pollution

Navajo Nation Declares State Of Emergency Over ‘Tragic’ Spill

August 14, 2015 Tristan Ahtone, www.america.aljazeera..com Resist! Environment, EPA, Mining, Navajo, pollution, Water

Farmers and ranchers on Navajo land in northwestern New Mexico are preparing to take heavy losses this season as a plume of wastewater laced with toxic chemicals flows south from an abandoned mine in Colorado. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency spilled around 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River. According to the EPA, the incident occurred when a crew hired to pump and treat wastewater inside the abandoned Gold King Mine outside of Durango, Colorado, accidently released a brew of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals from a mine tunnel. As a precautionary measure, the Navajo Nation has asked citizens to keep livestock away from the San Juan River and stop diverting water from the river for crops. That means farmers like Lorenzo Bates are beginning to plan for the worst. “What is in the water? To what extent are those heavy metals?” said Bates, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council and farmer from Upper Fruitland, New Mexico.

One Year In FLIR: Exposing Invisible Fracking Air Pollution

August 13, 2015 Hillary Lewis, www.earthworksaction.org Resist! Environment, Fracking, pollution

By Hillary Lewis in Earth Works Action - One year ago, thanks to the generous support of Earthworks members, we bought a FLIR Gasfinder camera to expose otherwise invisible air pollution from fracking and drilling operations. With this camera, we are able see what industry is trying to hide, and show that fracking isn't clean or safe. We put the results of this technology in the hands of everyday citizens living with oil and gas in their backyard so they can see what's really going on and demand action. We call it the Citizens Empowerment Project. Today, we have almost 150 videos documenting fracking pollution in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. And that's just the beginning.

Poor Neighborhoods To Get Green Car-Share Program

August 9, 2015 Eleanor Goldberg, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Climate Change, pollution, Poverty, Transportation

By Eleanor Goldberg in the Huffington Post. Los Angeles, CA - In many areas, poor residents typically have longer commutes and less access to public transportation than middle- and upper-class communities, yet they’re being excluded from the growing car-share trend. But that gap may at least begin to close in Los Angeles. Across the U.S. people earning between $5,000 and $30,000 a year spend about a quarter of their household income on transportation. Though car-sharing programs can help low-income individuals greatly cut down on travel costs and gas emissions, these companies typically don’t cater to poorer neighborhoods since the profit potential isn’t there, Streets Blog USA points out.

Drinking Water In B.C. At Risk From Mine Tailings Ponds

June 27, 2015 Brent Patterson, www.rabble.ca Educate! Canada, Environment, pollution, Water

By Brent Patterson in Rabble - The drinking water for hundreds of communities and thousands of kilometres of waterways are at risk from tailings ponds in British Columbia. The Globe and Mail reports, "The [B.C. First Nations Energy and Mining Council] has, for the first time, mapped out the 35 active mine tailings ponds [on 48 key watersheds] in the northern half of the province and traced the potential paths of contaminants from dam failures at any of those sites. The survey found that 80 per cent of the chinook and sockeye salmon in the region are either downstream from a tailings facility or would migrate up a river that could be contaminated. It also concluded that there are risks to the drinking water of 33 First Nations and 208 other communities, including Prince George, Smithers and Terrace."

The Struggle To Protect Kenya’s Ewaso Ngiro River

June 18, 2015 Chris Williams, www.truth-out.org Resist! Environment, Kenya, pollution, Water

By Chris Williams in Truthout - The proposed mega-dam will undoubtedly worsen these grave threats. At a cost of 10 billion Kenyan shillings (US $103 million), the dam will submerge 13,000 hectares (more than 32,000 acres) of land under the resulting lake, as well as five nature conservancies. Assuming there is no drought, it will take more than 10 months to fill the lake once the dam has been completed, which will mean not only lots of people losing the land where they currently live (in addition to land that's already been commandeered by the Kenyan and British military and into private land trusts as nature conservancies), but also people being subjected to even more severe water shortages from the river as the lake is filled. Not only have local people not been consulted, but the electricity produced by the dam isn't even for them; it is for a proposed "Las Vegas of northern Kenya" resort city for tourists, to be built in the town of Isiolo.

Infrared Videos Show Oil And Gas Air Pollution Ignored

October 21, 2014 Sharon Wilson, www.earthworksaction.org Educate! Fracking, health, Oil and Gas, pollution

Newly released infrared videos taken over the past three months show that oil and gas air pollution is ongoing, chronic, and unaddressed in Denton, Texas despite assurances of safety by industry. The videos make visible normally invisible volatile organic compounds emissions (VOCs) -- such as carcinogens like benzene. “These videos prove to Denton residents that, even as they go to the polls bombarded with industry promises of ‘responsible drilling’, those promises are empty.” said Earthworks’ Texas organizer Sharon Wilson. She continued, “Instead, we’re getting polluted with ongoing, long-term exposure to poisonous volatile organic compounds.” FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) cameras are used by the oil and gas industry and government regulators specifically to detect leaks of volatile organic compounds.

Plastics, Plastics Everywhere — Even In Our Drinks

October 7, 2014 Carmen Russell-Sluchansky , www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Environment, Greece, pollution

ATHENS, Greece — The rocky shores of Anavyssos in southern Greece are a magnet for European travelers, who flock to the pristine blue sea, swimming spots, hotels and seafood restaurants. Right along the two lane highway that brings visitors just 30 miles south of Athens, one can walk a mere five feet off the road and jump into the refreshing — if incredibly salty — water. Little in the way of litter is seen on the beaches, as the tourist economy depends on maintaining the natural ambiance. This apparent cleanliness, however, belies the fact that thousands of tons of marine litter and debris lurk underwater off the shore in the Mediterranean Sea. This rubbish — mostly plastics — is finding its way into the ecology and the human food supply.

North Dakota Farmers Fight Oil Boom Contamination

September 8, 2014 Laura Gottesdiener, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! North Dakota, Oil, pollution, Water

Last summer, in a wet, remote section of farm country in Bottineau County, landowner Mike Artz and his two neighbors discovered that a ruptured pipeline was spewing contaminated wastewater into his crop fields. “We saw all this oil on the low area, and all this salt water spread out beyond it,” said his neighbor Larry Peterson, who works as a farmer and an oil-shale contractor. “The water ran out into the wetland.” It was August, and all across Artz’s farm the barley crop was just reaching maturity. But near the spill, the dead stalks had undeveloped kernels, which, the farmers knew, meant that the barley had been contaminated weeks earlier. Soon after, state testing of the wetlands showed that chloride levels were so high, they exceeded the range of the test strips. The North Dakota Department of Health estimated that between 400 to 600 barrels of wastewater, the equivalent of 16,800 to 25,200 gallons, had seeped into the ground. Wastewater, known as “saltwater” because of its high salinity, is a by-product of oil drilling, which has been a boom-and-bust industry in North Dakota since at least the 1930s. Far saltier than ocean water, this wastewater is toxic enough to sterilize land and poison animals that mistakenly drink it. “You never see a saltwater spill produce again,” Artz said, referring to the land affected by the contamination. “Maybe this will be the first, but I doubt it.”

An Ozone Garden Tells You About Air Quality

September 6, 2014 Jennifer Chait, www.inhabitots.com Create! Air, Garden, Ozone, pollution

What if you could simply look at the leaves on the plants in your garden to find out about the air quality in your neighborhood? Theoretically you can, if you plant a National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) inspired ozone garden (pdf). NCAR recently planted a garden full of plants that react visibly when ozone levels are high. Such plants include green shoots of milkweed, snap bean, potato and cutleaf coneflowers. Like humans, plants can be sensitive to ozone issues. Some plants, when exposed to high levels of the gas for extended periods of time, develop tiny, colored, evenly spaced spots on their leaves or their leaves may turn black or yellow. NCAR isn’t the first to plant an ozone garden. NASA has one and the new NCAR garden is based on the St Louis ozone gardens (pdf) set up by AQAST member Jack Fishman. Other ozone sensitive plants include flowering dogwood, buttonbush, soy beans, and milkweed. Planting an ozone sensitive garden is a realistic project you can implement at your own home with your kids, allowing your little ones to not only learn how to garden but also about ozone monitoring and wildlife that thrives around these plants. For example, milkweed is the monarch butterfly caterpillar’s primary food source. If you’d like to plant your own ozone garden check out the guides below. No time to plant a garden? Check out your neighborhood ozone situation at OzoneAware.

BP Found “Grossly Negligent” In Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

September 5, 2014 Susan E. Matthews, www.audubonmagazine.org Educate! BP, Law, Oil Spill, pollution

BP is guilty of gross negligence for its role in the disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a federal judge ruled this morning. The company may be forced to pay up to $18 billion in penalties, according to Bloomberg News. At least 80 percent of these fines will be funneled directly into environmental restoration, per the Restore Act, says Brian Moore, Audubon's legislative director. "It changes altogether the scope of the restoration of the Gulf," Moore says. The explosion and resulting spill killed 11 people and caused immeasurable environmental damage, including killing thousands of birds. Leaked oil is still hurting birds in the area years after the 2010 disaster. In 2012 BP accepted criminal responsibility for the disaster, and the company has already paid fines and restitution totaling $4.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Following the announcement of the additional fines from the gross negligence decision this morning, BP shares fell more than 6 percent. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier held the trial without a jury, and did not rule on how much oil was ultimately spilled in months after the rig explosion. That figure will ultimately determine the eventual fine BP pays--the Clean Water Act dictates that $4,300 is paid per barrel of oil spilled. The company is expected to appeal the decision, which could delay payment on the fines for years.

Imperial Metals, Government Focus On Cover Up Not Clean Up

September 2, 2014 Leila Darwish, www.rabble.ca Educate! Canada, Mining, pollution, Water

On August 4, the massive tailings dam at the Imperial Metals Mount Polley gold and copper mine burst. The dam breach unleashed 14.5 million cubic metres of toxic heavy metals and chemical laden tailings water and sludge into Polley Lake, down Hazeltine Creek, into Quesnel Lake and onto the Quesnel River which directly connects to the Fraser River Watershed. The Quesnel Lake watershed is a major source of drinking water and home to one-quarter of the province's sockeye salmon. This is the largest mining disaster to occur in Canada and it's still unfolding. The Imperial Metals Mount Polley mine is located on Northern Secwepemc territory, therefore, this disaster most directly affects the Secwepemc who rely on salmon as their principal food source and the impacted area for hunting game, fishing, gathering berries and medicines. The nearby Secwepemc communities most impacted are the Xastull (Soda Creek) First Nation and the Williams Lake Indian Band (Sugar Cane First Nation). Neither Xatsull (Soda Creek) or the Williams Lake Indian Band (Sugar Cane) were alerted by the company of the disaster. The disaster also directly affects residents of the town of Likely who have no immediate access to drinking water and are experiencing serious health effects as a result of the spill. And as the salmon return home, the spill impacts the many downstream First Nations and communities who depend on the fish in the Quesnel and Fraser River systems.

Watch For Sold Out Pro-Fracking Enviro Groups

August 28, 2014 Peter Moskowitz, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Corruption, Environment, Fracking, pollution

In 2012, when Ohio’s Senate passed a controversial hydraulic fracturing bill that was supported by the oil and gas industry, environmental groups lined up against it, saying it would endanger public health. But during hearings on the bill, it gained one seemingly unlikely supporter: the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), one of the nation’s largest green groups. The bill supported renewable energy development but it also contained several items other environmental groups said were giveaways to the industry: It allowed fracking companies to keep private the chemicals they used in fracking, changed the required distance for contamination testing around a well from 300 feet to 1,500 feet, and prevented doctors from sharing information that might be considered trade secrets, even if it was in the interest of public health. Matt Watson, one of EDF’s policy analysts, said at the hearing, “We would like to commend the General Assembly and the governor for the thoughtful approach that has been put forward.” The group’s support for the bill highlighted a growing divide in the environmental movement, especially when it comes to natural gas. As fracking has expanded to dozens of states across the country, environmentalists have essentially been split into two camps: those who believe the process must be stopped at all costs, and those who believe drilling is inevitable, and so it’s better to work with industry on making it safer for the environment. But a new report critical of that latter group suggests that at least in some cases, environmental organizations’ work with the industry may cross ethical lines, and at worst become tacit support of industry-backed positions.

New York City’s East River Turns Into A Clean Pool For Swimming

August 25, 2014 Ashley Curtin, www.bullhorn.nationofchange.org Create! New York City (NYC), pollution, Water

With more than 14 bathhouses in Manhattan in the 1940s, New York City is no stranger to swimming in municipal waterways. Yet, during current times, people shudder at the sound of swimming in what have transformed into polluted waters. But one man’s concept will soon make swimming in New York’s East River safe and clean. Archie Coates, co-founder of +Pools, is teaming up with engineering and design firms, Arup and IDEO, to develop a 285,500-gallon swimming pool filled with river water for New Yorkers to safely swim and play in. And he is doing so by utilizing purification technology that conceptually resembles “gills of an oyster.” To make the innovation a reality, Coates first teamed up with scientists and environmentalists from the Columbia University. Since they determined that sewage made the East River unhealthy for humans, Coates was then able to push forward with the development of a “three-level filtration system made out of high-tech ‘geotextiles’ that have previously been used in wastewater treatment.” The environmentally friendly purification process moves the water through the system and microbes are removed by the “geotextiles” at each level. This is similar to how oysters use their gills to filter water for survival in the ocean.

Group Pushes Congress On Abandoned Uranium Mine Cleanup

August 22, 2014 Matthew Seeman, www.cronkitenewsonline.com Organize! Clean Up the Mines, Mining, pollution, Uranium, Water

The people behind Clean Up the Mines understand that others have been trying for years to clean up abandoned uranium mines and have mostly met with limited success. But they say that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t keep trying. The grass-roots advocacy group of environmental, Native American and other organizations launched in April with the goal of getting Congress to mandate cleanup of the more than 10,000 abandoned mines in the country, at least 500 of which are on the Navajo Nation. “This needs to be a federal standard,” said Klee Benally, a Navajo who is a member of Clean Up the Mines. “It needs to be the highest that we can possibly have to address these toxic abandoned uranium mines.” Key to that effort is a proposed piece of legislation, the Uranium Exploration and Mining Accountability Act, that would require a complete inventory of the thousands of abandoned mines in the U.S. It would be the first bill specifically addressing uranium mining, said Charmaine White Face, who drafted the proposal and is coordinator for Defenders of the Black Hills. She said Clean Up the Mines formed after several native communities in South Dakota shared concerns that abandoned mines had contaminated their water supply.

Mining Spill Closes 88 Schools, Pollutes Water

August 20, 2014 Ari Phillips, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Mexico, Mining, pollution, Water

An acid spill from a large copper mine in northern Mexico is keeping 88 schools closed starting Monday due to uncertainty over the safety of drinking water. The 12-day-old spill, which sent 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of toxic wastewater into portions of the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers, may keep schools closed for over a week according to the Associated Press. The Buenavista copper mine, one of the largest copper mines in the world, is located in Cananea, Sonora, about 25 miles south of the U.S. border near Nogales, Arizona. The mine is operated by Grupo Mexico, one of the world’s largest copper producers. Grupo Mexico’s American subsidiary, Asarco, is nearing a deal to gain full ownership of the Silver Bell copper mine across the U.S. border in Marana, Arizona and has been subject to major environmental misconduct charges in the past relating to its mining operations. Mine officials have been criticized for not reporting the massive acid spill to authorities for around 24 hours, with residents downstream detecting the spill the next day as it turned dozens of miles of river orange.

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