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Oil Spill

Gulf Coast Activist At Shell Meeting Decries Destruction Of Home

By Deirdre Fulton for Common Dreams - Just two weeks after Royal Dutch Shell's offshore drilling operations released nearly 90,000 gallons of oil into the water off the Louisiana coast, an Indigenous activist from the Gulf region spoke out at Shell's annual shareholders meeting in the Netherlands on Tuesday, highlighting the company's history of environmental devastation in the place she calls home. "In the late 90s, after learning that their community was plagued by an open-air, toxic, oil-field waste facility...

Wake Of Shell’s Gulf Oil Spill, Protesters Demand Ban

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - As Shell Oil and the US Coast Guard continued to clean up a large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, about 1,300 protesters from across North America marched in Washington, DC, to protest the Obama administration's offshore drilling plan. Lindsay Meiman, an organizer with the climate justice group 350.org, said the spill "reinvigorated the sense of urgency to ban offshore drilling" already felt by the frontline communities in the Gulf and Arctic regions that sent activists to lead the protest.

Enbridge Now Expects $55 Million Fine for Michigan Oil Spill

By David Hasemyer for Inside Climate News - The potential fine Enbridge, Inc. expects for spilling more than 1 million gallons of tar sands oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010 continues to creep higher and now is estimated at $55 million. The Canada-based company revealed the revised estimate earlier this week in a quarterly disclosure filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It cautions investors that the ultimate fine eventually imposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency could cost the company even more.

Virginia Issues Violation Notice To Dominion For Spill

By Staff of Associated Press - RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia environmental regulators are issuing a notice of violation to Dominion Virginia Power for a mineral oil spill that fouled a portion of the Potomac River in northern Virginia. The notice issued Friday by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is a first step to ensure that Dominion is held accountable for the Feb. 3 spill. It could lead to civil penalties, corrective actions and reimbursement for cleanup costs.

Water Defense Shows Oil In Irrigation For Crops

By Food & Water Watch - Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times published Water Defense’s results of testing it has conducted on recycled oil field wastewater used to irrigate crops in California. Over a two year time period Water Defense’s Chief Scientist, Scott Smith, collected samples from treated water sold to the Cawelo Water District. The results? The water contained powerful industrial solvents toxic to humans—higher than he’d seen previously at oil spill sites. Industry officials and the water district told the Times they think the water is safe for crops, citing that they are complying with testing requirements. In a video released today, Scott takes us to the meeting point of the freshwater and the recycled water for irrigation. Scott told us the tar balls and oil slicked water he saw were just like what he witnessed from the Gulf oil spill.

Protests Against Use Of Chemicals In Santa Barbara Oil Spill

Dozens of protesters chanted "End Oil Now!" and hoisted signs alongside an inflatable mock pipeline on a Santa Barbara beach on Sunday, demanding an end to fracking and other forms of "extreme oil extraction" days after a spill sent thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean and onto beaches. Crews in protective gear form a line to move bags if oiled sand into collection bins ad they work to clean sand at Refugio State Beach on the Gaviota Coast west of Goleta, one week after crude oil spilled into the ocean. "This spill is so visible," said Kassie Siegel, climate law institute director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, "but so much of the damage that the oil companies do is harder to see. "This is a tragic reminder that oil production is dirty and dangerous from start to finish," Siegel said. She warned that chemical dispersants could make things worse by harming marine life and human health.

Santa Barbara Oil Spill Spurred Environmental Movement

The latest oil spill on the Santa Barbara coast is just a drop in the bucket compared with the area's catastrophic blowout in 1969, but it has become a new rallying point for environmentalists in their battle against drilling and fossil fuels. No one expects damage on the order of the '69 disaster, which helped give rise to the modern environmental movement and led to passage of some of the nation's most important environmental laws. Nevertheless, the new spill from a ruptured underground pipe is being held up as another reason to oppose such things as fracking, the Keystone XL pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas, the moving of crude by train, and drilling in far-flung places.

6 Arrested At BP HQ In Week Of Action For Gulf Oil Spill Anniversary

On April 20, 2010 BP’s offshore oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 workers, causing the largest oil spill ever in U.S. waters and the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. It impacted wildlife and people, caused health problems from exposure to oil and dispersants, and decimated oyster, shellfish and finfish populations and damaged livelihoods and economies in towns dependent on fisheries. Five years later, much oil remains in the Gulf, but no one is sure how much. BP has fought in court to minimize its responsibility. Kicking off a week of events marking the fifth anniversary of that event—with the damage to the environment and the ecosystem of the Gulf region still being added up—activists occupied BP headquarters in Houston.

Mopping Up World’s Largest Oil Spill With Fungus

The dinner plate-sized mushroom encircles its host tree like a bloated tumor. I'm about to snap a photo of the beast when something flickers in the corner of my eye. Faint, smoky wisps give off the impression of smoldering coals. At this very instant, the fungus is releasing billions of microscopic spores. I feel as though I'm witnessing one of nature's secret acts, something an urbanite like me was only supposed to see on National Geographic. With a lush green canopy overhead, the hum of insects and warbles of tropical birds filling my ears, the moment would be Avatar­-worthy, save one jarring detail: The air reeks of petroleum. That's because I'm standing over a patch of blackened, crude-soaked ground.

Oil Train Derailment Shows Need For Action

An oil train transporting highly volatile crude oil derailed and caught fire today in Fayette County, W.V., spewing burning oil into the Kanawha River and setting a house ablaze, forcing the evacuation of two nearby communities and threatening municipal drinking water supplies. The accident, which follows a similar derailment and explosion in Timmins, Ontario on Saturday, is the latest in a string of fiery accidents involving oil trains in Canada and the United States in recent years following a 40-fold increase in crude oil transport by rail since 2008 that has been marked by no upgrade in federal safety requirements.

Huge Fire In West Virginia After Oil Train Derails

A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed in southern West Virginia on Monday, sending at least one tanker into the Kanawha River, igniting at least 14 and sparking a house fire, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Nearby residents were told to evacuate as a state emergency response team and environmental officials headed to the scene about 30 miles south-east of Charleston. The state was under a winter storm warning and getting heavy snowfall at times, with as much as 5in in some places. It was not clear if the weather had anything to do with the derailment, which occurred about 1.20pm ET along a flat stretch of rail. A public safety spokesman, Lawrence Messina, said responders reported one tanker and possibly another went into the river.
Oil

North Dakota Pipeline Leaks Crude Oil, 3mn Gallons Of Byproduct

Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater and an as yet unknown amount of crude oil have leaked from a northwest North Dakota pipeline into a creek that feeds into the Missouri River. Officials have called the leak the largest of its kind in state history. The leak in the 4-inch saltwater collection line, owned by Summit Midstream Partners LP and operated by subsidiary Meadowlark Midstream Co., was discovered earlier this month and was reported to the state on January 7, according to Reuters. The pipeline, about 15 miles north of Williston, will be out of commission for an undetermined amount of time, Summit said.

2nd Crude Pipeline Spill In Montana Wreaks Havoc On Yellowstone

When an oil pipeline burst in July 2011 and poured 63,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River 200 miles upstream from Dena Hoff’s farm of wheat, beans and corn on the Great Plains in Glendive, she felt disgusted. When it happened again Saturday, she felt terror. This pipeline breach was underneath the Yellowstone River, just a few feet from her sheep pasture. The new spill poured out some 50,000 gallons of crude oil. Leaders of this small riverside farming and ranching community in northeastern Montana warned residents not to drink their tap water, because benzene, a carcinogen, was found in the municipal water system. Oil slicked the river for dozens of miles, almost to the border with North Dakota. Hoff’s property smelled sickeningly like diesel.

Ruptured Pipeline Pumps Shale Oil Along Yellowstone River

A pipeline rupture in Eastern Montana on Saturday, which spilled up to 50,000 gallons of Bakken shale crude oil into the Yellowstone River, has local residents worried that their water supplies may now be contaminated. According to a statement (pdf) released by Bridger Pipeline Co., which operates the Poplar Pipeline, the breach occurred approximately nine miles upstream from Glendive, Montana. The company claims that no more than 1,200 barrels, or 50,000 gallons, of crude oil were released and stated that an "unknown amount of that total has spilled into the Yellowstone River." It was not immediately clear whether their estimates have been independently verified.

Enbridge And Regulators Missed Most Oil Spills From Pipeline

An aging Enbridge pipeline that runs across Ontario has had at least 35 spills — far more than reported to federal regulators — but many municipalities along its route have never been informed of the incidents, a CTV W5 investigation reveals. The National Energy Board, which regulates pipelines in Canada, has records of seven spills, while Enbridge told the investigative program there had been 13. But W5’s analysis of information from the energy board, the company and Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment showed 35 spills associated with the 830-kilometre Line 9. (The Quebec government refused to provide W5 with any information). The company is seeking federal approval to increase and reverse flow on the 38-year-old pipeline and use it to transport, in part, diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands.

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