Trouble Brewing in the Great Lakes
|Views: 79
|Likes: 1
Published by Food and Water Watch
Unconventional oil and gas development poses a significant threat to the North American Great Lakes, the largest cluster of freshwater lakes in the world.
Unconventional oil and gas development poses a significant threat to the North American Great Lakes, the largest cluster of freshwater lakes in the world.
More info:
Availability:
See more
See less
U
1
Bu he indusry, seemingly hard pressed o make Norh America he leading producer o oil and gas, is puting he inegriy o he Grea Lakes in danger wih he developmen o Albera’s oxic ar sands oil and inensive energy exracion mehods such as hydraulic racuring.From he wesern boreal oress o Albera, he expansion o ar sands oil is increasing he need or more pipelines and re-ineries, which could have devasaing impacs on he environ-men, irreplaceable welands and habias, and he communi-ies in he pah o he indusrializaion.
3
Growing ineres in shale gas developmen in he region has made racking and drilling a hrea o he Grea Lakes.
4
Based on daa rom early 2013, here are approximaely 26 op-eraional oil reineries in he Grea Lakes region,
5
and planned expansion o ar sands reineries could lead o more oxic air polluion in he area.
6
Reineries (and naural gas processing plans) urn raw exraced ossil uels ino inal producs or ransporaion, indusrial, commercial or residenial use, as well as pero-chemicals used or manuacuring.
7
When reining ar sands oil, oxic polluans — including sulur dioxide, suluric acid, nirogen oxides and heavy meals — are released, which can impac boh air and waer qualiy as well as public healh.
8
Trouble Brewing in the
GREAT LAKES
2
Environmenal polluion disproporionaely affecs low-in-come, minoriy communiies.
9
Described as “sacriice zones,” hese communiies ofen are repeaedly exposed o oxic indusrial polluion, including rom reineries in economically disadvanaged areas.
10
As described by a Deroi residen liv-ing hal a mile rom a reinery operaed by Marahon Pero-leum Co.: “The smell, i was like his burning ar, wih ha benzene and ha sulur. I waned o scream.”
11
“We acually are lab ras,” explained anoher residen and cancer survivor who is chronically exposed o he carcinogenic emissions.
12
Sae Represenaive Rashida Tlaid (D-MI) explained ha de-spie promised jobs, “My residens and I eel ha jobs can’ ix cancer. I has o be abou he ac ha his massive reinery is living nex o a very poor, minoriy communiy in Deroi wih no real proecion. When my residens hear sirens, hey cross heir ingers and hope i’s no some sor o huge explosion.”
13
Piping Bitumen
As reineries muliply, he demand or pipeline inrasrucure rises.
14
Bu wih an aging pipeline inrasrucure buil largely in he 1950s and 1960s, here is concern abou pipeline inegri-y as he producion o unconvenional ar sand oil increases.
15
Biumen, a orm o peroleum exraced rom ar sands, is a hick, black hydrocarbon ha mus be dilued so ha i can be ranspored hrough pipelines, increasingly, o reineries in he Grea Lakes and Midwesern regions o Norh America. Dilued biumen, dubbed “dilbi” or shor, is a corrosive, acidic cockail, rich in heavy meals, sulur and sedimens ha can grae agains he insides o a pipeline, increasing wear and ear and possible pipeline ailure.
16
Alhough a June 2013 sudy boased ha dilbi’s corrosiveness does no increase he risk or pipeline ailures in comparison o oher crude oils, he suppor or indings ress in sel-repored indusry daa, previously conduced indusry-driven research and he involvemen o various people ha have relaionships and affiliaions wih he oil and gas indusry.
17
Conrarily, a Cornell Universiy repor ound: “Beween 2007 and 2010, pipelines ransporing dilued biumen ar sands in he norhern Midwes have spilled hree imes more oil per mile han he naional average or convenional crude oil.”
18
A noably devasaing ar sands spill, one o he wors and mos expensive oil spills in U.S. hisory, occurred in July 2010 when a pipeline owned by Enbridge Inc. (Canada’s larges pipeline ransporer o crude oil) rupured near Talmadge Creek, a ribuary o Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, spilling as much as 1 million gallons o ar sands crude (dilbi). The inland cleanup cos almos a billion dollars, and he spill dev-asaed sensiive ecosysems and impaced people who live in nearby communiies.
19
The usual spill-response mehods — applying skimmers and booms on he surace o he river — were o litle use because he heavy, viscous oil sank and spread along he botom o he river. The luids used o dilue he ar sands oil had become separaed afer he spill, and he oxic vapors conaining ben-zene and polycyclic hydrocarbons escaped ino he air, leaving he heavy oil o sink.
20
When exposed o he oxic vapors o dilbi, people can suffer rom respiraory problems and oher inernal damages. Ac-cording o a sample o Michigan residens, over one-hird o people living in communiies impaced by Enbridge’s Ka-
3
lamazoo acciden relocaed due o local air polluion. Local residens exposed o he spill repored roubling neurological, respiraory and gasroinesinal problems.
21
Meanwhile, Enbridge is proposing massive pipeline expansion projecs hroughou he Grea Lakes region.
22
This includes he expansion o wo pipelines ha run under he Srais o Mackinac, a waerway joining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. These pipelines have no been replaced in six decades, and he company wans o increase he amoun o ar sands oil pumped on a daily basis. Any sor o leakage would spew oxins ino he Grea Lakes.
23
(See Figure 1 below and Table 1 in Appendix.)
Wih shale gas reserves underlying vas pars o he Grea Lakes region — including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Onario and Qebec
24
— here is he poenial or wide-spread shale drilling and racking. Hydraulic racuring, or racking, is a process ha injecs large quaniies o waer, sand and oxic chemicals under high pres-sure o release gas ha is ighly held in rock layers.
25
Frack-ing uses millions o gallons o racking luid or a single well; a blend o waer, sand and chemicals is pumped underground a high pressure o break up rock, allowing gas o low ino he well.
26
Some o he racking luid says underground indei-niely, and he res lows back up ou o he well.
27
The lowback wasewaer conains, in addiion o he original racking luids, poenially exreme levels o harmul con-aminans ha are brough o he surace, which can include arsenic, lead, hexavalen chromium, barium, sronium, benzene, polycyclic aromaic hydrocarbons, oluene, xylene, corrosive sals and naurally occurring radioacive maerial, such as radium-226.
28
The process releases chemicals ha can cause cancer; disrup he endocrine sysem; affec he nervous, immune and cardiovascular sysems; and/or affec sensory organs and he respiraory sysem.
29
A common mehod o disposing o he lowback is hrough underground injecion wells, a pracice ha has grown ram-pan in Ohio and Michigan, urning he wo saes ino dump-ing grounds or racking wase. Injecing oxic lowback ino underground wells can pu aquiers and drinking waer a risk and has been linked o increased earhquake aciviy.
30
The expansion o shale gas developmen could harm he Grea Lakes wih mehane leaks and wasewaer spills. Already, here are 52 acive racking permis in Michigan, wih anoher 5 pending applicaions,
31
and Encana has big plans o drill an ad-diional 500 shale wells using 4 billion gallons o groundwaer.
32
According o a Unied Naions Waer repor: “Scarciy is also a quesion o waer qualiy …. Waer qualiy degradaion can be a major cause o waer scarciy.”
33
Problemaically, a U.S. Geologi-cal Survey publicaion noes ha pollued groundwaer sources can be a source o long-erm surace waer polluion.
34
(thousand barrels a day)
Enbridge Mainline SystemRegional Oil Sands SystemOther
7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4 7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4 7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4
Source: Food & Water Watch analysis of data, see Table 1.
Activity (3)
Filters
Reply
dreamwvr added this note
Piping millions of barrels of toxic tar sands oil throughout North America is simply not in the public interest. It would put the Great Lakes and the region’s environment, public health and economy at risk, solely for the benefit of oil and gas industry profits
1 hundred reads
dreamwvr liked this
