Category: Water


The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) the only operating uranium enrichment facility in the U.S.cannot legally stay open, and it can’t safely be shut down. Weapons of Mass Destruction ??

Filed under: Chemicals, Clean up, Community, Contamination, Corporate Assault on Our Lives And Our Health, Environmental, Nuclear, Nuclear Plant Incidents, Nuclear Power Truths, Pollution, Population, Radiation, Water, Wildlife — 2 Comments
May 24, 2013

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky, is the only U.S.-owned uranium enrichment
facility in the United States.

Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant | usec.com  Home Page

USEC Home Page

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EcoWatch: Uniting the voice of the grassroots environmental movement

Countdown to Nuclear Ruin at Paducah

May 22, 2013

By Geoffrey Sea

Disaster is about to strike in western Kentucky, a full-blown nuclear catastrophe involving hundreds of tons of enriched uranium tainted with plutonium, technetium, arsenic, beryllium and a toxic chemical brew. But this nuke calamity will be no fluke. It’s been foreseen, planned, even programmed, the result of an atomic extortion game played out between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the most failed American experiment in privatization, the company that has run the Paducah plant into the poisoned ground, USEC Inc.

As now scheduled, main power to the gargantuan gaseous diffusion uranium plant at Paducah, Kentucky, will be cut at midnight on May 31, just nine days from now—cut because USEC has terminated its power contract with TVA as of that time [“USEC Ceases Buying Power,” Paducah Sun, April 19, page 1] and because DOE can’t pick up the bill.

DOE is five months away from the start of 2014 spending authority, needed to fund clean power-down at Paducah. Meanwhile, USEC’s total market capitalization has declined to about $45 million, not enough to meet minimum listing requirements for the New York Stock Exchange, pay off the company’s staggering debts or retain its operating licenses under financial capacity requirements of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Paducah plant cannot legally stay open, and it can’t safely be shut down—a lovely metaphor for the end of the Atomic Age and a perfect nightmare for the people of Kentucky.

Dirty Power-Down

If the main power to the diffusion cascade is cut as now may be unavoidable, the uranium hexafluoride gas inside thousands of miles of piping and process equipment will crystallize, creating a very costly gigantic hunk of junk as a bequest to future generations, delaying site cleanup for many decades and risking nuclear criticality problems that remain unstudied. Unlike gaseous uranium that can be flushed from pipes with relative ease, crystallized uranium may need to be chiseled out manually, adding greatly to occupational hazards.

The gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, TN, was powered-down dirty in 1985, in a safer situation because the Oak Ridge plant did not have near the level of transuranic contaminants found at Paducah. The Oak Ridge catastrophe left a poisonous site that still awaits cleanup a quarter-century later, and an echo chamber of political promises that such a stupid move would never be made again. But that was before the privatization of USEC.

Could a dirty power-down at Paducah—where recycled and reprocessed uranium contaminated with plutonium and other transuranic elements was added in massive quantities—result in “slow-cooker” critical mass formations inside the process equipment?

No one really knows.

Everybody does know that the Paducah plant is about to close. Its technology is Jurassic, requiring about ten times the energy of competing uranium enrichment methods around the world. The Paducah plant has been the largest single-meter consumer of electric power on the planet, requiring two TVA coal plants just to keep it operating, and it’s the largest single-source emitter of the very worst atmospheric gasses—chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

The plant narrowly escaped the selection process that shuttered its sister plants in Tennessee and Ohio long ago. A 2012 apocalypse for Paducah workers was averted only by a last-second, five-party raid on the U.S. Treasury involving four federal entities pitching together to bail out USEC financially, a deal so arcane that knowledge of Mayan astrological codices would be required to grasp its basic principles. The plot would make for a great super-crime Hollywood movie in which Kentucky’s own George Clooney and Ashley Judd could star, if only the crafting lawyers and bureaucrats had made the Code of Federal Regulations as easy to decipher as bible code, or half as interesting.

“The deal” that saved Paducah operations for a year, past one crucial election non-coincidentally, probably consumed more net energy than it produced by stupidly paying USEC to run depleted uranium waste back through the inefficient Paducah plant—like a massive government program paying citizens to drink their own pee as a way to cut sewerage costs and keep medics employed prior to a Presidential contest. The deal never would have passed muster if it had been subjected to environmental or economic reviews of any kind, but it wasn’t. The “jobs” mantra was chanted, and all applicable laws from local noise-control ordinances to the Geneva Conventions were waived.

But the deal expires on May 31, in nine days. USEC and DOE have both said that discussions for a new extension deal continue, but rumors of a new deal were dashed on May 7, sending USEC stock into a flip-flop, when in an investor conference call, the company announced that no extension had been agreed, with very pessimistic notes about even a “short-term” postponement. That accompanied news that USEC had suffered a $2 million loss in the first quarter of 2013, largely attributable to the power bill at Paducah, which USEC says it’s under no obligation to keep paying.

Showing no enthusiasm whatsoever, USEC CEO John Welch said on May 7:

“While we continue to pursue options for a short-term extension of enrichment at Paducah beyond May 31, we also continue to prepare to cease enrichment in early June.”

Meanwhile, the Kentucky DOE field office in charge, managed by William A. Murphie, has advertised a host of companies “expressing interest” in future use of the Paducah site, with no explanation of how the existing edifice of egregiousness will be made to disappear. “Off the record,” the Kentucky field office has floated dates like 2060 for the completion of Paducah cleanup.

That’s two generations from now and kind of a long time for the skilled workforce and other interested parties to hang around. Even the 2060 date assumes that costs can be minimized by evacuating the diffusion cells before power-down—the scenario that seems certain not to happen because no one has the funding for it. Flushing the cells of uranium hexafluoride gas is the only sensible way to power-down, but it’s costly and time-consuming. At the Piketon, Ohio, plant a semi-clean power-down has cost billions of dollars and has taken twelve years and counting to accomplish. (Murphie will have to explain why he paid USEC so much money for the extended power-down at Piketon, while simultaneously asserting that a Paducah power-down can be accomplished swiftly and cheaply). Clean power-down also requires that workers and supplies be available on demand, and in the Paducah case, there simply isn’t time.

According to reliable sources, contracts are being prepared for the work of placing the plant into what Murphie calls “cold storage”—a term of his invention. But those contracts won’t take effect until October when fiscal 2014 funds are available. “Cold storage” at that point means closing the doors, posting guards outside, and otherwise walking away.

Can there yet be an extension deal to hold over the plant until 2014 funds are available? Probably not, because USEC may not last that long, the equipment in the plant has been run to decrepitude with no attention to maintenance, there isn’t sufficient time to make the arrangements, and a second end-run around environmental compliance would likely generate lawsuits.

Read Full Article here

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USEC to Cease Enrichment at Paducah Plant

- Operations for inventory management and site transition to continue -

BETHESDA, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) announced today that it had not been able to conclude a deal for the short-term extension of uranium enrichment at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, and the company will begin ceasing uranium enrichment at the end of May. The Paducah plant is the only U.S.-owned and operated uranium enrichment facility in the United States. USEC leases the plant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“While we have pursued possible opportunities for continuing enrichment, DOE has concluded that there were not sufficient benefits to the taxpayers to extend enrichment. I am extremely disappointed to say we must now begin to take steps to cease enrichment,” said Robert Van Namen, USEC senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“We will continue to meet our customers’ orders from our existing inventory, purchases from Russia under the historic Megatons to Megawatts program and our transitional supply contract with Russia that runs through 2022,” Van Namen said. “In addition, our work to commercialize the American Centrifuge technology continues through our research, development and demonstration program with DOE, which remains on schedule and within budget, as we remain on a path to deploy this critical technology.”

USEC will take steps to cease enrichment at the Paducah plant over the next month and to prepare the plant site for return to DOE. USEC expects to continue operations at the site into 2014 in order to manage inventory, continue to meet customer orders and to meet the turnover requirements of its lease with DOE.

“We will be working with DOE during the coming months and expect to reach agreement on how to best transition the site. The company and our workforce have unparalleled expertise that should be drawn on. We can provide significant value to the government in making that transition in the most cost-effective and timely manner,” Van Namen said.

USEC expects to begin reducing its workforce at the plant in the coming months. The Company will begin notifying workers as the specifics of the transition activities are defined. USEC anticipates maintaining a workforce at the site into next year to support ongoing operations, perform transition activities and meet regulatory requirements.

“We want to thank our employees and the entire Paducah community for their efforts to support continued enrichment at the plant. Although the community has known about this possibility for a number of years, we recognize that the Paducah area will soon feel the real impact of this decision and its effects on many individuals and families,” said Steve Penrod, vice president of enrichment operations.

“For 60 years, Paducah employees and the community have supported our national security and energy security. For now, at least, that mission is ending, but we are committed to working with the community and DOE for the smoothest possible transition that positions the plant site for its future role in the area’s economy.

“We want to thank members of the Kentucky delegation and our unions, the United Steel Workers and the Security, Police & Fire Protection Professionals, all of whom have worked tirelessly on behalf of the employees at this plant. We fully expect they will now recommit to helping the community create the next economic chapter for this site.”

USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

Read Full Article  Here

 

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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT

globalsecurity.org

 

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) is located in western Kentucky, 10 miles west of the City of Paducah, near the Ohio River in McCracken County. The plant sits on a 3,425-acre tract of property, 750 acres of which are enclosed inside the PGDP security fence and 74 of those contain process buildings. The site is owned by DOE and leased and operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a subsidiary of USEC, Inc.

It is the only operating uranium enrichment facility in the U.S. The site contains uranium enrichment process equipment and support facilities. The mission of the Plant is to “enrich” uranium for use in domestic and foreign commercial power reactors. Enrichment involves increasing the percentage of uranium-235 in the material used for creating reactor fuel (UF6). Uranium-235 is highly fissionable, unlike the more common isotope uranium-238. The PGDP enriches the UF6 from roughly 0.7 percent uranium-235 to about 2.75 percent uranium-235…….

 

Read  In Full Here

 

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USEC preparing for close down

May 24, 2013
The United States Enrichment Corp. sits 15 miles west of Paducah on land the Department of Energy owns.

The United States Enrichment Corp. sits 15 miles west of Paducah on land the Department of Energy owns.

USEC will start taking steps to close down its operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant over the next month and to prepare the plant site for return to DOE, said Robert Van Namen, USEC senior vice president and chief operating officer.

USEC expects to begin reducing its work force at the plant in the coming months and anticipates maintaining a work force at the site into next year, Van Namen said.

Read Full Article Here

 

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Wikipedia

Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

History

The former Kentucky Ordnance Works site was chosen from a candidate list of eight sites in 1950. The construction contractor was F.H. McGraw of Hartford, Connecticut, and the operating company was Union Carbide. The plant was opened in 1952 as a government-owned, contractor-operated facility, producing enriched uranium to fuel military reactors and for use in nuclear weapons. The mode of enrichment was the gaseous diffusion of uranium hexaflouride to separate the lighter fissile isotope, U-235, from the heavier non-fissile isotope, U-238. The Paducah plant originally produced low-enriched uranium, which was further refined at Portsmouth and the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. From the 1960s the Portsmouth and Paducah plants were dedicated to uranium enrichment for nuclear power plants. In 1984 the operating contract was assumed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems. Lockheed Martin has operated the plant since the merger of Martin Marietta with Lockheed in 1995. From 2001, all USEC production has been consolidated at Paducah.[2][3]

The Paducah plant had a capacity of 11.3 million separative work units per year (SWU/year) in 1984. 1812 stages were located in five buildings: C-310 with 60 stages, C-331 with 400 stages, C-333 with 480 stages, C-335 with 400 stages and C-337 with 472 stages.[4]

Employment and Economic Impact

USEC employs around 1100 to operate the plant. The Department of Energy employs around 600 through contractors to maintain the grounds, portions of the infrastructure, and to remediate environmental contamination at the site. The facility has had a positive economic impact on the local economy and continues to be an economic driver for the community. Elected officials are working to ensure that the plant continues to operate though other methods of enriching uranium, such as centrifuge, are more efficient.[1]

Contamination

Plant operations have contaminated the site over time. The primary contamination of concern is trichloroethylene (TCE), which was a commonly used degreaser at the site. TCE leaked and contaminated groundwater on and off the site. The groundwater is also contaminated with trace amounts of technetium-99, a radioactive fission product; other contaminates include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs). Through normal operations, portions of the plant are contaminated with uranium.

In 1988, TCE and trace amounts of technetium-99 was found in the drinking water wells of residences located near the plant site in McCracken County, Kentucky. To protect human health the Department of Energy provided city water, at no cost, to the affected residents and continues to do so.

Cleanup status

The Department of Energy is using electrical resistance heating, ET-DSP(trademarked) to vaporize the TCE from the groundwater. This clean up action began in mid-2010. Much of the contamination of the actual plant will not be cleaned up until the plant ceases operations.

 

 

 

 

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The Colorado River, The High Plains Aquifer And The Entire Western Half Of The U.S. Are Rapidly Drying Up

Filed under: Climate Change, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Drought, Earth Watch Report, Environmental, Poverty / Homeless, Water — 7 Comments
May 24, 2013

File:Lake Mead by air.jpg

Lake Mead by air

Craig Morey from Emsworth, Hants, UK

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

 

David Fulmer

Flickr: Kayakin’ on Colorado River     Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Dust-storm-Texas-1935  -  Dust Bowl

NOAA George E. Marsh Album    -    Public  Domain

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The Colorado River, The High Plains Aquifer And The Entire Western Half Of The U.S. Are Rapidly Drying Up

By Michael, on May 23rd, 2013

The Western United States Is Turning Back Into Desert

 

What is life going to look like as our precious water resources become increasingly strained and the western half of the United States becomes bone dry?  Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century in the western half of the country in 1000 years, and now things appear to be reverting to their normal historical patterns.  But we have built teeming cities in the desert such as Phoenix and Las Vegas that support millions of people.  Cities all over the Southwest continue to grow even as the Colorado River, Lake Mead and the High Plains Aquifer system run dry.  So what are we going to do when there isn’t enough water to irrigate our crops or run through our water systems?  Already we are seeing some ominous signs that Dust Bowl conditions are starting to return to the region.  In the past couple of years we have seen giant dust storms known as “haboobs” roll through Phoenix, and 6 of the 10 worst years for wildfires ever recorded in the United States have all come since the year 2000.  In fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, “the average number of fires larger than 1,000 acres in a year has nearly quadrupled in Arizona and Idaho and has doubled in every other Western state” since the 1970s.  But scientists are warning that they expect the western United States to become much drier than it is now.  What will the western half of the country look like once that happens?

A recent National Geographic article contained the following chilling statement…

The wet 20th century, the wettest of the past millennium, the century when Americans built an incredible civilization in the desert, is over.

Much of the western half of the country has historically been a desolate wasteland.  We were very blessed to enjoy very wet conditions for most of the last century, but now that era appears to be over.

To compensate, we are putting a tremendous burden on our fresh water resources.  In particular, the Colorado River is becoming increasingly strained.  Without the Colorado River, many of our largest cities simply would not be able to function.  The following is from a recent Stratfor article…

The Colorado River provides water for irrigation of roughly 15 percent of the crops in the United States, including vegetables, fruits, cotton, alfalfa and hay. It also provides municipal water supplies for large cities, such as Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas, accounting for more than half of the water supply in many of these areas.

In particular, water levels in Lake Mead (which supplies most of the water for Las Vegas) have fallen dramatically over the past decade or so.  The following is an excerpt from an article posted on Smithsonian.com…

And boaters still roar across Nevada and Arizona’s Lake Mead, 110 miles long and formed by the Hoover Dam. But at the lake’s edge they can see lines in the rock walls, distinct as bathtub rings, showing the water level far lower than it once was—some 130 feet lower, as it happens, since 2000. Water resource officials say some of the reservoirs fed by the river will never be full again.

Today, Lake Mead supplies approximately 85 percent of the water that Las Vegas uses, and since 1998 the water level in Lake Mead has dropped by about 5.6 trillion gallons.

So what happens if Lake Mead continues to dry up?

Well, the truth is that it would be a major disaster…

Way before people run out of drinking water, something else happens: When Lake Mead falls below 1,050 feet, the Hoover Dam’s turbines shut down – less than four years from now, if the current trend holds – and in Vegas the lights start going out.

Ominously, these water woes are not confined to Las Vegas. Under contracts signed by President Obama in December 2011, Nevada gets only 23.37% of the electricity generated by the Hoover Dam. The other top recipients: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (28.53%); state of Arizona (18.95%); city of Los Angeles (15.42%); and Southern California Edison (5.54%).

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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U.S. Has Depleted Two Lake Eries’ Worth Of Groundwater Since 1900

Aquifer water levels are rapidly falling across most of the U.S., according to a new study.
By Francie Diep Posted 05.21.2013 at 3:30 pm 8 Comments

 

Aquifers in the Continental US

Aquifers in the Continental US This map of major aquifers in the U.S. highlights the High Plains Aquifer (green) and the Dakota Aquifer (white, outlined in black). L.F. Konikow, U.S. Geological Survey

Over the last century, the U.S. has depleted enough of its underground freshwater supply to fill Lake Erie twice, according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey. Here’s another way to understand how much water we’ve used. Just between 2000 and 2008, the latest period in the study and the period of fastest depletion, Americans brought enough water aboveground to contribute to 2 percent of worldwide ocean level rise in that time.

“We think it’s serious,” Leonard Konikow, the U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist who performed the study, tells Popular Science. “It’s more serious in certain areas.”

Lowering aquifers mean less local water for the communities that depend upon them. They can also suck dry springs, wetlands and other surface water features, Konikow wrote in a report the survey published yesterday. Scientists don’t always have a tally for how much water an aquifer holds, however, so it’s more difficult to say what percentage of the U.S.’ overall groundwater is gone. (In some systems, it’s difficult to determine where the bottom of the aquifer is, Konikow explains.)

 

Read Full Article Here

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Fracking boom triggers water battle in North Dakota

Filed under: Activism, Chemicals, Community, Corporate Assault on Our Lives And Our Health, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Drilling, Earth Watch Report, Environmental, Gas, Hydraulic Fracking, Water — Leave a comment
May 20, 2013

Reuters

Steve Mortenson, the owner of the Trenton Water Depot in Trenton, N.D., reviews logs inside his depot on March 26.

By Ernest Scheyder
Reuters

WATFORD CITY, N.D. — In towns across North Dakota, the wellhead of the North American energy boom, the locals have taken to quoting the adage: “Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting.”

It’s not that they lack water, like Texas and California. They are swimming in it, and it is free for the taking. Yet as the state’s Bakken shale fields have grown, so has the fight over who has the right to tap into the multimillion-dollar market to supply water to the energy sector.

North Dakota now accounts for over 10 percent of U.S. energy output, and production could double over the next decade. The state draws water from the Missouri River and aquifers for its hydraulic fracturing, the process also known as fracking and the key that has unlocked America’s abundant shale deposits. The process is water-intensive and requires more than 2 million gallons of water per well, equal to baths for some 40,000 people.

 

As in all booms, new players race in to meet the outsized demand. At the heart of this battle is a scrappy government-backed cooperative, conceived to ensure fresh water in an area where its drinkability is compromised.

The co-op has decided to sell 20 percent of its water to frackers to help keep prices low and pay back state loans. That has not gone down well with the Independent Water Providers, a loose confederation of ranchers, farmers and small businesses that for years has supplied fracking water.

Since opening in January, the co-op has tried to limit the power of the confederation with an aggressive legal and lobbying strategy. The Independent Water Providers have fought back, arguing that the co-op shouldn’t be selling fracking water at all. The state Legislature stepped in with a law last month designed to quell the tension and nurture competition, but industry observers expect the acrimony to continue.

“When all of us had nothing (before the oil boom), there was nothing to fight about,” said Dan Kalil, a longtime commissioner in Williams County, home to many oil and natural gas wells. “Now, so many friendships have been destroyed because of water and oil.”

Jeanie Oudin, an analyst with energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, predicts the competition could push down North Dakota fracking water prices at least 10 percent in the next few years, or roughly $170,000 per well. That’s a sizeable savings in a state where fracking costs are the highest in the country (remoteness meant there was little infrastructure in place). The water accounts for 20 percent of the roughly $8.5 million it costs to drill a North Dakota oil well.

NBC News

Click on the image above for an interactive map showing where the United States produces various forms of energy.

“Regardless of where operators get their water from, the growth in active water depots should increase the availability of raw water for hydraulic fracturing and ultimately bring down costs,” Oudin said. The depots are where energy companies buy most of their fracking water.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council, a trade group for Statoil, Hess, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil and other large energy companies, declined to comment on the fight or to forecast how much water prices could fall. The council acknowledged that it would prefer multiple sources for the state’s 8,300 wells.

Energy companies get most of their water in the state by trucking it from depots to oil and natural gas wells. Some wells require more than 650 truckloads to frack. Companies such as EOG Resources Inc and Halliburton Co are experimenting with ways to reduce their dependence on water.

Fracking water depots, which cost roughly $200,000 to build and can gross more than $700,000 per year, are typically small metal buildings on concrete slabs filled with pumps and small tanks connected to the Missouri River or local aquifers. They can have two to six hookups and fill water trucks with as much as 7,800 gallons of water per visit.

 

Read Full Article Here

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Experts: In 20 Years Time No Water Will Be Left In China

Filed under: Drought, Earth Watch Report, Environmental, Fiscal irresponsibility, Government, Government Overreach, Ineptitude, Water, World News — 5 Comments
May 19, 2013

ChinaForbiddenNews ChinaForbiddenNews

Published on May 18, 2013

China is a country with extremely serious drought problem.

It is also one of the 13 poorest countries for
water resources per head.
The mistakes in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
recent strategies and its reckless economic development,
have further exacerbated the water shortage problem.

An article published by British media on this issue wrote that,
water poverty may negatively impact China’s economic growth;
The “China Dream” will become difficult to achieve
if this problem is not solved as quickly as possible.

UK newspaper The Financial Times published
an article which said
in the rapid economic development China seems to be ignoring
the fact it is a huge nation with poor water resources.
It has only one-fourth of the global average amount
of water per person.
The continued decimation of natural resources and polluted
environment has quickly exacerbated the water shortage issue.
Now China’s economic growth is threatened by this issue.

The Financial Times article quoted a report of the World Bank.

This estimated the economic loss due to water poverty
has reached 2.3% of China’s GDP.

Sun Qingwei, head of Climate and Energy Project, Greenpeace:
“A good mode of economic development should
produce short-term GDP growth, and also protect sustainable
development for future generations in the long run.
In my opinion, the (CCP’s) mode of destroying water resources
and environment only for short-term interests is reckless.
Such economic development cannot be viewed as real.”

Dai Qing, observer of China’s political and social affairs:
“The CCP’s GDP is meaningless.
They are simply playing the number game, trying to prove
economic growth and better civil lives with a higher GDP.
However, they don’t care about the environmental cost of
such development, or depriving Chinese people of civil rights “

According to expert analysis, excluding the changes of natural
environment, the main reason for China’s water shortage is
still the massive emission of industrial and agricultural
water and water pollution.
The policy mistakes made by the CCP one after another
have made the situation even worse.
These mistakes include reclaiming lakes into fields, the
Three Gorges Dam project, south-to-north water diversion,
river diversions and other projects that were highly
controversial and opposed by experts.

Dai Qing: “We have investigated the water
shortage problem of Beijing.
There are two big rivers flowing into Beijing
from the countryside.
One is the Yongding River from the west, and the
other one is the Chaobai River from the east.
A number of dams have been constructed on both
rivers upstream, which block the majority of water flow.
For example, over 200 dams are built on
the upstream of Yongding River.
Therefore the river is completely dry in Beijing.
The situation is the same for Chaobai River.
On the other hand, the rivers originating in Beijing
cannot be used due to pollution.
This is one aspect of the water poverty problem.”

Sun Qingwei: “Now we see that the blockage of rivers with
dams and massively extracting groundwater has led to the
destruction of water resources in local regions.”

Statistics show that, since 2012 no less than 10 reports
have been released on China’s water poverty problem,
by HSBC Bank, KMPG, Greenpeace, Chinese Academy of
Sciences and other famous agencies.
Experts warn that, “No available water resource
will be left in China after 20 years.”

As so many research reports on water poverty were released,
the CCP officials seem to realize how serious the problem is.
Some remedial measures have been presented,
but have yet to be implemented.

Sun Qingwei: “Currently there have been some efforts
aiming at improvement of water resource management.
However, we are still far away from solving the problem, as
we haven’t seen any real implementation of those measures;
Especially in adjusting the mode of economic development.

If the style of over-consumption of natural resources and
destroying environment for economic growth does not
change, we cannot have any optimism about the situation.
Till now there has been no real action to make such a change.”

The Financial Times article further commented on the water
shortage problem has shown impact on China’s social, political, and economic affairs;
Without solving this issue, the CCP would never
achieve the “China Dream” they depicted.

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Sovereign Nations Walk Out of Meeting With U.S. State Department Unanimously Rejecting Keystone XL Pipeline

Filed under: Activism, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land, Nature, oil, Pollution, Water, Wildlife — Leave a comment
May 18, 2013

Reblogged from :  Earth First News Wire

Cross Posted from Huffington Post

The State Department, still with “egg on its face” from its statement that Keystone XL would have little impact on climate change, sunk a little lower today as the most respected elders, and chiefs of 10 sovereign nations turned their backs on State Department representatives and walked out during a meeting. The meeting, which was a failed attempt at a “nation to nation” tribal consultation concerning the Northen leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline neglected to address any legitimate concerns being raised by First Nations Leaders (or leading scientific experts for that matter).

Tribal nations added probably the most critical danger of the pipeline which is to the water. Their statement is below:

On this historic day of May 16, 2013, ten sovereign Indigenous nations maintain that the proposed TransCanada/Keystone XL pipeline does not serve the national interest and in fact would be detrimental not only to the collected sovereigns but all future generations on planet earth. This morning the following sovereigns informed the Department of State Tribal Consultation effort at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rapid City, SD, that the gathering was not recognized as a valid consultation on a “nation to nation” level:

Southern Ponca
Pawnee Nation
Nez Perce Nation

And the following Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires People):

Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
Ihanktonwan Dakota (Yankton Sioux)
Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Oglala Sioux Tribe
Standing Rock Tribe
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe

 

The Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association supports this position, which is in solidarity with elected leaders, Treaty Councils and the grassroots community, and is guided by spiritual leaders. On Saturday, May 18, the Sacred Pipe Bundle of the Oceti Sakowin will be brought out to pray with the people to stop the KXL pipeline, and other tribal nation prayer circles will gather to do the same.

Pursuant to Executive Order 13175, the above sovereigns directed the DOS to invite President Obama to engage in “true Nation to Nation” consultation with them at the nearest date, at a designated location to be communicated by each of the above sovereigns. After delivering that message, the large contingent of tribal people walked out of the DOS meeting and asked the other tribal people present to support this effort and to leave the meeting. Eventually all remaining tribal representatives and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers left the meeting at the direct urging of the grassroots organization Owe Aku. Owe Aku, Moccasins on the Ground, and Protect the Sacred are preparing communities to resist the Keystone XL pipeline through Keystone Blockade Training.

Read More  Here

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Nuclear Event – State of South Carolina, [Catawba Nuclear Station] : Federal regulators say more than 100 gallons of water with traces of a radioactive hydrogen isotope have leaked at a nuclear power plant in South Carolina.

Filed under: Clean up, Contamination, Disaster Management, Earth Watch Report, Global Disaster Watch, Hazmat, Nuclear, Nuclear Plant Incidents, Nuclear Power Truths, Radiation, Water — Leave a comment
May 16, 2013

Earth Watch Report  -  Nuclear  Event

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15.05.2013 Nuclear Event USA State of South Carolina, [Catawba Nuclear Station] Damage level Details

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Nuclear Event in USA on Wednesday, 15 May, 2013 at 17:09 (05:09 PM) UTC.

Description
Federal regulators say more than 100 gallons of water with traces of a radioactive hydrogen isotope have leaked at a nuclear power plant in South Carolina. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that the tritium leak isn’t an emergency, but says the leak could reach groundwater. The NRC says the leak was found late Tuesday in a fiberglass discharge pipe. Duke Energy, which runs the plant, has started taking steps to fix the problem. The NRC says Duke is putting in a temporary sump pump to try to isolate the leak. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says drinking water that contains tritium can increase the risk of developing cancer.

….

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Traces of radioactive hydrogen isotope have turned up in more than 100 gallons of

water after a South Carolina nuclear plant sprung a leak.

 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported Wednesday (May 15) that

the leak was discovered in a fiberglass discharge pipe around 11:23 p.m.EDT Tuesday

at the Catawba Nuclear Station.

 

The NRC states that a “leak greater than 100 gallons containing tritium has the

potential to reach groundwater.”

 

Duke Energy, which runs the plant, has started taking steps to fix the problem. The

NRC says Duke is putting in a temporary sump pump to try to isolate the leak.

 

…..

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About 6,000 people who live on the remote Marshall Islands in the Pacific are facing an acute shortage of fresh water as a severe drought worsens.

Filed under: Climate Change, Disaster Management, Drought, Earth Watch Report, Global Disaster Watch, Water — 1 Comment
May 10, 2013
CLIMATE SCIENCE

Pacific’s Marshall Islands facing drought emergency


 by Staff Writers
 Majuro (AFP) Marshall Islands (AFP) May 8, 2013

A drought has left areas of the Marshall Islands facing “dire” water shortages with aid agencies scrambling to ship relief to affected communities, officials in the Pacific nation said Wednesday.

With almost no rainfall since late last year on some of the northern islands, the government this week issued a disaster declaration as villages began rationing water to preserve supplies.

“We’ve got 3,700 people without drinking water, the situation is dire,” national water advisor Tom Vance said on Wednesday following a trip to Mejit Island.

Health officials said water tanks were running low and water from wells had turned brackish, making it unsafe to drink. Without rain, the only other source of liquid for the islanders is coconuts.

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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Marshall Islands face acute water shortage

Australia and US offer desalination and reverse-osmosis units as severe drought worsens in Pacific archipelago

  • Associated Press in Majuro
  • guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 May 2013 02.30 EDT
Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands have declared a state of disaster in the north of the archipelago. Photograph: Doug Wilson/Corbis

About 6,000 people who live on the remote Marshall Islands in the Pacific are facing an acute shortage of fresh water as a severe drought worsens.

A state of disaster was declared in the north. Australia announced it would provide AU$100,000 (£65,335) for emergency desalination units. The US has also donated several reverse-osmosis machines, which convert salt water into fresh water.

There is no end in sight to the drought, with fine weather forecast for at least the next 10 days. The drought has also affected the food supply, hitting crops such as breadfruit, bananas and taro.

Casten Nemra, who chairs the national disaster committee, said many large families were surviving on as little as 4.5 litres of water a day.

 

Read Full Article Here

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WAKE UP by Peggy Atwood

Filed under: A Helping Hand, Activism, Activism, Beauty Of Nature, Beyond Our Natural Senses, Blow back, Climate Change, Coexistence, Complacency / Apathy, Consciousness 1, Corruption, Costs of War, Crimes, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Deforestation, Earth Watch Report, Enlightenment, Environmental, Faith, Fallen Soldiers, Freedom, Fundamental Rights, Generosity, Generosity, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Geo Engineering, Give Forward, Global Community, Goodwill, Government, Grief, Holistic Health, Human Rights, Humanity, Hydraulic Fracking, Indigenous People, Indigenous Peoples, Indoctrination, Justice, Lack Of Transparency, Land, Mindfulness, Mining, Nature, Peace, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Pollution, Population, Positivity In Mind and Body, Power Struggle, Preservation, Provocation / Incitement, Radiation, Revolution, Seas / Oceans, Secrecy, September 11th, Special Interests, Species Extinction., Sustainability2, Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands, The Atmosphere, Unconditional Acceptance, Unconditional Love, Unethical, Unmanned Drones, Veterans, War Crimes, Wars and Rumors of War, Water, Weaponry / Armament, Wildlife, World News — 1 Comment
May 9, 2013

Peggy Atwood

Published on Jan 30, 2013

A song I wrote when I visited the site after 9/11; always thought a little heavy, but it is time to get it out there. All photos taken from the web, if there is any infringement, please contact me, I will include credits. Included on my CD “Renegade of the Light Brigade” during the remix and urging of the late, great Steve Burgh.

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USGS hydrologic researchers have found that the movement of nitrate through groundwater to streams can take decades to occur.

Filed under: Chemicals, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Research, Water — Leave a comment
May 7, 2013

Note: Areas in the United States with the highest risk of nitrate contamination of shallow ground water (shown in red on the map) generally have high nitrogen input, well-drained soils, and less extensive woodland relative to cropland. (USGS provides groundwater quality map for several states )

The widths of the red arrows show relative amounts of nitrate leaching
into groundwater.  The wider the arrow the more nitrate.

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Decades-old Nitrate Found to Affect Stream Water Quality
Released: 5/7/2013 8:31:59 AM

Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communications and Publishing
12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119
Reston, VA 20192		 Jon Campbell 1-click interview
Phone: 703-648-4180
0
 USGS hydrologic researchers have found that the movement of nitrate through groundwater to streams can take decades to occur. This long lag time means that changes in the use of nitrogen-based fertilizer (the typical source of nitrate) — whether the change is initiation, adjustment, or cessation — may take decades to be fully observed in streams, according to a recent study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Water quality experts have been noting in recent years that nitrate trends in streams and rivers do not match their expectations based on reduced regional use of nitrogen-based fertilizer.  The long travel times of groundwater discharge, like those documented in this study, have previously been suggested as the likely factor responsible for these observations.

“This study provides direct evidence that nitrate can take decades to travel from recharge at the land surface to discharge in streams,” said Jerad Bales, acting USGS Associate Director for Water. “This is an important finding because long travel times will delay direct observation of the full effect of nutrient management strategies on stream quality.”

Rivers and streams are fed by both groundwater held in underground aquifers and surface water from precipitation runoff. In low streamflow conditions, groundwater sources take a larger role.

Read Full Report Here

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BC’s Huge Gamble – short film – Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline

Filed under: Chemicals, Corporate Assault on Our Lives And Our Health, Disaster Management, Earth Watch Report, Environmental, Global Disaster Watch, Greed, Hazmat, History, Lack Of Transparency, Nature, oil, Pollution, Seas / Oceans, Secrecy, Special Interests, Unethical, Water, Wildlife — 1 Comment
May 6, 2013

This  will happen in  Arkansas and Missouri as well.  It  has already  happened in   The Gulf Coast   States.How long will  we allow to  be sold out  for a  few  dollars.

Can anyone put a price  on  human  life ?

Can money  bring bac the  ecosystem?

Can  the few jobs they  provide  bring  back those who have been compromised for the rest  of their lives?

Is this worth  the few jobs promised to ship this poison??

~ Desert Rose  ~

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Corey Ogilvie

Uploaded on Feb 6, 2012

Please mirror and share with every British Columbian, Canadian, and world citizen who wants to protect the BC coast, Great Bear Rainforest, and our way of life. Enbridge Inc, with their horrible spill record, wants to build a pipeline thru the heart of BC and run tankers up and down our rocky coasts. Whats most amazing, is what we get in return for this HUGE gamble, watch to see…

Follow Corey’s future work:
http://www.facebook.com/OgilvieFilm
http://www.ogilviefilm.com/index.html
Join the BC fight against Enbridge:
http://pipeupagainstenbridge.ca/
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/no-tanke…
http://www.tankerfreebc.org/
http://www.pacificwild.org/
know any more links, pls send as message and I’ll include

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