Tuesday, Nov 25th
Last update07:59:01 AM GMT
Environmental Glance
UPDATE: Correction: We originally reported that Exxon had allegedly pumped diluted bitumen which spilled into the Northwood Subdivision into a nearby wetland. We were mistaken; they power washed it into the nearby wetland via storm drains.
Mayflower, AR, April 5: We spent most of the day chasing down reports of oil sightings and talking to residents.
Water contaminated with radioactive material that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan may have seeped into groundwater, officials said Saturday.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, said 120 tons of water leaked early Saturday as workers transferred it from a leaking tank to another one, The Asahi Shimbun reported. Company officials said none of the tainted water has gotten into the ocean.
While clean up continues at the site of the Exxon oil pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, yesterday, an estimated 700 barrels of oil (or almost 30,000 gallons) were found to have leaked from the Shell oil West Colombia pipeline in Houston. The US Coast Guard reports that about 50 barrels worth of crude oil spilled into a bayou.
TVNL Comment: Note that this is a 'very early estimate.'
Benzene levels as much as 800 times more than the federal drinking water standard have been found in shallow groundwater in a monitoring well just 10 feet from the banks of Parachute Creek at the site of a liquid hydrocarbon leak.
However, Todd Hartman, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday testing of the creek water continues to show no signs of contamination from the leak.
Sampling results from the newly completed well shows benzene levels of 1,900 to 4,100 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum allowable level for benzene, a carcinogen, in drinking water is 5 ppb.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a "no fly zone" in place in Mayflower, Arkansas since April 1 at 2:12 PM and will be in place "until further notice," according to the FAA website and it's being overseen by ExxonMobil itself. In other words, any media or independent observers who want to witness the tar sands spill disaster have to ask Exxon's permission.
Mayflower is the site of the recent major March 29 ExxonMobil Pegagus tar sands pipeline spill, which belched out an estimated 5,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") into the small town's neighborhoods, causing the evacuation of 22 homes.
Hansen, 72, wrote in an email that he was stepping down from the organization in order to spend more time on his campaign to cut carbon emissions. He first testified about the impending threat of climate change before Congress in 1988.
PBS NewsHour interviewed Hansen in August about how the extreme heat events of 2012 were connected to human activity and climate change.
Climate change is expanding Antarctica's sea ice, according to a scientific study in the journal Nature Geoscience. The paradoxical phenomenon is thought to be caused by relatively cold plumes of fresh water derived from melting beneath the Antarctic ice shelves.
This melt water has a relatively low density, so it accumulates in the top layer of the ocean. The cool surface waters then re-freeze more easily during Autumn and Winter.
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