by Amy Dalrymple, originally posted on May 18, 2016

 

Tribal members raised concerns Wednesday during a community event that featured a Duke University researcher who recently studied the impact of wastewater spills in North Dakota’s Oil Patch.

The study, which found widespread soil and water contamination from brine spills, reinforces the need for better monitoring of water quality, said Joletta Bird Bear, interim president of the grassroots group Fort Berthold P.O.W.E.R.

“It seems like the oil and gas development went really fast, but here we are with monitoring and we’re way behind,” said Bird Bear, also a member of the Dakota Resource Council, which organized the event.

Avner Vengosh, a Duke University geochemistry and water quality professor who has been studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing since 2010, said the magnitude of spills in North Dakota is unlike what he’s seen in other oil-producing states.

While many critics of fracking focus on chemicals that are used in the process, Vengosh said the wastewater that is produced from a well along with the oil may be as toxic and pose an even greater risk to human health and the environment.

Compared to produced water – or brine – that Vengosh has studied throughout the U.S., the Bakken produced water has the highest level of salinity and highest level of ammonium, Vengosh said. Soil contaminated by brine also contains an accumulation of naturally occurring radioactive material, he said.

The study analyzed samples from two of North Dakota’s largest brine spills, including a July 2014 pipeline leak that involved 1 million gallons of brine on the Fort Berthold reservation.

“Following the brine spill, there is no vegetation,” Vengosh said. “It’s all dead.”

One woman at the event asked whether the water at Fort Berthold is safe to drink.

Vengosh said it’s unlikely the spills would have an immediate impact on drinking water, but he cautioned about the long-term impacts of contaminants becoming part of the environment.

“I don’t think there is a human health risk immediate from that,” Vengosh said. “One has to do monitoring and to actually evaluate whether drinking sources downstream are safe.”

Vengosh suggested that community members push to have their drinking water tested at least every six months, including testing for heavy metals and salt.

The North Dakota Department of Health, which does water and sediment sampling at spill sites, does not have jurisdiction at Fort Berthold. Several attendees at Wednesday’s event questioned whether the tribe’s Environmental Protection Agency has enough resources to adequately respond to an increase in spills.

Fort Berthold has 1,438 active oil wells and accounts for about 16 percent of North Dakota’s oil production.

“We really need some technical help as to what’s really happening and how it should be dealt with,” said Marilyn Hudson, a tribal member from Parshall.

Tom Abe, a science instructor at Fort Berthold Community College, said the Duke study provides a characterization of the brine, which can help communities better monitor for future contamination.

“It’s just tainting our natural environment, almost irreversibly,” Abe said.

The water is contaminated with the E Coli (Escherichia coli) bacteria but she still uses it to wash and cook food for her children.
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originally posted on August 20, 2016

 

Lead contamination from one school faucet in the Salem-Keizer School District was worse than in Flint, Michigan — the city whose lead-tainted water launched a national outcry.

Salem-Keizer’s startling finding at Pringle Elementary School illustrates the pervasiveness, and the danger, of lead in water.

“Even low levels of lead in the blood of children can result in behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems [and] anemia,” according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

This matters because there is no known “safe” level of lead. The metal, which in recent decades has been banned from many common uses, can accumulate in the body over time, causing cardiovascular, reproductive and other health problems for adults.

Salem-Keizer is taking the right action this summer by testing its water taps for lead and other contaminants, and by posting the results for the public to see.

That is in contrast to the Portland Public Schools, where the lead-in-water controversy spurred the resignation last month of Superintendent Carole Smith. Questions about lead run so deep that people have been advised not to eat produce grown in Portland’s school gardens because high levels of lead were found in some faucets that might have been used for watering.

Oregon has been deficient in requiring regular testing of school water for contaminants. That must change.

In recent years, a significant number of public water systems in Oregon have exceeded the recommended limits for lead. But the even greater concern is the water becoming contaminated from old, lead pipes in schools and other buildings. Until the public health crisis developed in Flint, officials in Oregon and elsewhere were slow to recognize the localized potential for lead contamination.

The Salem-Keizer School District, which so far has found isolated problems with lead or copper contamination in more than a third of its schools, is doing its part. Meanwhile, the state Board of Education last week required districts to publicly disclose the results of contamination tests.

But the Oregon Legislature needs to act. Lawmakers should be researching the best practices of other states, adapting them for Oregon and preparing a thorough, effective lead contamination testing, remediation and regulation program for adoption in the 2017 Legislature.

by Maudlyne Ihejirika, originally posted on August 20, 2016

 

The number of Chicago public schools where high levels of lead have been found in water has risen to 113, officials said Friday as the district released the schedule for testing remaining schools this fall.

That means over a third of the 327 elementary schools tested so far had high lead levels.

Laboratory test results from the 6,167 sinks and water fountains tested show 184 fixtures — 2.9 percent of the total — had at least one sample with lead levels above the federal Environmental Protection Agency maximum of 15 parts per billion, Chicago Public Schools officials said.

The fixtures include 95 drinking fountains and 89 sinks — 32 located in school cooking kitchens — officials said, adding that families at all 113 schools have been notified.

Results from each school, as well as the fall testing schedule for the rest of the district’s 500-plus schools, are posted here.

 

 

by Annette Hilton, originally posted on August 16, 2016

 

Authorities in Hawke’s Bay hope a full and thorough investigation will reveal how Havelock North’s water supply became seriously contaminated.

The council have stepped up its water testing, following a major gastro bug outbreak.

Well over a thousand people have been affected by an unprecedented outbreak of suspected campylobacter from the town’s drinking water.

The Hastings District Council still doesn’t know how the campylobacter bug, which is passed on through faeces, got into the water supply.

All schools and daycare’s will be shut today and tomorrow.

Two people remain in intensive care in Hawke’s Bay Hospital, and one death is suspected to be linked to the illness.

It’s been labelled by Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule as the worst contamination of water ever in New Zealand.

He said they must find out why this particular bore in Havelock North has been affected, for the first time in 30 years.

“In the next couple of days we will announce the terms of reference and the leaders of a full independent enquiry into what has happened.

“We are no further ahead in terms of understanding how this has happened.”

Mr Yule is standing by the council’s water testing systems, saying they follow best practice guidelines set by the Ministry of Health.

“We are following the New Zealand drinking water standards in the way we are monitoring our water.

“Since this has occurred, we have now increased our monitoring of all the Hastings water bores to daily.”

Mr Yule said the council will establish a financial hardship fund for families and business owners struggling.

“Some people have been off work for days looking after sick children. If they’re on their own, they haven’t been able to work. They’ve had to buy supplies of medicine and a whole lot of other things as well.”

The Hawke’s Bay business community’s hoping the region’s reputation won’t be permanently damaged.

Business Association marketing manager Aimee Stewart said the town centre has almost ground to a halt.

“It’s really slow in the village. People are either too sick to go out – either if that’s workers or people just coming out. Also people are worried about whether it’s contagious or not.”

Stewart said they can not equate what the brand damage has been as a whole.

“Hawkes Bay is known for being clean-green. It really looks at us being a really environmentally friendly destination.”

by Sara Jerome, originally posted on August 15, 2016

A town in Oregon is still reeling from a train derailment two months ago, discovering the crash leaked oil into the groundwater supply.

A Union Pacific oil train derailed in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge in June, raising concerns about nearby water service and knocking the wastewater system completely out of function in the town of Mosier. In the aftermath of the initial crisis, officials are facing down water contamination, seeking treatment remedies for lingering pollution.

They found “elevated concentrations of benzene and other volatile organic compounds in groundwater near the derailment site,” OPB reported.

“The concentration that we found (of benzene) was 1,800 parts per billion, which is approximately ten times higher than a screening level for what would concern us for animals living in a wetland,” Bob Schwarz of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality told OPB.

State environmental authorities plan “to install a treatment system that injects air into the underground water. They say the oxygen will stimulate the existing microbes that live in the water to break down the oil,” KATU reported.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality installed “four monitoring wells to observe ground water quality after the wreck. Schwartz said one of them had significant oil contamination from the train derailment,” the report said.

Schwartz provided an update to KATU News.

“The numbers we’re concerned about are based on the potential of long-term impact … if animals were exposed over many years. In this case, we don’t expect it to be significant because we plan to get out there and remove the contamination within weeks or months,” Schwartz said. “I think this is something we will be able to clean up fairly quickly so I don’t think it will be a significant problem.”

One positive sign amid the wreckage: Drinking water wells for this town remain unaffected, the report said. They were uphill from the crash site.

Mosier lost access to its sewer system and wastewater treatment plant as a result of the incident, which saw 16 of the train’s 96 tank cars go off the rails, according to the Associated Press.

 

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Speaking at a public talk organised by the Stop Adani campaign at the University of Sydney’s Seymour Centre, Isaac Astill, divestment campaigner at anti-fossil fuel group 350.org Australia, noted that there could be as little as eight weeks before the Australian government and Adani’s board decide whether the mine goes ahead.
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Adani’s proposed project involves 16 open cut pits and three underground mines, and the company has approval to extract up to 60 million tonnes of coal per year for 30 years.
Adani also plans to build a railroad from the mine to the coast, as well as a new coal terminal from which ships will carry the coal to India.
In contrast to this, the Australian Conservation Foundation predicts that 2,700 direct jobs would be created in Queensland if the 10 new solar farm projects currently under consideration by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency go ahead.
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