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Duke Estimates Coal-Ash Cleanup at $2 Billion to $2.5 Billion

A Duke Energy Corp. executive told a North Carolina environmental commission that plans outlined by the utility to address coal-ash in the state are estimated to cost about $2 billion to $2.5 billion. Duke efforts to address coal ash in the state comes after a metal pipe running underneath a waste-storage pond owned by Duke Energy burst in early February, pouring as much as 39,000 tons of coal ash—the byproduct of burning coal for fuel—into the adjacent Dan River. "Duke Energy is committed to working with policymakers and regulators to implement both short- and long-term solutions to coal ash management in North Carolina," said Paul Newton, Duke’s North Carolina president. He spoke Tuesday before the state’s joint environmental review commission. Mr. Newton said the plans Duke has outlined include excavating and relocating ash from company sites to a "lined structural" or lined landfill, as well as costs to convert […]

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Desalination Plant to Provide Third of Beijing’s Water

One-third of the tap water used in Beijing in five years will be desalinated from the sea to make it potable and boost clean supplies, according to state media. Beijing Enterprises (371) Water Group, the biggest publicly traded water-treatment company in China, is developing the reverse-osmosis project in the Caofeidian district of Tangshan in Hebei province , the Global Times reported . The city will get about 33 percent of its water daily from the treatment facility. The company said it’s planning to spend 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) on the plant and 10 billion yuan more on a pipeline to transport the water. Beijing Enterprises Water started desalinating seawater in 2012. Beijing has been battling drought for 15 years as China works to clean its water and air of pollutants. Xinhua News Agency reported April 12 that investigators traced the source of an oil pipeline leak that contaminated […]

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Tap water company denies pollution cover-up

The tap water supplier at the center of a scandal after excessive levels of a carcinogenic compound were found in its samples has denied a cover-up of the contamination. Excessive levels of benzene in the water affected more than 2.4 million people in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province, provincial authorities said on Friday. The supplier, the Lanzhou Veolia Water Company, collected water samples on April 2 and found abnormal levels of benzene during analysis on Thursday, said Yan Xiaotao, deputy general manager of the Sino-French joint venture. The excess of benzene was confirmed by further tests at 3 p.m. on Thursday and the company reported the situation to the Lanzhou municipal government at 5 a.m. Friday, Yan said. There was no […]

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Excessive benzene found in NW China tap water

Tap water in downtown Lanzhou has been found to contain excessive levels of benzene, provincial authorities said on Friday. Tests carried out in the early hours of Friday showed that tap water contained 200 micrograms of benzene per liter, far exceeding the national limit of 10 micrograms per liter, according to the city’s environmental protection office. (Xinhua/Guo Gang) LANZHOU, April 11 (Xinhua) — More than 2.4 million people in downtown Lanzhou, northwest China’s Gansu Province, have been affected by tap water found to contain excessive levels of benzene, provincial authorities said on Friday. Tests carried out in the early hours of Friday showed that local tap water contained 200 micrograms of benzene per liter, far exceeding the national limit of 10 micrograms per liter, according to the city’s environmental protection office. […]

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California’s big dry shows little let-up

California’s record-setting drought is touching the heart of Silicon Valley . With the rainy season ending with hardly any rain to show for it, the city of Mountain View, home to tech giant Google, declared last week a water shortage emergency. In the tech-heavy city, the impact of the emergency declaration is light. Restaurants, for example, cannot serve water except upon request. Drive or fly just a few hours inland from Apple’s home town in Cupertino, however, and the impact of the drought hitting the US’s most populous state and biggest agricultural industry is far more menacing. For a brief moment in February and March, light rains fell, giving grape growers in Napa Valley, lettuce farmers near Salinas and suburban and rural homeowners a glimmer of hope for an end to a drought now entering […]

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On oil-water nexus

In addition to the conventional energy market issues, mainly oil, related to price and production, the industry seems to be gearing for a new worry — how to handle the oil-water nexus. A recent UN Water Day has a very simple message to deliver: Water needs energy and energy needs water. The interdependencies between the two is strengthened and consolidated by the day. After all some 90 percent of power generation is water-intensive. Using various parameters to look into the crystal ball, the world seems to be heading toward increasing its energy consumption by more than a third in only two decades. Such increase requires an additional increase of 85 percent of water consumption according the consumers’ watch dog, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). With such increase comes completion for supplies as the world population will top 9 billion people, who need an additional 50 percent in agricultural […]

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3 Surprising Sources of Oil Pollution in the Ocean

  The Texas spill is obvious, but automobile oil is a bigger contributor. An iridescent sheen spreads from a drop of crude oil on top of the water in the Gulf of Mexico. Obvious oil spills, like the 168,000 gallons (635,000 liters) of oil that leaked into Galveston Bay on Saturday, usually make national news, accompanied by pictures of oil-blackened wildlife . But such publicized events account for only a small part of the total amount of oil pollution in the oceans—and many of the other sources, such as automobile oil, go largely unnoticed, scientists say. In fact, of the tens of millions of gallons of oil that enter North American oceans each year due to human activities, only 8 percent comes from tanker or oil pipeline spills, according to the 2003 book Oil in the Sea III by the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academy of […]

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World energy use threatens water

Rising demand for energy, from biofuels to shale gas, is a threat to freshwater supplies, according to a United Nations report released Friday. The report urged energy companies to do more to limit their use of water in everything from cooling coal-fired power plants to irrigation for crops grown to produce biofuels. “Demand for energy and freshwater will increase significantly in the coming decades,” U.N. agencies said in the World Water Development Report. “This increase will present big challenges and strain resources in nearly all regions.” By 2030, the world will need 40 percent more water and 50 percent more energy than now, the report said. Water is under pressure from factors such as a rising population, pollution and droughts, floods and heat waves linked to global warming. Around the world, about 770 million of the world’s 7 billion people now lack access to safe drinking water, it said. […]

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North Carolina regulators cite Duke Energy for dumping coal ash

Environmental regulators in North Carolina have cited the country’s largest energy company for dumping millions of gallons of wastewater from coal ash ponds into a public waterway. The company could face $2.75 million in fines if the allegations are confirmed. The citations issued Thursday concern two coal ash ponds near the Cape Fear River,  where regulators allege Duke Energy  pumped the wastewater into a public canal, violating its environmental permit. Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal and contains high levels of toxic arsenic. In a statement to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, the company said the water pumped was within the limits of its permit and necessary to perform routine maintenance. “Our permit authorizes this type of maintenance specifically under the condition that we meet permit limits,” Duke Energy told Al Jazeera. “The water was being pumped to the existing, permitted outfalls.” However, Tom Reeder, director of North […]

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Coal ash still contaminating NC river, but state response lags

A new leak again raised concerns about water contaminated with coal ash flowing into the Dan River on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. The second leak of arsenic-tainted water comes from the same pond where earlier this month at least 82,000 tons of ash mixed with 27 million gallons of contaminated water — which had been stored in an unlined pond at a decommissioned Duke Energy plant in Eden, N.C. — escaped through a damaged storm drain into the river. The spill caused concerns about the water quality for residents who rely on the Dan River for drinking water, and prompted fierce reactions from environmental watchdog groups that said the spill was indicative of too-lax regulations for coal ash. The newly discovered leakage of arsenic-tainted water, made public by Duke Energy and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Tuesday, comes from a […]

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Saving dying lake is priority for Iranian leader

The first cabinet decision made under Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, wasn’t about how to resolve his country’s nuclear dispute with world powers. It was about how to keep the nation’s largest lake from disappearing. Lake Oroumieh, one of the biggest saltwater lakes on Earth, has shrunk more than 80 percent to 1,000 square kilometers (nearly 400 square miles) in the past decade, mainly because of climate change, expanded irrigation for surrounding farms and the damming of rivers that feed the body of water, experts say. Salt-covered rocks that were once deep underwater now sit in the middle of desert. Experts fear the lake — famous in years past as a tourist spot and a favorite stopping point for migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls — could disappear within two years if nothing is done. "The lake is gone. My job is gone. My children are […]

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Study: Fracking, agriculture are on water demand 'collision course'

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is increasing competitive pressures for water in some of the most water-stressed and drought-ridden U.S. regions, a study indicated. Fracking involves massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals injected at high pressure to fracture rock and release stored gas. The technique has unleashed a U.S. oil and gas boom. The study by Ceres — an investor group based in Boston that focuses on sustainability issues — is based on water use data from 39,294 oil and gas wells reported to FracFocus.org from January 2011 through May 2013 and water stress indicator maps developed by the World Resources Institute. More than 55 percent of the wells were in areas experiencing drought and more than 36 percent overlay regions experiencing groundwater depletion, Ceres said in a news release Wednesday announcing its "Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers" report. […]

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Study: Fracking, agriculture are on water demand ‘collision course’

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is increasing competitive pressures for water in some of the most water-stressed and drought-ridden U.S. regions, a study indicated. Fracking involves massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals injected at high pressure to fracture rock and release stored gas. The technique has unleashed a U.S. oil and gas boom. The study by Ceres — an investor group based in Boston that focuses on sustainability issues — is based on water use data from 39,294 oil and gas wells reported to FracFocus.org from January 2011 through May 2013 and water stress indicator maps developed by the World Resources Institute. More than 55 percent of the wells were in areas experiencing drought and more than 36 percent overlay regions experiencing groundwater depletion, Ceres said in a news release Wednesday announcing its "Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers" report. […]

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Fracking's Thirst for Water: Investors Warned of the Hidden Financial Risks

Some of the nation’s driest, drought-plagued places have quickly become its busiest hot spots of drilling for shale gas and oil, especially in Texas, Colorado and California. It’s a dust-bowl-sized problem likely to become worse, according to a study released Wednesday by the nonprofit sustainability advocacy group firm Ceres . Fracking, the controversial drilling technique, is consuming billions of gallons of water each year in states where water is increasingly scarce. The report warns that investors need to demand information about how energy companies are managing this problem or risk their investment portfolios being clobbered. Put simply, Ceres is saying there probably isn’t enough fracking water where fracking most wants to happen. And eventually, there will be a price to pay. The study found that nearly half the wells being hydraulically fractured in the U.S. since 2011, a time of explosive growth in shale […]

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Fracking’s Thirst for Water: Investors Warned of the Hidden Financial Risks

Some of the nation’s driest, drought-plagued places have quickly become its busiest hot spots of drilling for shale gas and oil, especially in Texas, Colorado and California. It’s a dust-bowl-sized problem likely to become worse, according to a study released Wednesday by the nonprofit sustainability advocacy group firm Ceres . Fracking, the controversial drilling technique, is consuming billions of gallons of water each year in states where water is increasingly scarce. The report warns that investors need to demand information about how energy companies are managing this problem or risk their investment portfolios being clobbered. Put simply, Ceres is saying there probably isn’t enough fracking water where fracking most wants to happen. And eventually, there will be a price to pay. The study found that nearly half the wells being hydraulically fractured in the U.S. since 2011, a time of explosive growth in shale […]

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Environmentalists say NC river is 'toxic soup' after coal ash spill

Environmentalists and residents of North Carolina and Virginia are anxiously waiting for toxicity test results from the Dan River, where tens of thousands of tons of coal ash spilled earlier this week. Danville’s city manager has released a statement saying that while preliminary findings indicate the area drinking water is safe, they await final confirmation. North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources has yet to provide an official determination, but people around the Dan River report that the spill was having visible and adverse effects. The spill originated from a 27-acre pond of coal ash and slurry — the waste product of burning coal — at a defunct  Duke Energy  power plant along the Dan River in Eden, N.C.   Hundreds of workers are trying to cap the leaking pipe, which has so far allowed 82,000 tons of toxic ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water to […]

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Environmentalists say NC river is ‘toxic soup’ after coal ash spill

Environmentalists and residents of North Carolina and Virginia are anxiously waiting for toxicity test results from the Dan River, where tens of thousands of tons of coal ash spilled earlier this week. Danville’s city manager has released a statement saying that while preliminary findings indicate the area drinking water is safe, they await final confirmation. North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources has yet to provide an official determination, but people around the Dan River report that the spill was having visible and adverse effects. The spill originated from a 27-acre pond of coal ash and slurry — the waste product of burning coal — at a defunct  Duke Energy  power plant along the Dan River in Eden, N.C.   Hundreds of workers are trying to cap the leaking pipe, which has so far allowed 82,000 tons of toxic ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water to […]

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US shale under fire over thirst for water

Gov. Jerry Brown formally proclaimed California in a drought Friday Jan. 17, 2014, saying the state is in the midst of perhaps its worst dry spell in a century and the conditions are putting residents and their property in "extreme peril." (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) ©AP Folsom Lake in California recedes in state’s worst dry spell in a century Water shortages have put the US oil and gas industry on a “collision course” with other users because of the large volumes needed for hydraulic fracturing , a group of leading investors has warned. Almost 40 per cent of the oil and gas wells drilled since 2011 are in areas of “extremely high” water stress, according to […]

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Its Great Lake Shriveled, Iran Confronts Crisis of Water Supply

Iran — After driving for 15 minutes over the bottom of what was once Iran’s largest lake, a local environmental official stepped out of his truck, pushed his hands deep into his pockets and silently wandered into the great dry plain, as if searching for water he knew he would never find. Just an hour earlier, on a cold winter day here in western Iran, the official, Hamid Ranaghadr, had recalled how as recently as a decade ago, cruise ships filled with tourists plied the lake’s waters in search of flocks of migrating flamingos. Now, the ships are rusting in the mud and the flamingos fly over the remains of the lake on their […]

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Brown tells Californians to conserve amid drought

Gov. Jerry Brown provided some very practical guidance for Californians amid a deepening drought: Take shorter showers, turn off the water while brushing teeth, and "don’t flush more than you have to." "Make no mistake, this drought is a big wakeup call," Brown said Thursday in downtown Los Angeles before meeting with local water district officials. "Hopefully it’s going to rain. If it doesn’t, we’re going to have to act in a very strenuous way in every part of the state to get through." The governor’s pragmatic plea came as wet weather finally moved through northern portions of the state, which has been in an extraordinary dry period during what is normally the time for rain and snow. But the stingy storm system was squeezing out only dribs and drabs of moisture in most areas. The National Weather Service office in San Francisco […]

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Australia’s drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

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Australia's drinking water at risk from extreme weather events

Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says. The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change. “We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release. “This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.” The report comes as Australia broke another […]

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Water Restored for Nearly All 300,000 Affected by West Virginia Ban

Water was restored here Friday for nearly all 300,000 people affected by a chemical spill that contaminated the supply for more than a week, officials said as new details emerged about the company at the center of the incident. The lifting of the wide water ban marked a turning point in a crisis that began Jan. 9 after authorities said a substance called Crude MCHM had leaked from a storage tank, breached a faulty containment wall and infiltrated a water-treatment plant. Residents were told not to drink, bathe in or clean with tap water. Also on Friday, the owner of the storage facility, Freedom Industries Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid mounting civil lawsuits. A Freedom representative declined to comment, but the court papers revealed new details about the company, whose representatives have declined to comment since a brief Jan. 10 news conference. A supplier of […]

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West Virginia Chemical-Spill Site Avoided Broad Regulatory Scrutiny

The site of a West Virginia chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 people operated largely outside government oversight, highlighting gaps in regulations and prompting questions on whether local communities have a firm grasp on potential threats to drinking water. The storage facility owned by Freedom Industries Inc. on the banks of the Elk River was subject to almost no state and local monitoring, interviews and records show. The industrial chemical that leaked into the river, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, isn’t closely tracked by federal programs. Before last week’s spill, a state regulator said environmental inspectors hadn’t visited the site since 1991. Residents and businesses in the state capital of Charleston and nine surrounding counties have been without water for drinking, bathing or other uses since Thursday, when an estimated 7,500 gallons of MCHM leaked from a one-inch hole in a tank at the Freedom site, breached a containment […]

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West Virginia water emergency nears fifth day, with no end in sight

Around the swollen Elk River, now flowing with a chemical that no one can pronounce, myriad streams and rivulets tumbled from the hillsides this weekend, the result of a drenching downpour. Logs and branches floated downstream, toward the junction with the Kanawha in the heart of the city. Potholes on the beat-up country roads had turned into deep puddles. As they say: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. “DO NOT USE WATER” say the signs taped over sinks at the airport, and in the state capitol the sinks are entirely wrapped in plastic bags. People line up for free water at the fire stations, or buy it directly at the Dollar General, $1.60 for a 20-ounce Dasani, $39 for a flat of 24 bottles. A chemical used in coal processing has leaked from an old tank along the Elk and invaded the water […]

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Coal-related chemical spill prompts state of emergency in West Virginia

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for nine counties Thursday night because of a chemical spill into the Elk River in Charleston, advising residents not to drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes in the water and to only use it for flushing. The chemical, used in the coal preparation process, leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries and overran a containment area on Thursday. Freedom Industries did not immediately respond for comment. The amount that spilled isn’t immediately known. West Virginia American Water has a treatment plant nearby. The company’s president, Jeff McIntyre, said the advisory affects up to 100,000 customers. "The water has been contaminated," said Tomblin, who didn’t know how long the emergency declaration would last. It includes includes West Virginia American Water customers in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, and Roane counties. Tomblin said the advisory also extends to restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes and other […]

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Water pollution in four states linked to oil and gas drilling

In at least four states that have nurtured the nation’s energy boom, hundreds of complaints have been made about well-water contamination from oil or gas drilling, and pollution was confirmed in a number of them, according to a review that casts doubt on industry suggestions that such problems rarely happen. The Associated Press requested data on drilling-related complaints in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Texas and found major differences in how the states report such problems. Texas provided the most detail, while the other states provided only general outlines. And while the confirmed problems represent only a tiny portion of the thousands of oil and gas wells drilled each year in the U.S., the lack of detail in some state reports could help fuel public confusion and mistrust. The AP found that Pennsylvania received 398 complaints in 2013 alleging that oil or natural gas drilling polluted or otherwise affected […]

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Another View: 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. But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in so many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a “precious commodity” that it’s dragging the world into “water wars to follow the ones for the control of fuel oil.” Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhere. In Australia, for example, 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 had 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 and more water sources are so […]

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Agriculture Land Shrinking in China; World Bank Provides Loans to Reduce Soil Pollution

Growing population, industrialization and rapid economic growth are putting unprecedented pressure on China’s agriculture resources, and have become a threat to food security in the country and the world. According to China’s national land survey figures released recently, total arable land in the country stood at around 135.4 million hectares at the end of 2012. This is still about 15.4 million hectares above the “red line” of a minimum 120 million hectares earmarked to ensure food security in China. However, pollution of land and water are eroding agriculture land in China. Coupled with increasing population, China’s per capita arable area now stands at around 0.1 hectare, almost half of the global average of around 0.2 hectare. According to government officials in China, it was found from the survey that about 3 million hectares of land is now unsuitable for rice cultivation due to heavy contamination by poisonous heavy metals […]

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Water security: ‘Water scarcity has put survival in jeopardy’

Increasing population worldwide, particularly in Pakistan has caused deterioration of the environment and challenges of food and water security, speakers at a seminar on Integrated Flood Management said on Tuesday. The seminar was organised at the New Senate Hall by the Water Management Research Centre of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. It was chaired by Vice Chancellor Iqrar Ahmad Khan. Dr Khan said 43 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban centres… urbanisation was also on the rise in Asia. By 2020, half of Asia’s population would be living in cities, he said. “We need to take emergency measures to provide water facilities for cities and create awareness about rational use of water,” said Dr Khan. Pakistan is barely above the 1,000 cubic metres per capita benchmark for water scarcity, he said. This would worsen in the […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Water Shortages Could Dry Up Shale Gas Craze

Environmentalists won’t stop the shale gas craze. Neither will federal regulators. But a lack of water could possibly do so. And that is why drillers are looking for new ways to find water supplies. The surface of a freshwater lake During the exploration of shale gas, a concoction of sand, water and chemicals is pumped into the ground. Some of the dirty water returns and it must either be treated or re-injected underground , which at least in the northeastern United States involves trucking such tainted water to different locales — something that then upsets the green movement. Treating — or recycling — the “fracking water,” by contrast, optimizes a scarce resource while potentially mitigating any ecological ramifications, albeit at potentially higher costs. “No question: Recycling is the way that the industry is moving,” says Bill Charneski, chief operating officer of Origin Oil , in a telephone interview. “It […]

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North Dakota’s Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing

North Dakota’s Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing Page added on November 12, 2013 It’s well known that water has been key to the shale oil and gas rush in the United States. But in one center of the hydraulic fracturing boom—North Dakota—authorities are finding that the initial blast of water to frack the wells is only the beginning. The wells being drilled into the prairie to tap into the Bakken shale need “maintenance water”—lots of it—to keep the oil flowing. (See related photos: “ Bakken Shale Boom Transforms North Dakota .”) So while the water first pumped down the hole to crack rock formations and release the underground oil and natural gas typically totals 2 million gallons (7.5 million liters) per well, each of North Dakota’s wells is daily drinking down an average of more than 600 gallons (2,300 liters) in maintenance water, according […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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More oil and gas drillers turn to water recycling

AP Photo MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — When the rain stopped falling in Texas, the prairie grass yellowed, the soil cracked and oil drillers were confronted with a crisis. After years of easy access to cheap, plentiful water, the land they prized for its vast petroleum wealth was starting to dry up. At first, the drought that took hold a few years ago seemed to threaten the economic boom that arose from hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method that uses huge amounts of high-pressure, chemical-laced water to free oil and natural gas trapped deep in underground rocks. But drillers have found a way to get by with much less water: They recycle it using systems that not long ago they may have eyed with suspicion. “This was a dramatic change to the practices that the industry used for many, many years,” said Paul Schlosberg, co-founder and chief financial officer of Water […]

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Water Shortages Threaten Energy Output: Wood Mackenzie

Water shortages are threatening energy output and increasing costs in some of the world’s most prolific sectors including shale gas in the U.S., crude oil in the Middle East and coal in China, and the situation is set to worsen, Wood Mackenzie said Thursday. The energy sector is already the world’s largest consumer of water for industrial purposes, using over 15% of global supply, and this is rising, the consulting firm said in a report, noting huge quantities are needed to increase pressure at oil fields, in technologies like hydraulic fracturing and to upgrade coal quality. Growing water needs will pit energy companies against other users, and increase production costs significantly, it said. Water is already a major cost factor for companies involved in shale developments in the U.S., including Antero Resources Inc., AR -0.27% Antero Resources Corp. U.S.: NYSE $ 55.04 -0.15 -0.27% Nov. 6, 2013 4:00 pm […]

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We’re running out of water to grow food, Lester Brown warns

Page added on November 5, 2013 Forget peak oil. It’s peak water we should worry about, says Lester R. Brown. “Water is far more important than oil,” according to the prolific author, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and now president of the nonprofit Earth Policy Institute. Brown, whose early warnings about the dangers of climate change and resource overuse have made him a respected elder of the environmental movement, focused on the looming water shortages while promoting his memoir, “Breaking New Ground: A Personal History,” the latest of his 50-plus books. He spoke Friday at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. His point: It’s not that we will run out of water to drink; it’s that we won’t have enough to grow the food to feed the world. “Water supply may be the principal constraint on the production of food. There’s a lot of land to produce food, […]

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Tehran Faces Water Rationing Unless Usage Drops: Minister

Iran may be forced to impose water rationing in Tehran should the capital’s residents fail to cut consumption by about 20 percent, Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said. Water rationing is under consideration in part as levels of reservoirs outside Tehran have fallen due to a sharp decline in rainfall this year, Chitchian told reporters after a Cabinet meeting yesterday, according to the Tehran Times newspaper. His comments follow those by President Hassan Rouhani, who this week called for a national water-conservation plan to address Iran’s “historic” water shortage. Overuse of city tap water should be curbed, the farm industry must become more efficient and use irrigation, and protecting underground sources and preventing illegal drilling of wells is needed, said Rouhani, who took office in August. Iran, holder of the fourth-largest proven oil reserves whose population has grown to 77 million amid recent dry spells, will struggle to meet […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple