Keystone Pipeline Leaks 5,000 Barrels Of Oil In South Dakota, TransCanada Says

A section of the Keystone oil pipeline has leaked 5,000 barrels of oil, or about 210,000 gallons, in a remote area of South Dakota, TransCanada announced Thursday.

The company said the conduit was “safely shut down” about 6 a.m. local time, in line with safety procedures, but environmental groups have pointed to the leak as evidence a sister pipeline, the Keystone XL, should be rejected in neighboring Nebraska.

Who’s Paying for the Clean Up of the Worst Mining Spill in Canadian History?

British Columbian taxpayers will be on the hook for $40 million to clean up the worst mining spill in Canadian history and the company responsible has once again escaped criminal charges after a private prosecution was dismissed this week.

In August 2014 the 40-metre-high tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine near Williams Lake collapsed, sending 25-million cubic metres of contaminated sludge and mine waste sweeping into lakes and rivers — but no charges have been laid and no fines have been levied against Imperial Metals, the parent company of Mount Polley Mining Corp.

In the past decade, fracking caused nearly 2 spills a day in just these 4 states

Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and North Dakota saw more than 6,600 spills from fracking wells — or more than one spill for every five wells — from 2005 to 2014, according to a study released Wednesday by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

The results suggest that the oil and gas industry needs to have stronger, more consistent reporting requirements for spills, which can include oil, chemical-laden water, and other substances, researchers said.

Hydraulic Fracking to Blame for Big Alberta Bitumen Spill, Regulator Confirms

Three years after an eruption of 10,000 barrels of melted bitumen contaminated the boreal forest and groundwater near Cold Lake, Alberta, the provincial energy regulator has now officially blamed hydraulic fracturing, or the pressurized injection of steam into the ground for fracturing nearby rock.

The bitumen blowout occurred sometime between May and June 2013 at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s Cold Lake project, an operation that uses steam injection to melt bitumen and bring it to the surface.

Poor response to toxic spill in Vancouver warns against bitumen

On Thursday April 9, residents in Vancouver -- occupied xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and Səl̓ílwəta land -- woke to news of a toxic fuel spill in English Bay, remnants having made their way to a popular downtown beach.

According to Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs, the federal government had reports of the spill between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday, but didn't officially notify the City of Vancouver until 6 a.m. Thursday.

Meggs said there's still no certainty as to "exactly when the spill occurred," and that the city would prefer to be notified immediately.

Mayor blames province and feds for slow response to English Bay spill

It took six hours for the Coast Guard to build a containment boom around a toxic spill at a deep-water anchorage off English Bay and 13 hours before City authorities were notified. Now the City of Vancouver has advised residents to stay away from globs of toxicity washing up on shore and 3 oiled ducks are in a rescue care unit -- with growing fears that all this foreshadows an approaching catastrophe.

Mayor Robertson said this morning that efforts to contain the spill failed.

Vancouver Toxic Fuel Spill Flags Questions about Shipping Regs

While a toxic spill fuel in Vancouver's English Bay on Wednesday evening raises questions about tanker traffic off B.C.'s coast, experts are also warning that some international shipping companies may be making our waters more unsafe by legally registering vessels in countries with worse safety records than Canada's.

The Coast Guard alerted local authorities to a long slick of leaked fuel in the waters off Stanley Park early Thursday morning, after spending the night trying to contain it.

After Mount Polley: 'This is Indigenous Law'

Thursday marked six months since the Imperial Metals-owned Mount Polley mine became the site of the most devastating tailings storage facility disaster in Canadian history, when nearly 25 million cubic metres of toxic mine effluent waste and chemicals spilled.

The spill damaged both Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, which reside within the traditional territorial boundaries of the Secwepemc Nation.

An official report on why the spill happened from the Mount Polley mine itself was set for release at the end of January, but the B.C. government altered the regulations. Now a report from Mount Polley isn't due until 2017.

America's Disastrous History of Pipeline Accidents Shows Why the Keystone Vote Matters

It'd be easy to discount the Senate vote over the Keystone XL pipeline as mere political theater but that'd be a mistake.

Build Keystone XL and you build on a long and disastrous history of pipelines in America.

A new analysis of federal records reveals that in just the past year and four months, there have been 372 oil and gas pipeline leaks, spills and other incidents, leading to 20 deaths, 117 injuries and more than $256 million in damages.

TransCanada Pipeline Rupture Prompts Evacuation Of Benton Harbor

TransCanada may have to take a break from trying to convince Canadians and Americans its Keystone XL and Energy East pipelines are safe in order to deal with some pipeline spills.

More than 500 residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, were forced to leave their homes in the early hours of Tuesday morning for 10 to 12 hours after authorities discovered a leak on a TransCanada gas pipeline in the area, WSBT TV reports.

Police cordoned off a one-square-mile area rural area east of the town for 10 to 12 hours before allowing residents to return home.

New Afton Mine In Kamloops, B.C. Sees Small Tailings Pond Spill

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A broken valve between two tailings ponds at the New Afton gold and copper mine in Kamloops, B.C., has resulted in a spill of about 16 cubic metres of mine slurry.

B.C. Environment Minister spokesman David Karn says the tailings went into a dry ditch and no waterways are involved.

A company spokeswoman says the crushed rock was completely contained on mine property, there was no danger to people or the environment and clean-up has begun.

Karn says the spill is minor compared to the breach released at the Mount Polley mine last month that sent 17 million cubic metres of water and more than seven million cubic metres of slurry into nearby waterways.

A registered letter sent Tuesday to the operators of the Mount Polley mine from the Environment Ministry warns the company that the tailings pond was still discharging effluent into a nearby creek.

The ministry issued a compliance order to the company to take prompt action to shut down all discharge and make sure there's enough capacity in the storage facility to handle a large rainfall event.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: CP

Mount Polley mine tailings spill nearly 70 per cent bigger than first estimated

Imperial Metals’ estimate of the size of the spill from its Mount Polley mine tailings dam collapse is nearly 70 per cent greater than the initial estimate.

The B.C. government has estimated that 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic meters of finely ground rock containing potentially-toxic metals was released by the collapse of the dam on Aug. 4.

Mount Polley Spill: Elevated Levels Of Chemical Elements Found In Nearby Water

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. - Elevated levels of seven chemical elements have been found by B.C. government staff in the sediment near a mine tailings spill.

The Ministry of Environment says copper, iron, manganese, arsenic, silver, selenium and vanadium were found in concentrations that exceeded provincial standards during testing near the Mount Polley mine Aug. 12 and Aug. 15.

Mining Spill Near U.S. Border Closes 88 Schools, Leaves Thousands Of Mexicans Without Water

An acid spill from a large copper mine in northern Mexico is keeping 88 schools closed starting Monday due to uncertainty over the safety of drinking water. The 12-day-old spill, which sent 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of toxic wastewater into portions of the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers, may keep schools closed for over a week according to the Associated Press.

U.S. Attorney's Office Probing North Carolina Officials Following Coal Ash Spill

Federal authorities have initiated an investigation into the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources following last week's coal ash spill in the Dan River.

The Associated Press first obtained a copy of a grand jury subpoena that the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh issued requesting emails, memos and reports from the department dating back to 2010. The subpoena compels counsel for the DENR to appear before a grand jury March 18 to 20.

Former West Virginia Miner: We've Been Dumping Those Chemicals In The Water For Decades

When up to 7,500 gallons of toxic 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia, leaving 300,000 people without tap water for around a week, former miner Joe Stanley was well prepared. He hadn’t been drinking the water for years.

Stanley, 64, worked at West Virginia's Marrowbone Coal Mine from 1981 to 1996. His employer was Massey Energy, the same company responsible for the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in 2010 that killed 29 miners and which was bought out in 2011.

Columbia River Chemical Spill Came From Smelter, Teck Resources Confirms

TRAIL, B.C. - Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) is confirming that its smelter in Trail has spilled up to 25,000 litres of a chemical solution into the Columbia River.

Spokesman Richard Deane says the solution likely contained sodium hydroxide which the plant uses to de-mineralize feed water for the smelter's boilers.

Hospital admissions over W. Virginia chem spill double even after water declared safe

Despite recent declarations that the water in West Virginia is now safe to use, hospital admissions related to the Kanawha Valley chemical spill have doubled over the last week.

About a week and a half ago, a chemical mixture used to wash coal – called “Crude MCHM” – began leaking into the Elk River, contaminating the water supply used by nine counties and roughly 300,000 people.

Trinidad Oil Spills Leave State-Owned Energy Company Scrambling To Clean Up

At least 11 oil spills have crippled parts of Trinidad and Tobago, coating miles of beach with crude as the state-owned energy company scrambles to control what's being called one of the country's worst environmental disasters.

Petrotrin, Trinidad's state-owned oil company, first responded to an oil spill near La Brea on Dec. 17, according to a report from the Trinidad Guardian. Over the past month, the company has confirmed at least 11 spills and was slapped with a $3.1 million fine from the country's Environmental Management Authority last week, which the company's president, Khalid Hassanali, called "harsh."

How the West Virginia Spill Exposes Our Lax Chemical Laws

The West Virginia chemical spill that left some 300,000 people without access to water has exposed a gaping hole in the country's chemical regulatory system, according to environmental experts.

Much the state remains under a drinking-water advisory after the spill last week into the Elk River near a water treatment facility. As much as 7,500 gallons of the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, which is used in the washing of coal, leaked from a tank owned by a company called Freedom Industries.