BEIJING (Reuters) – Sinopec has halted drilling four wells in a gasfield near the city of Yulin in Shaanxi province, following a government investigation into water contamination in a village nearby, the company said via its official Weibo account on Sunday night.
The Yulin Environmental Protection Bureau said on June 21 that iron and manganese content exceeded the maximum level allowed for residential consumption in the village of Zhanggaotu near Yulin.
As a result, the city launched an investigation into emissions and waste dumping at three coal mines and Sinopec’s North China oil and gas subsidiary, the bureau said.
The bureau said the time that it planned to investigate how Sinopec disposed of liquid waste, mud and rock powders produced during the drilling process.
Sinopec’s gasfield on the border of Shaanxi province and Inner Mongolia has produced 3.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas since it started in 2005, Sinopec said.
(Reporting by Meng Meng and Aizhu Chen; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

TASWATER is still trying to uncover the cause of a problem in Deloraine’s water treatment plant which has resulted in a boil water alert being issued.
TasWater’s general manager of service delivery Bennie Smith said the alert could not be lifted until the cause was found.
“Our water quality team is also testing Deloraine’s water network with water samples being analysed by our laboratory to assess if all the contaminants have now been flushed out of the system,” he said.
“Once this has been confirmed, along with the Department of Health being satisfied the treatment plant is operating correctly and that a re-occurrence of any shortcoming won’t happen again, the testing process will get under way to assess if the boil water alert can be brought to an end.
“I understand how inconvenient this is for our Deloraine customers and thank you for your patience.” The boil water alert has been in place since last Friday.
Residents have been advised to boil all water used for consumption, food preparation and teeth cleaning.

The EPA announced it will hold meetings in communities impacted by pollution from toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), but Dayton was not on the list of cities.
“I have heard from constituents from Dayton, Ohio, and surrounding communities who are concerned about PFAS contamination at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), and I urge you to include an event in the region this summer,” Senator Brown wrote in a letter to the EPA.
Results from May tests for “PFAS” in treated water were found at a level of 10.5 parts per trillion, similar to the 12.5 ppt detected in March and 7 ppt in April, according to the Dayton Water Department.
RELATED: Chemicals found in local water prompt new alerts to customers Here’s a copy of the letter Brown sent to the EPA: Acting Administrator Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460 In March, as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that it would hold a National Leadership Summit to begin developing strategies for addressing pollution from Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), the agency shared its intention to hold meetings in communities that have been impacted by PFAS.
I have heard from constituents from Dayton, Ohio, and surrounding communities who are concerned about PFAS contamination at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), and I urge you to include an event in the region this summer.
Contamination at WPAFB is well-documented.
In 2016, the base shut down two of its drinking water wells when samples showed that they contained 200 and 700 parts per trillion of PFAS respectively.
The City of Dayton has shut down drinking water wells at Huffman Dam because of concerns about a contamination plume approaching from the base.
While testing of the city’s tap water has shown that it is safe to drink, the contamination plume continues to migrate away from WPAFB and toward the city.
Sincerely, Senator Sherrod Brown

For Ruth Richardson, this is where she says her heart meets her science.
“I am a water lover.
It’s always is disheartening to see a beach closed, a family going to a state park and camping and not being able to swim for three days” Richardson said.
“They take a water sample and they send it to a certified laboratory – it’s not something they do on sight – so they transport the sample” Richardson said.
“Usually the next day, 24 hours later, the result is ready and the information is communicated back to the beach operators.
So, as you can see, they get the information on today’s water quality tomorrow.” The Oneida Shores Beach and the Joseph F. William Memorial Park Beach are local examples of waters that have been closed in recent memory due to high levels of bacteria.
“Those two scenarios combined, both the closure being imperfect, because you get your data late, and then re-openings being delayed naturally by the length of the test.
That is an obvious area for improvement.” This is where the new monitoring device comes in.
She says they use a D-N-A detector made by Biomeme out of Philadelphia.
There is no need to transport to a centralized laboratory.” She says it takes five to 20 minutes to collect a sample for testing, and about 45 minutes to get a result.

The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a cluster of illnesses reported by patrons of a Gatlinburg zipline attraction.
Angela Gosnell, Knoxville News Sentinel The Tennessee Department of Health is investigating a cluster of illnesses reported by patrons of a Gatlinburg zipline attraction.
The investigation comes after about 20 people reported illness on CLIMB Works Smoky Mountains’ Facebook and TripAdvisor pages, and on "iwaspoisoned.com," a website that tracks food-borne illness reports.
CLIMB Works Smoky Mountains told reviewers on Facebook the company is working with the Health Department to try to pinpoint whether water contamination or a contagious stomach bug may have caused the illness.
Many reporting illnesses said they believe the well water distributed in jugs to CLIMB Works patrons is to blame.
Carlisle Cox, of Ocala, Florida told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee he visited the zipline on July 1 and then returned again on July 4 because the attraction was overbooked and he and his 10-year-old son did not get to ride all of the ziplines before dark.
By the morning of July 6, he and his son were both sick.
CLIMB Works turned over the email addresses of all its patrons for the last month to the Health Department, which sent around its "Sevier County Illness Investigation" survey.
They weren’t working when they were sick, but we don’t know if they were sick a couple of days before or a couple days after," Thompson said, adding that he and his family had been sick recently too, but that they do not drink the water at CLIMB Works.
Thompson said CLIMB Works is refunding admission to patrons who fell ill after visiting the attraction.

I could be called a tree-hugging hippie.
I’ve been this way for a long time.
The March 2000 film, Erin Brockovich, tells the story of how a small law firm took down Pacific Gas & Electric over their knowingly dumping toxic wastewater into people’s water supply and thereby causing a host of health problems including a variety of cancers.
And this story is not an isolated incident, either.
Again and again and again, I have seen the Republican Party, long before our current president took office, enact legislation that allows a select few to reap billions for their own profit at the expense of the American people, all in the name of ‘supporting businesses.’ I’ve seen it with global warming, and I see it in a more recently study linking diabetes to air pollution.
Because apparently, having a rule that says if you make a mess, you need to clean it up costs rich people too much money.
This is the hypocrisy of the Republican Party; it’s been their mantra for decades, long before Trump.
Because time and time again, I see Republican candidates talk the same mess about relaxing environmental regulations to make it easier for 1%ers to rake in obscene amounts of cash while the rest of us end up footing the bill for the mess they leave behind.
Because after decades of seeing our rights to clean air and water being eroded by those in power and doing nothing about it, liberals are finally waking up to the reality of what we’re living with, what we’ve been living with, to the poison that is the Republican party, that has been the Republican party since the 1990s.
This is not an ‘agree to disagree’ issue.

It is now safe to go in the ocean at Goleta Beach.
After a six-month closure due to eleveated levels of bacteria, Santa Barbara County officials reopened the beach late Friday.
The beach is now on a “warning” status.
Two consecutive tests for bacterial levels at three sampling sites at the beach have met state standards.
The ocean waters at Goleta Beach have been closed since January due to increased presence of bacteria.
After the deadly Jan. 9 Montecito flash flooding and debris flows, thousands of truck loads of Montecito mud were dumped on the shore at Goleta Beach Park, along Highway 101 in Goleta and at various other sites throughout the county as crews worked to clear roadways, creek beds and debris basins.
The ocean waters were closed because testing showed fecal bacteria levels significantly exceeded standards.
In addition, the mud and runoff from the January storm contained unknown amounts of untreated sewage and chemical contaminants.
“We have been diligently testing and monitoring ocean water to ensure the safety of everyone who uses ocean water recreationally,” said Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department.
“Our mission is to protect and ensure the health of our community, and for that reason continuous and extensive ocean water monitoring has been carried out.

Foams used to fight a massive 1986 tire fire at Bergey’s Tires in West Rockhill are being eyed as a potential source of area water contamination.
1/4 Hide caption Angela Goodwin, of West Rockhill, has been using bottled water for over a year because of high numbers of PFAS in her well water that she thinks was contaminated by firefighting foam years ago.
But it is another substance that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is now investigating in dozens of nearby private drinking water wells: the unregulated chemicals PFOS and PFOA.
“The chief said the fire was too intense and the foam immediately dissolved.” PFOS and PFOA have been found in dozens of drinking water wells in the area, including in that of the Moyers, who live just 200 yards from where the blaze occurred.
One of the shuttered wells is only 100 feet from their property.
He was diagnosed just months after the wells were closed.
Although Perkasie’s water showed only low levels of PFOS and PFOA when last tested in 2016, which is not uncommon, Jameson spent $1,600 on a whole-house carbon filtration system to give her “peace of mind” that their water is chemical-free.
“It could be (linked) one day,” she said.
State records also show the DEP requested various documents from Bergey’s, including a full accounting of any hazardous substances stored at the site, any information the company has regarding the 1986 fire, and a sheet showing its assets and liabilities.
The company also had “no documentation concerning the use of (firefighting foam) by the U.S. Navy or others to respond to fires on the property.” David Budnick, chief financial officer at Bergey’s, said the same in response to questions from this news organization.

Coal burning produces many pollutants.
Pollution from coal – fired power plants lead to numerous respiratory, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular effects.
The main contributor to the particulate matter is coal fly ash, and minor are sulphate and nitrate Coal fly ash is the incombustible materials that is 20% of the collected coal – ash.
Fly ash can travel up to 40 – 50 km in the down wind direction.
A study conducted in USA found that the underground dumped ash (produced by coal – fired power plants) has contaminated ground water.
Pollution from coal – fired power plants comes from the emission of gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides into the atmosphere.
Many of the heavy metals released in the burning of coal are environmentally and biologically toxic elements, such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, as well as radio isotopes.
Britain has built 30 gas fired power plants to replace coal powered plants.
"A 500 MW coal power plant produces 170 pounds of mercury per year Particulate matter emitted from coal plant has grave effects on public health A ton of fly ash can spread over up to 150,000 sq.
People who have seen the effects of Norochcolai power plant will not allow a power plant to be established in their areas.

Foams used to fight a massive 1986 tire fire at Bergey’s Tires in West Rockhill are being eyed as a potential source of area water contamination.
1/4 Hide caption Angela Goodwin, of West Rockhill, has been using bottled water for over a year because of high numbers of PFAS in her well water that she thinks was contaminated by firefighting foam years ago.
But it is another substance that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is now investigating in dozens of nearby private drinking water wells: the unregulated chemicals PFOS and PFOA.
“The chief said the fire was too intense and the foam immediately dissolved.” PFOS and PFOA have been found in dozens of drinking water wells in the area, including in that of the Moyers, who live just 200 yards from where the blaze occurred.
One of the shuttered wells is only 100 feet from their property.
He was diagnosed just months after the wells were closed.
Although Perkasie’s water showed only low levels of PFOS and PFOA when last tested in 2016, which is not uncommon, Jameson spent $1,600 on a whole-house carbon filtration system to give her “peace of mind” that their water is chemical-free.
“It could be (linked) one day,” she said.
State records also show the DEP requested various documents from Bergey’s, including a full accounting of any hazardous substances stored at the site, any information the company has regarding the 1986 fire, and a sheet showing its assets and liabilities.
The company also had “no documentation concerning the use of (firefighting foam) by the U.S. Navy or others to respond to fires on the property.” David Budnick, chief financial officer at Bergey’s, said the same in response to questions from this news organization.