Category Archives: natural resource management

fossil fuels, natural resource management, oil pollution

Common Dreams: Chevron Retaliation Trial Opens Against Victims of Pollution in Ecuador Protestors rally for justice in Ecuador; Decry Chevron’s abuses Protest in Foley Square, New York City: 9 am Tues., Oct. 15th

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http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/10/14-0

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 2013 1:53 PM
CONTACT: Amazon Watch

Paul Paz y Miño, 510-773-4635, paz@amazonwatch.org
Caroline Bennett, 510-520-9390, caroline@amazonwatch.org
Han Shan, 914-418-4133, han@riseup.net

NEW YORK – October 14 – Tomorrow (Tuesday) Ecuadorian villagers from the Amazon rainforest region ravaged by Chevron’s oil contamination will join supporters for a large rally in Foley Square across from the courthouse where a trial will open in the California-based oil giant’s retaliatory RICO lawsuit against the Ecuadorians and their U.S. based legal advocates.

The Ecuadorians are representing 30,000 plaintiffs who won a landmark judgment against Chevron in an Ecuadorian court in 2011 in which the company was ordered to pay more than $18 billion for cleanup of widespread contamination, as well as compensatory and punitive damages. The case holding Chevron accountable for toxic dumping by its predecessor company, Texaco, has been upheld by appellate courts in Ecuador.

After nearly 20 years since the case was filed in 1993, Chevron refuses to pay for a cleanup and is waging a scorched earth legal, PR, and lobbying campaign to crush its victims and their advocates and supporters. The oil giant stripped its assets from the country, forcing the Ecuadorians to pursue enforcement of the judgment in countries where the company maintains assets.

“This trial is merely Chevron’s latest cynical ploy to evade accountability for its crimes in Ecuador,” said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch. “Chevron’s legacy in the Amazon has caused enough environmental ruin and human suffering already; it’s time the company to pay for a cleanup, rather than for more abusive efforts to run from its responsibility.”

Villagers from the Ecuadorian Amazon living amidst hundreds of Chevron’s abandoned toxic waste pits that litter the region will gather along with supporters to speak out at the protest in Foley Square. The rally is being organized by members of New York’s large Ecuadorian community, along with human rights supporters and environmental activists who will be supporting them with a massive ‘Lady Justice’ figure and other visuals.

Forty-seven ‘named plaintiffs’ – all of them indigenous rainforest residents and rural villagers – who represent tens of thousands of affected people have been named in Chevron’s lawsuit, which alleges that the entire case is a conspiracy to extort the company. Two of the Ecuadorian villagers have accepted personal jurisdiction in the case in order to fight the allegations. Fearing a public backlash for suing victims of its pollution, Chevron has focused its smear campaign on New York-based human rights attorney Steven Donziger, who has advised the Ecuadorians in their efforts since first visiting the contaminated region in 1993.

“I lost two children to Texaco’s pollution and the company now calls me a criminal for daring to demand justice,” said Emergildo Criollo, a leader of the Cofan indigenous tribe in whose ancestral lands the oil company first explored for oil in 1964. “Since the company arrived, our culture has been decimated, our children poisoned, our rainforest ruined, and Chevron dares to call us criminals?”

The Ecuadorians and their supporters have called for an end to Chevron’s retaliatory lawsuit, and are calling this latest effort a “rigged show trial” before a federal judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, who has displayed outright hostility to the Ecuadorians’ legal efforts to demand a cleanup. Judge Kaplan has also made repeated disparaging on the record comments about Ecuador’s judicial system.

Texaco operated in Ecuador until 1992, and Chevron absorbed the company in 2001, assuming all of its predecessor’s assets and liabilities.

Chevron has admitted to dumping nearly 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater – the byproduct of oil drilling and pumping – into rivers and streams relied upon by thousands of people for drinking, bathing, and fishing. The company also abandoned hundreds of unlined, open waste pits filled with crude, sludge, and oil drilling chemicals throughout the inhabited rainforest region. In other countries at the same time as it was operating with no environmental controls in Ecuador, the company re-injected wastewater, and used easily-deployed technology to deal with toxic byproducts of its oil drilling.

Multiple independent health studies have shown an epidemic of oil-related birth defects, cancers, and other illness. It is estimated that the contamination has directly led to at least 1,400 deaths.

More Information:

amazonwatch.org
chevrontoxico.com
www.stevendonziger.com

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Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems

energy policy, fossil fuels, fracking, natural resource management, oil pollution, tar sands

Food & Water Watch: The Facts Are In on Fracking’s Social Impacts: Read Our Report, Then Tell Your Governor: Fracking Harms Local Communities!

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Tell your Governor to listen to the data on fracking:
https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=929

Fracking Harms Our Beloved Communities

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Faces of fracking in Pennsylvania

Check out our new report, then share it with your Governor!

Dear Friend,

It all happened in less than 10 years.

In my home state of Pennsylvania, that’s how long it took for thousands of natural gas wells to be drilled, for our land, air and water quality to be degraded, and for communities across the state to be torn apart by fracking. But the impacts of fracking don’t stop there. That’s why our research team at Food & Water Watch has worked for almost a year to pull together a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind report on the social costs of fracking in PA communities.

Our new report is the first investigation on the social impacts of fracking, and it’s crucial that our political leaders see this shocking data. Will you email the report to your Governor?

What we uncovered in this study was hard to believe, but we didn’t make up these numbers — all of our research was based on the state of Pennsylvania’s own data. Here are some surprising examples of what we found:

Sexually transmitted infection rose by 32.4% in rural Pennsylvania counties where fracking began (that’s 62% more than the increase in rural unfracked counties).
Social disorder crimes — especially substance abuse and alcohol-related crimes — increased by 17% in counties with the highest density of fracking (compared to only 13% in unfracked rural counties).
Heavy-truck crashes increased by 7.2% in counties with high fracking activity (whereas they fell in unfracked counties).

Across the country, folks have been coming to community meetings and town halls for years to voice concerns about how natural gas drilling has affected their communities. Now, we finally have the data to back up their concerns. Show your support for a ban on fracking and share this critical report with your Governor!

Thanks for taking action,

emily13620
Emily Wurth
Water Team Director
Food & Water Watch

P.S. There’s lots you can do in your own community to ban fracking! On October 19, plug into the Global Frackdown to be part of an international day of action against fracking — sign up for an event near you!

Food & Water Watch is a consumer advocacy nonprofit that challenges the corporate control of our food and water. We empower people to take action and transform the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Donate * Contact Us • Visit the Website

Food & Water Watch, 1616 P Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 • (202) 683-2500

energy policy, national ocean politics, natural resource management

E&E: BUDGET:Green groups urge cutting environmental riders from debt ceiling bill

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Nick Juliano, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, September 26, 2013

A coalition of environmental groups is urging congressional leaders to avoid including controversial environmental and energy-policy provisions in legislation being crafted to increase the debt ceiling. More than two dozen groups yesterday sent a letter to House and Senate leaders from both parties in response to reports that House Republicans are preparing a debt ceiling bill that would include a long wish list of GOP priorities. Among the measures being written into the bill are mandatory approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, an end to U.S. EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and expanded oil and natural drilling on federal lands and offshore (E&ENews PM, Sept. 20).

“These riders would increase costs to American families through higher health care costs and reduced value of environmental values and natural systems that sustain us all,” wrote the groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and National Parks Conservation Association.

House leaders are expected to formally introduce their debt ceiling package later today. In addition to the energy provisions, the bill also is expected to propose several changes to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as well as GOP policy goals in other areas.

The debt ceiling will have to be raised by Oct. 17 to prevent a government default, the Treasury Department said yesterday. Congress also continues to work on a stopgap spending bill, with the Senate continuing to debate its proposed changes to a House-passed continuing resolution that could be sent back to the lower chamber by this weekend.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said this morning that he would not accept the “clean” CR Senate Democrats are expected to send him, setting up another round of legislative pingpong that would occur with little time remaining to avoid a Tuesday government shutdown.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

fossil fuels, fracking, natural resource management, oil pollution

Philly.com: Shale criminal charges stun drilling industry

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http://articles.philly.com/2013-09-13/news/42012429_1_xto-energy-inc-criminal-charges-attorney-general

xto energy
XTO Energy Inc., of Fort Worth, Texas,is a major player in Pa.’s Marcellus Shale. (RON JENKINS / Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

By Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: September 13, 2013

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s decision to prosecute a major Marcellus Shale natural-gas driller for a 2010 wastewater spill has sent shock waves through the industry.

But environmentalists Wednesday hailed the prosecution of the Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary as a departure from the soft treatment they say the industry has received from Pennsylvania regulators.

“We have been very concerned about enforcement in the Marcellus, and we welcome the attorney general’s taking an active role,” said Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action.

Kane’s office announced charges Tuesday against XTO Energy Inc. for discharging more than 50,000 gallons of toxic wastewater from storage tanks at a gas-well site in Lycoming County.

XTO in July settled federal civil charges over the incident by agreeing to pay a $100,000 fine and deploy a plan to improve wastewater-management practices. The consent decree included no admissions of liability.

The Fort Worth, Texas, drilling company, which Exxon acquired in 2010, said it had worked cooperatively with federal and state authorities to clean up the spilled waste, known as “produced water.” XTO excavated and removed 3,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site.

“Criminal charges are unwarranted and legally baseless because neither XTO nor any of its employees intentionally, recklessly, or negligently discharged produced water on the site,” XTO said in a statement.

Kane’s office said it did not need to prove intent to prosecute the company for crimes. XTO is charged with five counts of unlawful conduct under the Clean Streams Law and three counts of unlawful conduct under the Solid Waste Management Act.

Industry leaders said the prosecution of a company for what they called an inadvertent spill creates a hostile business environment.

“The incident has been fully addressed at the state and federal levels, and this action creates an untenable business climate that will discourage investment in the commonwealth,” Kathryn Z. Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said in a statement.

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry also protested.

“This decision sends a chilling message to all businesses looking to locate in Pennsylvania that they could be held criminally liable in the event of an unintentional spill by a contractor that resulted in no injury to humans or wildlife and that had no lasting impacts on the environment,” said Gene Barr, its president.
First to be charged

XTO is the first Marcellus Shale production company to face criminal charges.

A Western Pennsylvania waste-hauler, Robert Allan Shipman, was convicted of illegally dumping waste in 2012, and sentenced to serve seven years of probation and 1,750 hours of community service, and to pay $382,000 in restitution and fines. The attorney general has appealed the sentence, arguing that Shipman deserved jail time.

In the XTO case, a grand jury did not charge any individuals. XTO faces a fine of $25,000 a day per violation, said Kane spokeswoman Carolyn E. Myers. The leak took place during the two months the company stored wastewater on the site.

Activists believe that Kane, a Democrat, has been looking to make a statement on shale drilling since she assumed office in January.

“She has indicated that she is on the watch for a criminal prosecution opportunity in the Marcellus Shale,” said Arnowitt, of Clean Water Action.

The XTO case was referred to the attorney general by the Department of Environmental Protection before Kane took office.

“The prosecutorial powers of this office are used carefully and with great consideration,” First Deputy Attorney General Adrian R. King Jr. said through a spokeswoman. “We closely examine the facts and the applicable law in each case and proceed accordingly.”
The XTO spill received very little public attention when it occurred.

A DEP inspector discovered wastewater leaking from an open valve on a storage tank during an unannounced visit to the Marquardt well site on Nov. 16, 2010. The wastewater spilled into a tributary of the Susquehanna River and also contaminated a spring. Pollutants were present in the stream for 65 days after the spill.

The grand jury’s presentment does not say who opened the valves on the tank or why. XTO officials at the time suggested vandals might be responsible. But it noted that the drilling site had no secondary containment, little security, and no alarm system for leaks.
Shale-gas wells produce huge quantities of wastewater after they are hydraulically fractured, which involves the injection of water, chemicals, and sand deep underground.

The wastewater contains fracking chemicals and pollutants from the shale formation itself, including barium, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium, bromide, and chloride.

As part of its federal settlement, XTO agreed to implement an estimated $20 million plan to recycle more wastewater and to install a remote monitoring system at all well sites in the region to trigger alarms in case of a spill.

BY THE NUMBERS
50,000
Gallons of toxic wastewater were discharged from storage tanks at a gas-well site in Lycoming County in 2010.
$100,000
Fine XTO Energy agreed to pay. The drilling company also agreed to improve wastewater management practices.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

BP Spill, gulf of mexico clean-up, Gulf restoration, marine pollution, natural resource management, ocean pollution, offshore oil, oil pollution

Maritime Executive: NOAA Releases Millions of Chemical Analyses from Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/NOAA-Releases-Millions-of-Chemical-Analyses-from-Deepwater-Horizon-Oil-Spill-2013-09-12/

September 12, 2013

Includes data on underwater hydrocarbon plume, dispersants
BY MAREX

NOAA announced the release of a comprehensive, quality-controlled dataset that gives ready access to millions of chemical analyses and other data on the massive Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The dataset, collected to support oil removal activities and assess the presence of dispersants, wraps up a three year process that began with the gathering of water samples and measurements by ships in the Gulf of Mexico during and after the oil release in 2010.

NOAA was one of the principal agencies responding to the Macondo well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and is the official ocean data archivist for the federal government. While earlier versions of the data were made available during and shortly after the response, it took three years for NOAA employees and contractors to painstakingly catalog each piece of data into this final form.

This Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill dataset, including more than two million chemical analyses of sediment, tissue, water, and oil, as well as toxicity testing results and related documentation, is available to the public online at: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/deepwaterhorizon/specialcollections.html.

A companion dataset, including ocean temperature and salinity data, currents, preliminary chemical results and other properties collected and made available during the response can be found at: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/deepwaterhorizon/insitu.html.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill response involved the collection of an enormous dataset. The underwater plume of hydrocarbon — a chemical compound that consists only of the elements carbon and hydrogen — was a unique feature of the spill, resulting from a combination of high-pressure discharge from the well near the seafloor and the underwater application of chemical dispersant to break up the oil.

“The size and scope of this project — the sheer number of ships and platforms collecting data, and the broad range of data types — was a real challenge. In the end, it was a great example of what can be accomplished when you bring together the expertise across NOAA, making this quality-controlled information easily available to the general public for the first time,” said Margarita Gregg, Ph. D., director of the National Oceanographic Data Center, which is part of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

The effort to detect and track the plume was given to the Deepwater Horizon Response Subsurface Monitoring Unit (SMU), led by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, and included responders from many federal and state agencies and British Petroleum (BP). Between May and November 2010, the SMU coordinated data collection from 24 ships on 129 cruises.

The SMU data archived at NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) is already being used by researchers at NOAA and in academia for a range of studies, including models of oil plume movement and investigations of subsurface oxygen anomalies. In addition to NODC, other parts of the NOAA archive system such as NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center and the NOAA Central Library contain important holdings. Recently, the library’s Deepwater Horizon Centralized Repository won recognition from the Department of Justice “as one of the best successes in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) world last year.”
By law, these data will remain available through NOAA’s archive systems for at least 75 years. Additional data from the Deepwater Horizon/Macondo spill can be found at the NOAA oil spill archive website: http://www.noaa.gov/deepwaterhorizon/ and data collected in the on-going Natural Resource Damages Assessment can be found at: http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/.

Special thanks to Richard Charter