Weekly round-up 8/27/10: Coal poisons our water and other "shockers"

I have always been weary of drinking tap water without a trusty water filter. However, I neglected to think about the fact that dirty coal waste contaminates water too. It's been recently reported that contaminants in 39 waste sites in 21 states have seeped into the groundwater. Dirty Coal pollutes our water with toxic metals such as arsenic, selenium, lead and chromium. And the worst part is that not all coal-waste sites have groundwater-monitoring data, which means that there could be pollutants in water that go undetected. States such as Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Tennessee are some of the states who do not require monitoring of these coal-ash "ponds".

"By not monitoring, the states are playing Russian roulette with our drinking water because we don't know exactly when and where and how that contaminant is going to show up," Evans said.

The EPA is still trying to figure is they should call coal waste a hazardous waste. Given how much it pollutes, I would say so. Therefore, unless we want to drink bottled water for the rest of our lives, please attend one of the EPA's public hearings that will be held in several different cities. Can't make it? No worries! Do your part by simply signing our petition to support the EPA in regulating coal waste.

Gulf Oil Spill Update

I don't think the phrase 'out of sight, out of mind' applies here." said Satish Nagarajaiah, a civil and mechanical engineering professor at Rice University.

This is true. Although the BP oil well has been "plugged" since mid-July, the public still wants to know "why" and "how" this happened. Questions as to why the blowout preventer did not seal off the well once the oil rushed out and what was it about BP's design and/or oversight of the well that went wrong. Many people speculate that BP ignored the warning signs about how dangerous the well's condition was. Beginning August 23, the fourth round of public hearings will include witnesses from BP, Transocean (rig owner) and Halliburton Company.

The next focus is to restore the Gulf Coast, and as Obama would say, to make the Gulf Coast "better than before." Obama gave crafting of the Gulf Coast restoration plan to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to address short-term and long-term effects of the oil spill.

On behalf of Gulf residents, I will deliver that framework for our path forward to the President within the coming few weeks.”

There have been backtracks in statements made by the Obama administration, along with BP, in the impact the oil spill has had on the environment. In fact, it's been reported that only 10% of the oil has actually been recovered. Here is the "whole truth, nothing but the truth" from Rick Steiner, a marine conservationist and activist who has been studying oil spills since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Stein was one of the first scientist to mention the oil plumes lurking below the surface.

"Government and industry will habitually understate the volume of the spill and the impact, and they will overstate the effectiveness of the cleanup and their response. " says Rick Steiner.

. . . . .

"There's no such thing as an effective response. There's never been an effective response -- ever -- where more than 10 or 20 percent of the oil is ever recovered from the water."

. . . . .

"Most of the oil that goes into the water in a major spill stays there, and once the oil is in the water, the damage is done."

Sad, isn't it? I can't say that I do not believe this quote. Even though we would like to trust our government's word, history teaches us better. Estimates of the oil captured started out to be thousands of barrels a day which we know now is far from the truth. Think about this when you hear reports that the "vast majority" of the oil spill is gone or my personal favorite, "disappeared". What would the world be like if the government just kept it 100% real with us? As if Obama were to say, "Look guys, we are in a world of trouble. The idiots at BP just spill millions of gallons of oil into the ocean and I really don't know how we're going to clean this up. But don't fully blame BP because I shouldn't have lifted the ban on offshore drilling."

Right. As if.