A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Dakota Access oil pipeline can continue operating while a study is completed to assess its environmental impact on an American Indian tribe.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s decision will come as a blow to the Standing Rock Sioux, who have argued that an oil spill from the pipeline under Lake Oahe — from which the tribe draws its water — could have a detrimental effect on the tribal community.
Boasberg also acknowledged that shutting down the pipeline would disrupt the energy industry, but said it wasn’t a major factor in his decision.
The $3.8 billion pipeline built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners has been operating since June 1, moving oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois.
Boasberg ruled on June 14 that the Corps largely complied with environmental law, but he ordered the agency to reconsider certain areas of its analysis, and took arguments on whether to shut down the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline while the work is done.
Boasberg in June said the Corps didn’t adequately consider how an oil spill under the Lake Oahe reservoir on the Missouri River in the Dakotas might affect the Standing Rock Sioux.
The judge said the Corps also didn’t adequately study how the pipeline might disproportionately affect the tribal community — a concept known as environmental justice.
In its analysis of the Missouri River crossing, the Corps studied the mostly white demographics in a half-mile (0.8-kilometer) radius, which the agency maintains is standard.
Boasberg in his ruling Wednesday said that issue was "a closer call" than the others, but that it still did not justify shutting down the pipeline.
Tribal attorneys argued that ETP had overstated the potential effects of a shutdown, and Boasberg acknowledged "some cause for skepticism" regarding ETP’s predictions.

Pollution and overuse have left the Himalayan waters depleted and in unsanitary condition. It is vital for those living on the mountain range to have access to fresh water flow for drinking, cleaning and farming, but the effects of global warming have melted away many of the glaciers that once sustained them. The increase in temperature has caused the water to melt throughout the winter, leading to diminished water supply for spring farming.
This water crisis has encouraged engineers to brave the cold winter nights in Ladakh, India’s highest province, to build their own glaciers.
The Himalayan foothills sit at an altitude of 10,000 feet and receive only about 50mm of rainfall each year. Without the water flow from glaciers, the people who live along this desert land would have a completely drained water supply. “The only reason people can live there is the glaciers,” Wangchuk says.
The Himalaya is among the many South Asian regions that are “water-stressed,” meaning these areas face water scarcity due to poor infrastructure or a lack of water supply.
While Wangchuk’s invention cannot stop contributions to climate change, ice stupas could be a step toward reducing its negative effects.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

LAHORE: Pakistan is nearing the threshold of water scarcity.
This was stated by the speakers during a media briefing session conducted by WWF-Pakistan under the project titled International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES) Application in Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at a local hotel.
He said that the implementation of laws pertaining to industrial effluents generated from the textile and leather industries were very weak.
He also said that a large population of major cities in Pakistan did not have access to safe drinking water as freshwater resources were being contaminated due to multiple reasons. He was of the view that safe drinking water should be made available to the population and industries needed to ensure proper disposal of solid and liquid waste.
This has consequential impacts on natural resources, the health of the people and eventually on overall economic conditions. He said that WWF-Pakistan would initiate a study on the situation analysis of water resources in Karachi and establish a case for a citywide partnership for responsible use of the resource.

Water-hauling trucks in Desert Hills and New River will not be allowed to fill their vehicles at Phoenix fire hydrants after December 31, jeopardizing their ability to serve residents in these unincorporated communities, which rely on either private wells or water trucks.
Phoenix’s Water Services Department wrote in a statement that water haulers will still be able to serve these communities after December 31.
Residents are alarmed at the prospect of no water, and irate about paying much higher prices for the same service if companies are forced to truck water from Peoria or Scottsdale instead.
A New River resident of 12 years, Turner and his family rely strictly on hauled water, despite spending $30,000 to dig and then deepen a well on their property.
“You really have a split in the community,” he told New Times — people who don’t depend on water haulers are less inclined to put pressure on Phoenix.
Our water’s working fine.’ People don’t want to get involved,” Turner said.
Brad Phelps, who owns Crystal Creek Water Hauling, said water prices could more than double if his trucks are cut off from Phoenix hydrants.
“Everybody has the same story, and it just feels like it’s really just a matter of time if you look at the graphs and you look at the levels,” Kinnersley told New Times.
“It isn’t their responsibility to make sure that people who are not even in their service area get water,” she said.

“Last year I spent about Rs 15,000 on medical expenses for my children.
Delhi Jal Board supplies more than 3,000 million litres per day, but much of it is lost in leakage and because of deficient infrastructure.
India’s home-grown company, Patanjali has also announced plans for foraying into this market, expected to grow three times faster than that of beverages.
An estimated 76 million people in India have no access to safe water.
Data from the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MODWS) suggests that 77 per cent of India’s rural population had access to at least 40 Litres Per Capita Day (LPCD) of safe drinking water.
India is the largest exploiter of ground water in the world. Ground water levels in India are sinking faster than in most major countries.
Even as the Union government strives to fix the problem, water scarcity and pollution creates a huge business opportunity for private players in bottled water, water purifiers, water management and recycling plants.
More than 12 international companies have already set up design and engineering centres in Mumbai and Pune and more than 1,200 companies are in the business of waste-water treatment alone.

President Ram Nath Kovind said on Tuesday the government has made a “sacred commitment” of covering 90% of Indian rural households with piped water supply by 2022, when the country completes 75 years of Independence.
The government has prepared a strategic plan for ensuring drinking water supply in all rural areas by 2022. We cannot fail,” he said.
He said that while water was fundamental to the economy and to ecology — and to human equity, the issue of scarcity of water was becoming still more critical in view of climate change and related environmental concerns.
“Better and more efficient use of water is a challenge for Indian agriculture and industry alike.
But the ratio, he asserted, is expected to change in the coming years as the demand for water would also rise.
He called for water management approach to be localised so that it empowered villages and neighbourhood communities and built their capacity to manage, allocate and value their water resources.

With a population of around 8.5 million, Bangalore is one of the largest cities on the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly referred to as the “Silicon Valley of India” due to the large concentration of tech companies that make their home in the city and surrounding area. Accordingly, it is home to a great amount of wealth and development.
But it is also home to staggering income inequality and widespread poverty. Nowhere is that more evident than in the quality of Bangalore’s drinking water.
University of Minnesota environmental engineering alum Kaylea Brase first came to know of Bangalore’s water woes while a student in the Acara program, an interdisciplinary course that positions students to tackle “Grand Challenges” facing the world. Together with her business partner, UMN civil engineering student Christopher Bulkley-Logston, Brase created Pure Paani, a company that seeks to bring affordable and easy-to-use filtration technology to the city’s low-income residents.
The Acara program, which brought together Brase and Bulkley-Logston, has operated on the campus of Minnesota since 2008.

From left, Christy and Josh Noble and their son, Henry, 9, give their cat Oscar a drink of water from their well. The Nobles own a home on Toussaint North Road in Benton Township and are worried about their water well, which is only a few hundred yards away from Rocky Ridge Development LLC’s quarry operation.
They’re dumping it and running back and getting another load," Herrig said.
Benton Township opponents say Rocky Ridge Development LLC dumped spent lime sludge into excavated cells and covered it with dirt, not in compliance with the company’s Ohio EPA Land Application Management Plan (LAMP) permit, which requires the lime sludge to be dry and mixed with 65 percent native soil to 35 percent dried sludge from the treatment plant.
Rocky Ridge Development LLC representatives have repeatedly insisted publicly that they are following the conditions of their Ohio EPA-issued LAMP permit and are safely disposing of the treated lime sludge from the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.
In its appeal, the township alleged the dumping at the quarry endangered human health and the environment and is unlawful because the EPA permit allows waste to be placed within an aquifer that serves nearby wells and provides drinking water.
Wadsworth said residents’ wells in the area are connected to that aquifer.
Josh Noble remembers when Stoneco used to operate a quarry at the site.
No EPA decision has been made on the company’s alternative waste management plan permit application that would allow Rocky Ridge to dispose of the spent lime sludge directly into the quarry pit.

We were so desperate.” –Aida Nieves, a resident of Cánovanas, Puerto Rico, in reference to the arrival of aid after two weeks of waiting.
The Governor warned that the death toll may continue to rise.
53 percent Proportion of Puerto Ricans who do not have access to clean drinking water as of Tuesday.
88 percent Proportion of islanders who do not have cell service as of Wednesday.
The DoD’s Wednesday update emphasized the military’s efforts to clear roads and rebuild bridges in order to distribute aid to all Puerto Rico residents.
Even before Hurricane Maria, the island had the highest rate of drinking water violations of any state or territory. Now that Hurricane Maria has dealt another blow to Puerto Rico’s fragile water supply, the Puerto Rican government must commit to rebuilding water infrastructure in a sustainable way, or else water issues will continue to plague the island for decades to come.

HAMDEN — Anyone can make a difference, and two high school students are proving how it’s possible by using social media to raise money for the global outreach initiative Fresh Water Focus.
In less than two weeks, Hamden High School seniors Justin Feldshon and Lily Sendroff raised more than $2,200 with their social media challenge, #PopTheDrop, to support the youth-led organization Fresh Water Focus, which helps provide clean water to villages in India that lack access to safe drinking water.
“That’s the power of social media,” Feldshon said.
Rockib Uddin, a Hamden High School graduate, and Joe Coss, a senior at Nortre Dame High School, founded the organization at the start of the 2015 school year. They were members of Interact and over two years they were able to raise $3,000, which is enough money to “adopt a village” and give water filters to one village community.
When Uddin graduated, Sendroff and Feldshon, who had helped Uddin and Coss raise money for the project, wanted to take over marketing Fresh Water Focus and see how big they could make it.
“To see what they’ve done in only the past month is insane.
There is a schmutzdecke, also called a biolayer, of microorganisms that remove bacteria. Through that process the filter takes out odor, taste, color, viruses, bacteria and iron that would be in the water that the people are consuming.