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Dolphins Suffering From Lung Disease Due to Gulf Oil Spill, Study Says

Dolphins in an area hard hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 are suffering from lung diseases and other abnormalities that are consistent with toxic exposure to oil, according to a study backed by the federal government and released on Wednesday. The peer-reviewed paper, which was disputed by BP PLC, was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The paper makes the strongest connection to date between the BP spill and dolphin deaths, which jumped in the Gulf of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Study: Fracking fluids could disrupt hormones, raise infertility risk

Fluid used in hydraulic fracturing — better known simply as fracking — contain chemicals that can disrupt the functioning of human hormones and lead to a greater chance of infertility, cancer and other health problems, researchers said Monday. Fracking has accelerated under the Obama administration, with supporters of the practice suggesting that the method of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock by injecting thousands of gallons of highly pressurized fluids could provide a means to greater energy independence and a boost to the U.S. economy. But environmentalists decry the practice, arguing that not enough is known about the chemicals used in the process and that the risk of pollution outweighs any benefits. A new study, however, suggests that endrocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) — substances that can interfere with the body’s normal hormonal functions — are found in the cocktail that makes up fracking fluid. “More than 700 chemicals are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BP Still Paying For Deepwater Horizon Blowout

More Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill A little over three years ago – April 20, 2010, to be exact – a drilling rig named the Deepwater Horizon was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico when an explosion occurred and created one of the largest oil spills in history. The accident killed 11 people, and the drilling rig sank two days later on April 22. The well oozed crude oil and natural gas until for several months. On July 15, the well was temporarily plugged and completely plugged on September 19. The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon was a great tragedy in many ways. But what has happened to BP, the company that was the operator of the well, is a tragedy, too. For example, the Gulf Settlement Program, which was created to make monetary awards to people who had been harmed by the accident, has awarded millions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's massive water diversion project starts delivering water

A portion of China’s massive South-to-North Water Diversion Project has started to supply water. Shandong province will get about 1,200 million cubic feet of water in the first use of the project’s east route, officials said, China Daily reported Tuesday. The three-route project, expected to cost $81 billion, is considered the biggest engineering endeavor in Chinese history, and involves a mix of canals, tunnels and aqueducts spanning thousands of miles. It is designed to rely entirely on gravity to transfer 1,582 billion cubic feet of water annually from the country’s water-rich south to the arid north, including Beijing. The east route’s more than $8.2 billion first phase was completed in March, China Daily reported. Water diversion for that phase started last month, bringing water from the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province to Shandong along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It is expected to supply as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s massive water diversion project starts delivering water

A portion of China’s massive South-to-North Water Diversion Project has started to supply water. Shandong province will get about 1,200 million cubic feet of water in the first use of the project’s east route, officials said, China Daily reported Tuesday. The three-route project, expected to cost $81 billion, is considered the biggest engineering endeavor in Chinese history, and involves a mix of canals, tunnels and aqueducts spanning thousands of miles. It is designed to rely entirely on gravity to transfer 1,582 billion cubic feet of water annually from the country’s water-rich south to the arid north, including Beijing. The east route’s more than $8.2 billion first phase was completed in March, China Daily reported. Water diversion for that phase started last month, bringing water from the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province to Shandong along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It is expected to supply as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water shortages may make fracking impractical, industry says

Fracking may be impractical in parts of the UK due to the scarcity of local water supplies, and in other areas will have an impact on local water resources, the water industry has admitted, in a deal struck with the oil and gas industry. The controversial process of shale gas and oil extraction uses hydraulic fracturing technology or fracking, where water and chemicals under very high pressure are blasted at dense shale rocks, opening up fissures through which the tiny bubbles of methane can be released. But the quantities of water required are very large, leading to cases in the US – where fracking is widespread – where towns and villages have run dry . In a memorandum of understanding published on Wednesday, the water trade body Water UK and the UK Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG), which […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Mississippi River Still Shut After Fuel Spill; Few Boats Delayed

The Mississippi River remained closed to navigation along an eight-mile stretch near Le Claire, Iowa, on Tuesday after a boat containing up to 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel and lube oil struck a submerged object and sank late on Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. One northbound towboat with no barges and two southbound tow boats pushing a total of 25 barges were waiting at midmorning on Tuesday to pass through the closed section from river mile marker 493 to 501, about 15 miles upriver from Davenport. Officials have deployed nearly 3,000 feet of boom to contain any fuel leaking from the sunken boat. “The boom is still around the vessel, partially submerged. The Army Corps of Engineers is still assessing to see when the river could be reopened,” said Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash. U.S. grain shippers rely on the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi floods provide Internet fodder for frustrated residents

Flooding across Iraq that has left at least 13 people dead and caused widespread structural damage has also provided rich fodder for sarcastic Iraqis bemoaning their decrepit public services. The floodwaters, which have cut off entire areas of Baghdad and several other cities to most vehicles, were caused by several days of heavy rainfall that overwhelmed the crumbling drainage system. Video footage posted on Facebook depicted residents of the Iraqi capital negotiating water-logged streets in life rafts or on planks of wood, armed with makeshift oars. Edited pictures proliferated on social networks, jokingly placing crocodiles in the Baghdad floodwaters. Another superimposed Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s characters from 1998 blockbuster film Titanic on a bus making its way through the capital’s flooded streets. Another depicted a bikini-clad Western woman in the waters with the accompanying comment: “We have turned our neighbourhood into a tourist resort.” Others still […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Critical worldwide shortages could lead to water wars

Get ready for the water wars. Most of the world’s population takes water for granted, just like air — two life-sustaining substances. After all, the human body is nearly two-thirds water. But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a “precious commodity” that it’s dragging the world into “water wars.” Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhere. In Australia, an unprecedented heat wave brought on massive wildfires and critical water shortages. As water grows scarce, more countries are building dams on rivers to hog most of the water for themselves, depriving the nations downstream. Already, Egypt has threatened to bomb the Grand Renaissance Dam upstream on the Nile River in Ethiopia. And as the Earth’s population crossed the 7 billion mark last year, more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Oklahoma, water, fracking – and a swarm of quakes

NORMAN, Oklahoma (Reuters) – Seismologist Austin Holland wants to start an earthquake. From his office a few feet below the earth’s surface – a basement at the University of Oklahoma in Norman – Holland, who tracks quakes for the Oklahoma Geological Survey, is digging into a complex riddle: Is a dramatic rise in the size and number of quakes in his state related to oil and gas production activity? And, if so, what can be done to stop it? As part of his wide-ranging research, Holland is proposing to inject pressurized water into porous rock in an area already known to be earthquake-prone, to see whether injections of oil industry wastewater are contributing to a "swarm" of earthquakes rocking the state. "This is a dramatic new rate of seismicity," Holland said in an interview. "We can’t guarantee the earthquakes aren’t a coincidence (unrelated to oil and gas work)," he […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple