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Tag: clean water
Farmers Resist EPA Rule To Promote Clean Waters

Farmers Resist EPA Rule To Promote Clean Waters

By Chris Adams, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Farm interests are pushing against a recently finalized federal water rule after an analysis by a trade group concluded that the rule “creates even more risk and uncertainty” for those who work the land.

Opponents in Congress are trying to rework and sharply limit the impact of what was known initially as the “Waters of the United States” rule, which was designed to help federal officials clarify and simplify which bodies of water fall under the control of the 1972 Clean Water Act.

While those efforts have broad support in Congress, they might not have enough to override a presidential veto, sending the rule to the courts.

The rule is important to farmers, since it has the potential to change how they manage their land — requiring permits, for example, if activities would affect covered areas. It was finalized last month after more than a year of controversy and touted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers as an important step toward keeping the nation’s waters clean.

From the start, though, farmers said it went too far. And late last week, the American Farm Bureau Federation completed its analysis of the rule, finding that the complicated final version “is even broader than the proposed rule.”

One example is the rule’s definition of tributaries, which the federation said is so expansive that “land features may be deemed to be tributaries… even if they are invisible to the landowner and even if they no longer exist on the landscape.”

Blake Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, said that “anybody who moves dirt in order to do their business is going to be affected.” He also has problems with how the EPA handled the rulemaking process, saying the agency embarked on a political campaign to discredit those opposed to the rule and abused the law that governs rulemaking.

The EPA and proponents of the water rule say the complaints by farmers and others were thoroughly hashed out during months of public comment and hearings, and that the claims of overreach are wildly inflated.

That said, the options are limited for farm interests, homebuilders and other industries that have come out against the rule.

The House passed a bill in May that would roll back the rule, and a similar bill last week passed out of a committee in the Senate. That bill now moves to the full Senate.

But there, it faces stiff odds. Although Republicans control the Senate and dozens of senators are listed as co-sponsors for one of the competing anti-water rule bills, “It’s unlikely there will be a veto-proof majority,” Hurst said.

The White House said in April that if the bill to kill the EPA rule passes Congress, President Barack Obama would veto it.

That leaves the courts and advocates on both sides of the issue expecting farm or other industries to sue to stop the EPA from enforcing the rule. But how long such lawsuits may take to wind through the courts — or whether the rule will be suspended while the courts determine its fate — is unclear.

For those reasons, one advocate of the rule, Jon Devine, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he thinks the anti-rule forces will get nowhere.

“I think this is an effort doomed — fortunately — to fail,” he said. “I am extremely confident that claims the agencies protected too much will not win.”

The rule was proposed by the agencies to simplify and clarify the Clean Water Act. That law covers rivers, lakes and year-round wetlands. But the law is less clear about some streams that dry up part of the year, or about wetlands that wet only in the spring.

(c)2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: AgriLife Today via Flickr

Oil Companies Fracking Into Drinking Water Sources, New Research Shows

Oil Companies Fracking Into Drinking Water Sources, New Research Shows

By Neela Banerjee, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Some companies are fracking for oil and gas at far shallower depths than widely believed, sometimes through underground sources of drinking water, according to research released Tuesday by Stanford University scientists.

Though researchers cautioned their study of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, employed at two Wyoming geological formations showed no direct evidence of water-supply contamination, their work is certain to roil the public health debate over the risks of the controversial oil and gas production process.

Fracking involves high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals to crack geological formations and tap previously unreachable oil and gas reserves.
Fracking fluids contain a host of chemicals, including known carcinogens and neurotoxins.

Fears about possible water contamination and air pollution have fed resistance in communities around the country, threatening to slow the oil and gas boom made possible by fracking.

Fracking into underground drinking water sources is not prohibited by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which exempted the practice from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the industry has long held that it does not hydraulically fracture into underground sources of drinking water because oil and gas deposits sit far deeper than aquifers.

The study, however, found that energy companies used acid stimulation, a production method, and hydraulic fracturing in the Wind River and Fort Union geological formations that make up the Pavillion gas field and that contain both natural gas and sources of drinking water.

“Thousands of gallons of diesel fuel and millions of gallons of fluids containing numerous inorganic and organic additives were injected directly into these two formations during hundreds of stimulation events,” concluded Dominic DiGiulio and Robert Jackson of Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences in a presentation Tuesday at the American Chemical Society conference in San Francisco.

The scientists cautioned that their research, which is ongoing and has yet to be peer-reviewed, “does not say that drinking water has been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing.”

Rather, they point out that there is no way of knowing the effects of fracking into groundwater resources because regulators have not assessed the scope and impact of the activity.

“The extent and consequences of these activities are poorly documented, hindering assessments of potential resource damage and human exposure,” DiGiulio wrote.

Underground sources of drinking water, or USDWs, are a category of aquifers under the Safe Drinking Water Act that could provide water for human consumption.

“If the water isn’t being used now, it doesn’t mean it can’t be used in the future,” said DiGiulio, a Stanford research associate who recently retired from the Environmental Protection Agency. “That was the intent of identifying underground sources of drinking water: to safeguard them.”

The EPA documented in 2004 that fracking into drinking water sources had occurred when companies extracted natural gas from coal seams. But industry officials have long denied that the current oil and gas boom has resulted in fracking into drinking water sources because the hydrocarbon deposits are located in deeper geological formations.

“Thankfully, the formations where hydraulic fracturing actually is occurring … are isolated from USDWs by multiple layers and often billions of tons of impenetrable rock,” said Steve Everley, a spokesman for Energy in Depth, an industry group.

Industry officials had not seen the Stanford research.

DiGiulio and Jackson plotted the depths of fracked wells, as well as domestic drinking water wells in the Pavillion area. They found that companies used acid stimulation and hydraulic fracturing at depths of the deepest water wells near the Pavillion gas field, at 700 to 750 feet, far shallower than fracking was previously thought to occur in the area.

“It’s true that fracking often occurs miles below the surface,” said Jackson, professor of environment and energy at Stanford. “People don’t realize, though, that it’s sometimes happening less than a thousand feet underground in sources of drinking water.”

Companies say that fracking has never contaminated drinking water. The EPA launched three investigations over the last six years into possible drinking water contamination by oil and gas activity in Dimock, Pa.; Parker County, Texas; and Pavillion, Wyo. After initially finding evidence of contamination at the three sites, the EPA shelved the investigations amid allegations by environmentalists and local residents that the regulator succumbed to political pressure.

Jackson said the Stanford study’s findings underscore the need for better monitoring of fracking at shallower depths. “You can’t test the consequences of an activity if you don’t know how common it is,” he said. “We think that any fracking within a thousand feet of the surface should be more clearly documented and face greater scrutiny.”

Photo: Maryland Sierra Club via Flickr

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China Quake Toll Rises To 615; Muddy Noodles Open Army To Scrutiny

China Quake Toll Rises To 615; Muddy Noodles Open Army To Scrutiny

By Los Angeles Times staff

BEIJING — It was framed as a feel-good story about the sacrifice and toughness of Chinese soldiers: Troops who rushed to the site of a deadly earthquake in the southern province of Yunnan resorted to using muddy water to boil their instant noodles in the disaster zone. But the photo-op has turned into a heated public debate over the preparedness of the Chinese military.

The death toll from Sunday’s magnitude 6.5 temblor reached 615 on Thursday, with hope waning of finding more survivors. Soldiers from Yunnan’s paramilitary forces have been on the front lines of the rescue effort, leaving their barracks just 10 minutes after the quake struck, the official New China News Agency said.

In China, military forces are usually the first responders to natural disasters such as an earthquake or a flood. The Chinese military has deployed more than 7,900 soldiers in the disaster relief efforts for the Yunnan earthquake.

After almost 22 hours of marching to reach the disaster zone (roads in the area were impassable) and rescuing victims from the rubble, the tired soldiers gathered Tuesday afternoon for their first hot meal at a school in Longtoushan town, the hardest-hit area. With each soldier holding a disposable purple bowl of instant noodles, everyone looked happy in the pictures snapped by reporters from state-run China National Radio and posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social network.

But there was one problem: The water in the giant wok in front of them was filled with brownish, muddy water.

“Instant noodles became the only food available at Longquan Middle School in the epicenter. Underground water became muddy because of the earthquake. The rescue staff can only use the muddy water to boil noodles,” China National Radio’s Weibo account informed readers.

Though the pictures moved some members of the public, who were impressed by the hard work of the soldiers and difficulties they had to endure, others began to question the readiness of the rescue team. Critics said the troops knew before they set out for the disaster zone that they would be going into an area where basic resources such as water would be limited.

“What happens if they get sick? That will definitely hurt their rescue efforts,” asked Fan Jianchuan, who owns a museum complex in Sichuan province and once taught at a military college.
“Where’s their water purifier? Please don’t tell me they left in a rush. The army is built to respond to emergencies. What happens if the enemy launches a surprise attack?”

Others went as far as to dig out some old press clippings in which the Chinese military said it was fully equipped to provide clean water in the wild to its soldiers. On March 30, 2004, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily ran a story saying that a new type of portable water purifier had been successfully developed and was capable of providing nearly 40 gallons of clean water each hour.

Backed by a booming economy, China’s government has made expanding its military strength a priority. The nation’s defense budget had seen double-digit growth for two decades, but the country still spends less than 30 percent of what the United States does.

After taking over as the Communist Party’s top leader in late 2012, Xi Jinping spent his first four months “inspecting the army, navy, air force, second artillery corps, and armed police, boarding warships and combat vehicles,” the official New China News agency reported. “The armed forces need to be ready to assemble at the first call of the Communist Party and be capable of fighting and winning any battle,” Xi said while inspecting the Lanzhou Military Area.

With this week’s backlash over the muddy water photos mounting on Chinese social media, the nationalistic Global Times came out with an article asserting that the story was fake. “It is not true that soldiers are using muddy water to boil noodles; please do not believe in such stories that can hurt the morale of our soldiers on the frontline,” the article said.

The story quoted an unnamed official, said to be in charge of the rescue forces, saying the incident didn’t happen and it was not logical for the rescue forces to do such a thing. “No matter who boils water, they’ll always try to use water that is clean,” said the official.

But journalists from China National Radio who witnessed the whole process stood by their reporting — even posting a video proving the soldiers indeed used muddy water to boil noodles on their first day in the quake zone.

Global Times was forced to remove its story, and the editor responsible issued an apology through his personal Weibo account.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Julie Makinen and Tommy Yang in the Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

AFP Photo

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