EARTHblog
A growing list of water woes
It took a reporter’s tenacious investigation, a public outcry, and continual requests by Earthworks, our partners, and many others, but the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has finally revealed the magic number. Late last week, the agency released a list of 248 cases of private water well contamination confirmed to be the result of oil and gas drilling since 2007. Pat Klotz from Bradford County isn’t on the list. But as Earthworks’ latest case study reveals, there’s reason to think she should have been.
Tagged with: fracking, health, water contamination
Mine Waste Pollutes More Rivers in Mexico
Mexico has been hit hard these past few weeks with two separate mine waste spills. One was a toxic mine spill that occurred two weeks ago in the state of Sonora, which I blogged about previously. Here, 10 million gallons of sulfuric acid spilled from the Buenavista copper mine, contaminating two rivers and leaving thousands of people without access to water. Reports also found fish kills and cattle who drank the water dead. Just a week after, a tailings spill contaminated a river in Durango.
Tagged with: water pollution, tailings, mexico
Water Treatment in Perpetuity: Who is really to blame?
Last week I travelled to Albuquerque to attend an EPA-hosted national technical conference on “Mining Influenced Waters” – a toned-down phrase that describes water pollution caused by mining. The cases laid out were all severe enough to warrant multi-million dollar remedial actions and treatment operations, and at most of these sites, someone will be footing the bill forever.
That’s right. A growing number of mine sites discharge such severely polluted water that they will require water treatment for hundreds to thousands of years, or “in perpetuity” to meet water quality standards that protect human health and aquatic life. Earthworks released a report in 2013 that documents this escalating national dilemma.
Tagged with: mining, epa, water pollution, perpetual pollution, tailings
Water in the Woodlands
Tagged with: fracking, pennsylvania department of environmental protection, water contamination
Pepsi Cans on Wheels: Stopping Explosive Oil Trains
Some communities do not even know that mile long 100-car unit trains hauling explosive crude oil pass through their neighborhoods until they hear the rumbling of the tracks. Last summer, one of these trains derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Additional tragedies, including one in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia last April, spotlight the enormous danger posed by what some now call “Bomb Trains”. Driven by the expansion of fracking for oil, especially in North Dakota, these rolling hazardous dangers carrying their climate-warming fossil fuels spilt more flammable crude oil last year than in the previous forty years according to Federal Railroad Administration records.
Tagged with: bakken, oil trains, crude by rail, federal railroad administration, phmsa
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