Environment Archive

Picture Says All – BP Oil Spill Birdseye View: It’s Bad

May 13th, 2010. By AbiK

If you haven’t seen this amateur footage that’s been making the rounds on youtube.com—and I first saw it over at Neal Stewart’s Posterous page—take a look. It’s a reality check on just how bad the BP Oil Spill situation is.

Tags: BP Oil Spill, Deepwater Horizon
Posted in Environment | 1 Comment »

A New Litigation Target: It’s in the Air…

May 13th, 2010. By Hunter West

It was revealed this month that yet another study—this one originating with researchers in Ottawa on the Chilean population—suggests that air pollution carries with it risk for stroke and thrombosis. 

We already know—and have for a long time—that bad air can make you sick. Employees have sued their employers for the bad air coursing through a building’s ventilation systems. Air travelers have sued airlines for the bad air found in some commercial jets. 

The latter is a real concern. If the air inside a commercial jet is making you sick, it’s not like you can just get off at the next stop. Short of getting them to drop the oxygen mask so you can get relief that way, there isn’t a lot you can do but suffer in silence—and sue the bastards when you land. 

Which is what some people have done. 

So you work in a sick building. Short of launching a formal complaint against your employer, you can always get outside and get some fresh air when you find the air in the workplace, overwhelming. 

(Workers sue anyway). 

But what happens when the air outside, is worse than the air inside? 

Research is suggesting that the air pollution out there can be hazardous to your health. Sure, we’ve all joked about it—and even sensed it—but now research is suggesting we’re not far off the mark. 

So you don’t like the air in, say, Detroit or in the valleys of California where the mountains trap the smog. Okay, so you move. 

But what if you can’t? What if your job ties you to that city, that area? What if you work outside, exposing your lungs to countless hours of polluted air? 

What happens if you suffer a stroke? 

Just watch…somebody, somewhere is going to sue the municipality for bad air. For a decades- Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Air Pollution
Posted in Environment | 1 Comment »

Mmmaybe not…BP up for Safety Award, Ceremony Quietly Postponed

May 7th, 2010. By Hunter West

If it wasn’t so tragic—with loss of life and the almost certain environmental threat—the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon would have taken on a completely unexpected spin with an irony so delicious you could taste it.

Instead, it’s just sad.

That’s because BP, the multinational oil company that had leased the Deepwater Horizon and is now scrambling to stem the flow of millions of gallons of crude oil beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, was a favorite to win an environmental award last Monday that celebrated the safety and efficiency of the offshore drilling industry.

Needless to say, in the wake of the ongoing crisis, that ceremony was quietly postponed.

Somebody is thinking at the federal Minerals Management Service, the sponsor of the awards. Whomever handles their public relations over there deserves a raise in pay and a pat on the back, as going through with the ceremony in light of what has happened would be a gaffe of major proportions capable of reverberating around the world.

Can you imagine? Everybody from Jon Stewart to Jay Leno would be all over it. If people are already saddened and angered over the accident and the environmental impact, such an ill-advised decision to forge ahead with a self-serving glad-fest would leave the rest of us seeing red as we watch the Gulf of Mexico turn brown, as Mother Earth bleeds green.

Make no mistake, in any other scenario and at any other time the annual Industry SAFE Awards would be—and is—an important incentive for an industry that plays with fire as far as the Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BP Oil Spill, Deepwater Horizon, Environmental Damage, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Drilling, Oil Spill
Posted in Accidents, Emerging Issues, Environment | 4 Comments »

Today is D-day for Lead Paint Rule

April 22nd, 2010. By AbiK

Most of us don’t really think much about lead paint. Or lead anything for that matter. It only becomes an issue when there’s some report of lead appearing in a toy or someone’s about to buy (or renovate) an old house.

But lead was in the spotlight today, April 22nd, 2010. That’s because today was D-day for contractors who might find themselves working in homes, buildings, offices or schools that were built prior to 1978. Why 1978? Because that’s when the ban on lead paint went into effect—so anything built prior to ’78 may have used lead paint in its construction.

The EPA’s lead paint rule now requires contractors to take extra precautions—quite a few of them—when working in older homes and buildings to avoid unnecessary exposure to lead paint dust and particles. If you’re thinking, ok, so they’ll have to wear a dust mask, then you’re in for a bit of a surprise when you hear what this rule actually requires.

Contractors, as of today, have to be certified as “lead-safe” by the EPA—and at least one person on each job site must complete an eight-hour training course. They will have to wear special gear

 that includes air filters, goggles and hoods. The areas where they’re working will need to be protected with heavy plastic and sealed. And work sites have to be cleaned thoroughly with special vacuums. Warning signs need to be posted as well to alert others that they are in the midst of a lead-paint hazard area.

This new federal rule has, needless to say, sent some shockwaves through the construction industry— Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EPA, Lead Paint
Posted in Environment, Personal Injury | No Comments »

EPA Gets Fracking on Study

March 23rd, 2010. By AbiK

After growing concerns over the use of hydraulic fracturing to access natural gas, the EPA is now going to begin a “comprehensive research study” to investigate whatever the effects—potentially not good—the process may have on water quality and public health. According to the EPA’s press release (3/18/10), “There are concerns that hydraulic fracturing may impact ground water and surface water quality in ways that threaten human health and the environment.”

Hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking”, has become a hotly debated extraction method in states like New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia where there are shale formations—the Marcellus Formation stretches out through the Appalachian Basin. Over the last three years, the Marcellus Shale has become increasingly important as gas discoveries in the area point to a vastly undertapped energy source. Estimates put the amount of natural gas held within the Marcellus Formation at 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet, which the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (dec.ny.gov/energy) puts into context by stating that NY state uses about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of  natural gas a year. That’s potentially a lot of years of gas supply…

To help put things in perspective further, according to an article in Business Week (3/10/10), shale gas currently accounts for 20 percent of the US gas supply—and is expected to jump to 50 percent of the supply by 2035.

But environmentalists—and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg—have been opposed to natural gas fracking. Bloomberg wants to ban drilling at the upstate New York Marcellus Shale area. Why? Two words: water supply.

So what exactly happens with hydraulic fracking?

According to the EPA site (epa.gov), first a well is drilled into reservoir rock that contains oil, natural gas, and water. Then, a fluid—usually water that contains “specialty high-viscosity fluid additives” —is injected under high pressure into the rock. Because of the immense pressure of the fluid being driven into the rock, the rock splits open further—i.e., it creates “fractures” (can’t help but have a flashback to Wile E. Coyote in free-fall off the side of a cliff resulting in “fractured” bedrock below).

Once the rock is fractured, a propping agent (such as sand) is pumped into the fractures to keep them from closing once the pumping pressure is released. The fractures allow the natural gas to move more freely to a production well so that it can be brought to the surface.

Sounds straightforward—and back in 2004, the EPA conducted a study to determine the potential for contamination of underground sources of drinking water (usdw) from the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids by coalbed methane wells. At the time, the EPA concluded that the injection of fracturing fluids by coalbed methane wells posed little or no threat to underground drinking water sources.

According to the Business Week article, there haven’t been any documented cases of fluids injected into wells migrating from the wells into the groundwater. However…

Earlier this year, the PA Environmental Protection Dept. fined Talisman Energy, Inc. $3,500 for violations in 2009 that “included discharging drilling fluids into Sugar Creek in Troy Township.”

There are other concerns, too. In New York City, the water supply is the nation’s largest unfiltered system. According to Cas Holloway, NYC Environmental Protection Department commissioner, should the city lose a federal filtration waiver, it could cost between $10 – $20 billion to build a treatment plant.

The EPA is re-allocating $1.9 million for the peer-reviewed study for the full-year 2010 and is also requesting funds for full-year 2011 in the president’s budget proposal.

Tags: fracking, hydraulic fracturing, hydraulic-fracturing-water-contamination-epa-fracking-hydrofracking, Marcellus Shale, natural gas, New York, Pennsylvania
Posted in Environment | No Comments »