in the samples, including E. coli and K. pneumonia [that causes pneumonia], ...and pathogenic species Shigella boydii and V. cholera [that cause dysentery and cholera, respectively].”
NDM-1 was in the news in August last year when the same journal reported that 37 U.K. patients who had undergone elective and cosmetic surgeries in India and two neighbouring countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) were harbouring the drug-resistant bacterial strains.
Human gut bacteria
But the latest finding clearly indicates that the drug-resistant bacterial strain carrying NDM-1 gene is no longer a hospital-born infection, but is found in the environment.
The authors of the study have found that NDM-1 gene has also spread to families of bacteria that populate the human gut and cause urinary tract infection, diahorrea, to name a few. It has also spread to pathogenic bacteria species that cause cholera and dysentery.
It is indeed really possible for the NDM-1 gene that confers antibiotic resistance to move from one species to another.
The easy spread is made possible as the NDM-1 gene is carried in the plasmids of the Gram-negative bacteria. And the plasmids can move from one bacterium to another of its kind, and even to different bacterial species.
cont.Gram-negative bacterial strains with NDM-1 (New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1) gene,... more
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U.S. naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan's overheated nuclear plant on Saturday to help workers struggling to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility.
Workers at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been using seawater in a frantic bid to stabilize reactors overheating since a tsunami knocked out the complex's crucial cooling system March 11, but fears are mounting about the corrosive nature of the salt in the water.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is now rushing to inject the reactors with freshwater instead to prevent pipes from clogging and to begin extracting the radioactive water, Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Saturday.
CBS News correspondent Lucy Craft reports radiation levels around the plant have been fluctuating, as workers struggle to stabilize the facility.
The latest threat at the Fukushima number 1 nuclear reactor is a pool of radioactive water.
Efforts to bring the plant under control have been sidelined as workers fight to bail out three of the plant's six reactors. Three workers have been burned at reactor number 3, by radiation levels that have spiked 10,000 times normal.
On Saturday a spokesman for the utility operator Tokyo Electric Power said no one is sure where the radioactive water is coming from, but they haven't had a chance to check the structural integrity of the building since the quake.
If there is a crack in the building, this TEPCO official said, there is a possibility that contaminated water has seeped in.
The situation at the stricken plant remains unpredictable, government spokesman Yukio Edano said Saturday, adding that it would be "a long time" until the crisis is over.
"We seem to be keeping the situation from turning worse," he said. "But we still cannot be optimistic."
The switch to freshwater was the latest tactic in efforts to gain control of the six-unit nuclear power plant located 140 miles northeast of Tokyo.
The switch was necessary because of concerns that salt and other contaminants in seawater were clogging pipes and coating the surface of reactor vessels and fuel rods, hampering the cooling process, NISA said.
Defense Minister Yoshimi Kitazawa said late Friday that the U.S. government had made "an extremely urgent" request to switch to freshwater. He said the U.S. military was sending water to nearby Onahama Bay and that water injections could begin early next week.
cont.U.S. naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan's overheated nuclear... more
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This year's theme for World Water Day is Water For Cities. More people are moving to urban areas, the majority of this migration taking place in the developing world. This is in part due to expansion of corporate landgrabs, deforestation, overpopulation and effects of biodistress that push people into urban areas looking for a way to survive as agriculture which is the main way of life is impacted greatly.
Three quarters of our population is predicted to be living in cities by 2050 which will put a tremendous strain on infrastructure, water quality, water access and sanitation, which then leads to an increase in waterborne diseases.
Access to clean water is the moral challenge of our time and our right. So please, tomorrow take time to reflect upon the importance of clean water, water access and sanitation for those in our world lacking it. We take so much for granted here in America regarding water and the ability to have sanitation that leads to better health.
This site lists events globally and I will be posting about events in this thread as well as listing organizations working to provide clean water and sanitation and how you can help, as well as other entries about the importance of this most beautiful life giving resource.
Please feel free also to add poems, videos, comments, etc.about water here and make a pledge that for this and the next generation we will work to see all with clean water that revives our bodies and souls. This is one way that can lead people out of poverty and into a world of health and peace.
Thank you
http://current.com/groups/water-is-life/This year's theme for World Water Day is Water For Cities. More people are moving... more
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