Category: Environmental

Fukushima and the West Coast

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Here’s the real problem (and they’re two separate issues). The first is the actual radiation plume, which is particulate matter that is carried by air currents. Some experts are insisting that’s no big deal, that it’s equivalent to background radiation (it’s not, but whatever).

The real problem is the vast amount of radioactive water that’s been released into the Pacific Ocean for the past two years. Those particles are now in the food chain, but since the feds are either not testing, or not releasing the results of those tests, we have to piece together whatever pieces we can. It’s not looking good.

Personally, I wouldn’t eat any Pacific Ocean fish at all. And since processed fish is probably contaminated too, I wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t from the Northern Atlantic – although that will eventually be contaminated, it probably won’t be as bad. I hope.

Gas companies screwing leaseholders

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

It’s ironic. These people sold out their own communities to get that fracking cash, and now they’re getting screwed anyway. Sounds like music business accounting!

Over the last decade, an untold number of leases were signed, and hundreds of thousands of wells have been sunk into new energy deposits across the country. But manipulation of costs and other data by oil companies is keeping billions of dollars in royalties out of the hands of private and government landholders, an investigation by ProPublica has found. An analysis of lease agreements, government documents and thousands of pages of court records shows that such underpayments are widespread.

Thousands of landowners like Feusner are receiving far less than they expected based on the sales value of gas or oil produced on their property. In some cases, they are being paid virtually nothing at all. In many cases, lawyers and auditors who specialize in production accounting tell ProPublica energy companies are using complex accounting and business arrangements to skim profits off the sale of resources and increase the expenses charged to landowners. \

Deducting expenses is itself controversial and debated as unfair among landowners, but it is allowable under many leases, some of which were signed without landowners fully understanding their implications. But some companies deduct expenses for transporting and processing natural gas, even when leases contain clauses explicitly prohibiting such deductions. In other cases, according to court files and documents obtained by ProPublica, they withhold money without explanation for other, unauthorized expenses, and without telling landowners that the money is being withheld.

Because freedom!

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Charlie Pierce:

Though investigations are ongoing, the State Fire Marshal’s Office is undertaking voluntary inspections of other facilities that handle ammonium nitrate – the chemical responsible for the explosion. The Fire Marshal’s Office has identified 153 facilities in the state that are believed to store ammonium nitrate. Since Texas doesn’t have a state fire code, the fire marshal lacks the authority to conduct inspections if the company resists. Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said most facilities have welcomed him and that his office has already inspected 62 sites. Five facilities refused to be inspected, though he couldn’t say why or which facilities they were.    

Think about that for a moment. Texas, which we all can agree is a pretty big place, doesn’t have a state fire code, probably because freedom!

Much of the hearing was dominated by Republican lawmakers worried about burdening fertilizer businesses with new requirements. Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, said while he respected the victims of the West tragedy, the industry has been doing a “pretty good job of policing themselves” and voluntarily submitting reports. “If we’re not careful we could get like the federal government and try to put diapers on cows,” he said. Connealy stressed that his agency’s inspections were strictly voluntary. “Bottom line, we’re trying to prevent another West,” he said. “Most businesses welcome us with open arms.”

We don’t want to burden Texas industries with apocryphal tales of federal regulatory overreach, which means that, occasionally, unregulated fertilizer factories will explode and nearly wipe out small towns. This is how you create a “business-friendly” environment.

However, an industry representative testified that some fertilizer companies were unsure how to comply with existing rules. Donnie Dippel, president of Texas Agricultural Industries Association, who testified at the hearing said the association has experienced a spike in calls from operators. Many of them weren’t registered with federal Department of Homeland Security, and others hadn’t filed required reports in years, or ever. Some, he said, didn’t even own a computer.

Maybe there ought to be somebody in Texas who checks up on things like this. Just for the benefit of readers who may have joined us late, when the fertilizer plant blew in West it killed 15 people, injured more than 300 more, and caused $135 million in property damage. But the real problem, you see, is not to overreact in your attempt to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

TEPCO finally asks for help with leaks

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Where are the pro-nuclear industry comment trolls of yesteryear, who turned out in droves to ridicule anyone who pointed out the unfolding consequences of the Fukushima nuke disaster or questioned Tepco’s official version? The ones who lectured us about all the “safeguards” built into the antiquated systems and assumed the best about their for-profit owners? Ah, good times!

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.

Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.

He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

Meanwhile the chairman of Japan’s nuclear authority said that he feared there would be further leaks.

The ongoing problems at the Fukushima plant increased in recent days when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site.

Moment of crisis

The Japanese nuclear energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the international scale that measures the severity of atomic accidents.

This was an acknowledgement that the power station was in its greatest crisis since the reactors melted down after the tsunami in 2011.
Continue reading “TEPCO finally asks for help with leaks” →

FL Governor Scott to sue GA in decades old “water wars”…

~ Boohunney

On August 12th the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has declared a “fishery disaster” in the Apalachicola Bay located in Northeast Florida panhandle. The 2012 drought and overuse of water in the Chattahoochee, Flint, Apalachicola River basin that feeds the Apalachicola Bay has caused a 60% decline in the oyster harvest. The bay provides Florida with about 90% of its oysters and 10% of the nation’s oysters. The increase of salinity in the bay has lead to an intrusion of predators into the bay’s oysters such as boring clams, sponges and worms.

For over 25 years Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been at odds over the water use from the Chattahoochee, Flint, and Apalachicola river basin. The big white elephant in the room is the Metro Atlanta area, its dramatic growth of the last few decades and its huge demand for water. The Chattahoochee River along with its reservoir, Lake Lanier, located just north of the metro area, is the primary source of water for the Metro Atlanta area, which withdraws an estimated 360 million gallons per day. Georgia’s consumption is expected to nearly double to 705 million gallons per day by 2035.

This issue has gone to court in the past.

In 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled against Atlanta and signed an order that would have severely restricted the city’s withdrawals from the reservoir to levels last seen in the 1970s – when the city was a fraction of its current size – unless the political leaders of Alabama, Florida and Georgia struck a deal ending the impasse.

No deal has been struck.

But last year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the looming water cutoff and found that Atlanta had a claim to water from the reservoir.

The court instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine how much water the city can use.

Determining the allowable water use for the Metro Atlanta may take the Corp of Engineers until 2015 to complete.

With the disaster of the drought from last year another court battle is in the wings. Florida Governor Rick Scott has decided to file suit against Georgia last week.

“”Because Georgia has not negotiated in good faith to fairly share the waters that flow between our two states, we are announcing today that Florida will bring suit in the U.S. Supreme Court next month to stop Georgia’s unchecked consumption of water that threatens the existence of Apalachicola fisheries and the future economic development of this region,” Scott said.

“Down the road it might help us out, but we need something short-term,” Shannon Hartsfield, an oysterman and president of the Franklin County Seafood Workers Association. “As soon as this rainy season and the little bit of water we’re getting from it, as soon as it’s over, we are out of luck. We can’t survive, and the oysters can’t survive”

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal considers the suit a “frivolous waste of time.”

Deal, who said he was blindsided by Scott’s statement, urged the states to resume talks but seemed resigned to the fact that Georgia will confront another taxing legal fight that could take years to resolve.

“We’re talking about water that falls on Georgia’s soil and flows through the state of Georgia. There’s a reason for us to be protective. We will not roll over. If Florida wants to fight, we’ll fight,” Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “We think we have plenty of ammunition and that we have shown good faith on our side.”

It might be interesting to see how this will factor in the reelection campaigns of both Governors.

But, some real conservation measures have been needed for a while to resolve this water war. But, if history repeats itself, I am afraid any real plan will be kicked down the road.

 

Oh shit

~ susie

They’re never going to tell us what this is going to do to the rest of us, are they:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday it has detected radioactive tritium in groundwater collected from a newly built observation well by the sea at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The groundwater sample collected Saturday from the well contained 34,000 becquerels of tritium per liter, up from 23,000 becquerels detected in a sample collected Thursday, a day after the well was installed some 4 meters away from the sea, the plant operator said.

[…] The utility suspects that groundwater has been contaminated at an underground trench by the sea that is connected to the No. 2 reactor building. The newly built well is located some 160 meters north of the trench.

BBC: Fukushima might topple into aquifer

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

http://youtu.be/18ZRUUs782g

UPDATE: Japan’s prime minister has announced that the government will intervene in the cleanup.

400 tons of highly radioactive water are pouring into the ocean every day:

Official warns Fukushima reactor buildings could “topple” Tepco’s work to change flow of groundwater can form pools below surface that soften the earth. Tepco prepares this week to start work on a new set of measures that would ring off and cap the area where the most highly contaminated water has been found, some experts and regulators are saying that the battle to completely contain radioactivity to the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents may be a losing one.

It’s preparing to extend the underground hardened-earth barrier in a ring around the most heavily contaminated section of coastline, in hopes of heading groundwater off before it can flood in. Tepco is also proposing to cap that ringed section with gravel and asphalt, so nothing gets out. The operator is hoping to get an initial ring of hardened ground done by October.

But there’s a risk to changing the flow of groundwater in the ways that Tepco is considering, said Tatsuya Shinkawa, nuclear accident response director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, at a news conference last month. The water could pool dangerously underground, softening the earth and potentially toppling the reactor buildings.

H/T DUI attorney.

Covering up

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

If fracking is poisoning your water, it’s really none of your business:

Officially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said last year that the drinking water in Dimock, Pennsylvania, was not contaminated by natural gas extraction involving hydraulic fracturing (fracking). However, an internal EPA document obtained by the media contradicts this assertion, raising questions over why officials declared the water was safe to drink.

Residents of Dimock had complained for years that nearby gas drilling had polluted their wells. These complaints prompted the EPA’s mid-Atlantic field office to test the water for 64 homes.

Agency leaders in Washington later announced that nearly all of the samples came out clean.

But an EPA PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Tribune/Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau reveals that EPA on-site staff members informed its Washington headquarters that several wells had been contaminated with methane, manganese and arsenic, and that gas drilling was the likely culprit. The determination was based on studies conducted over the course of a four- to five-year period at the site.

The document concluded that “methane and other gases released during drilling (including air from the drilling) apparently cause significant damage to the water quality.” The presentation also stated that “methane is at significantly higher concentrations in the aquifers after gas drilling and perhaps as a result of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) and other gas well work.”