A New Study Has Found that Wastewater Disposal Is the Main Danger From Fracking

Scientists at Stony Brook University in an August 2012 article in the journal Risk Analysis asserted that future research into problems involved with the controversial oil/gas recovery practice commonly known as “fracking” will focus mainly on wastewater disposal.  That is because even in the best cases at least 200 cubic meters (over 50,000 gallons) of contaminated water is released from every treated well.

Waste water from fracking presents risks from salts and radioactive materials that are “several orders of magnitude larger” than for other potential water pollution possibilities examined in the study. Other water pollution pathways studied include tanker truck spills, well casing failures,  accidental drill site fluid spills,  and retention tank failures.  The fracking wastewater disposal risks, the study found, “dwarf the other water risks.”

The enormity of the risk that fracking entails can be seen in this assessment:

If only 10 percent of the Marcellus Shale region was developed, that could equate to 40,000 wells. Under the best-case median risk calculation that Rozell and Reaven [authors of the study] developed, the volume of contaminated wastewater “would equate to several hours flow of the Hudson River or a few thousand Olympic-sized swimming pools.” That represents a “potential substantial risk” that suggests additional steps should be taken to lower the potential for contaminated fracking fluid release, the authors say. Specifically, they suggest that “regulators should explore the option of mandating alternative fracturing procedures and methods to reduce the wastewater usage and contamination from shale gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale.” These would include various alternatives such as nitrogen-based or liquefied petroleum gas fracturing methods that would substantially reduce the amount of wastewater generated.

More information on the dangers of wastewater produced by fracking from the Wall Street Journal.

EPA Is Providing Funds to Reduce Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

In 2012 the EPA issued a  grant to the  Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority for the purpose of combating hypoxia.

A large area in the northern  Gulf of Mexico is called the “dead zone.”  The problem is known technically as hypoxia.
Hypoxia means low oxygen and is primarily a problem in coastal waters. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic waters at the mouth of the

Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000 to 7,000 square miles.  The dead zone is caused by nutrient enrichment from the Mississippi River, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous.

Hypoxic waters have dissolved oxygen concentrations of less than 2-3 ppm. Hypoxia can be caused by a variety of factors, including excess nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, which promote growth of algae. As dead algae decompose, oxygen is consumed in the process, resulting in low levels of oxygen in the water.

Nutrients can come from many sources, including any of the following:

• Fertilizers from agriculture, golf courses, and suburban lawns
• Erosion of soil full of nutrients
• Discharges from sewage treatment plants
• Deposition of atmospheric nitrogen

More from the EPA’s Website.

High Levels of Lead Have Been Found in Half the Garden Hoses Tested

An admonition from the National Gardening Association:

A common summer scene involves kids squirting each other with the garden hose. Invariably, on a hot summer day some of the kids will take a drink from the hose. We’ve all done it, whether as kids or adults. It turns out that drinking from a plastic hose may be hazardous to our health.

Lab tests conducted on water left sitting for a day in 10 common brands of garden hoses revealed that 5 out of the 10 hoses had lead levels higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe levels for drinking water. Despite a mandate for manufacturers to significantly reduce lead levels in hoses by July 31st, it appears there are still brands with excessive lead leaching into the water.

You can avoid lead hoses entirely by purchasing hoses sold for boats or RVs, which don’t contain lead. Flush out any hose before using it, and avoid hoses with brass fittings, which also contain lead.

Similarly,  Consumer Reports tested 16 hoses.  Four of the 16 were labelled “safe for drinking” and did, in fact, contain no more lead after water had stood in them for several hours than was found in water coming straight from the tap.  The remaining hoses, some labelled unsafe for drinking and others not labelled, contained lead, the worst 10 to 100 times the EPA allowable for lead in drinking water (15 ppb).

The issue is that many hoses are made of polyvinyl chloride, which uses lead as a stabilizer, and when water stands in the hose over a period of time water picks up lead from the hose materials.

The moral:  If you’re going to drink from a garden hose or use it in any other way that matters (e. g., watering your garden or filling your fish pond), buy a hose that’s intended to be safe for drinking water.  It’s true there are garden hose filters that remove lead, but it makes a lot more sense to pay a few dollars more up front for a lead-free hose  than to put lead in the water then filter it out.

 

Despite Drought Conditions in Many Parts of the World, Flooding is Causing Devastation Elsewhere

Voice of America reports that more than 50,000 people in North Korea do not have access to clean drinking water after floods contaminated many wells with sewage.  It is likely that food shortages will be made worse by the flooding as well.

Likewise, monsoon conditions in Beijing and flooding in Philadelphia are creating severe problems in both cities.

 

See The Stream for more details of flooding worldwide.

The U.S. Geological Survey Has Found Ancient Groundwater Under Maryland

Some of the water under Maryland is older than a million years, the first such ancient groundwater found along the Atlantic Coast, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. There are relatively few aquifers in the world in which million-year-old groundwater has been documented  These include the Nubian aquifer in the Sahara Desert, Canada’s Alberta Basin, and the Great Artesian Basin in Australia.  The ancient water under Maryland resides in the Patapsco aquifer.

The Maryland aquifer provides freshwater for the region east of Washington and Baltimore. Modern-day pumping rates have lowered water pressures and changed water chemistry, affecting the aquifer’s ability to provide freshwater for drinking and other uses. Concerns over saltwater intrusion in some areas have led water managers to increasingly move groundwater production from shallower aquifers to the deeper upper Patapsco aquifer, which has caused groundwater levels to decline.

The USGS has a “groundwater watch” database containing records from about 850,000 U.S. wells over the past 100 years.

 

More from USA Today

August 3 is National Garden Hose Day

by Hardly Waite, Gazette Senior Editor

Everyone knows that Leonardo Da Vinci invented the lawn mower and Pure Water Annie invented the water softener, but information about the origins of one of the world’s most useful devices, the humble water hose, is hard to come by.

Here is one theory, from an article by Marion Owen:

The year is 1652.
The place: Amsterdam.

A 12-year old boy, named Jan Van der Heiden, watches in awe as the city’s town hall burns to the ground. The event makes a lasting impression.

Twenty years pass. Van der Heiden and a group of men, standing on ladders along a canal, fill a watersack which is supported in a trestle, with buckets. From the trestle, water flows in a linen hose down to the fire engine tank below. And the first fire hose is born.

The linen hoses are soon replaced by leather, which are hand-stitched, a trade that was common in Holland’s seafaring industry. It isn’t long, though before more uses are found for Van der Heiden’s invention and the first garden hose is born.

There is also talk that in the pre-Christian era,  as early as 400 BC, people were using animal intestines as primitive hoses to move water about. There is no mention of garden hoses in the Bible. I have a theory that hollowed out snakes were also among the early hoses, but these may not have been widely used until the late Middle Ages.

What is certain is that by the nineteenth century, water hoses were in use. The “hose bath” was a popular item in pre-Civil War Water Cure facilities, as indicated by this 19th century magazine picture:

When uses of the hose are discussed,  the fire hose usually tops the list, and it’s true that fire fighters’ effectiveness increased exponentially when they gained the ability to get water from Place A (the water source) to Place B (the fire) without having to resort to the bucket brigade.

The common garden hose is one of those things we take for granted.  The hose is pretty amazing, though, when you think of it for what it is–a very inexpensive portable pipe that can bend around corners, roll up for storage,  and carry high volumes of water quickly over great distances.

The only thing better than a garden hose is a garden hose with a filter.

Where Does Arsenic Come From?

 

Most arsenic enters water supplies either from natural deposits in the earth or from industrial and agricultural pollution. Arsenic is a natural element of the earth’s crust. It is used in industry and agriculture, and for other purposes. It also is a byproduct of copper smelting, mining and coal burning. U.S. industries release thousands of pounds of arsenic into the environment every year.

The map above from the US Geological Survey shows where arsenic is most prevalent in ground water.

The EPA now considers arsenic a serious threat in concentrations as low as 10 parts per billion. The chart below shows the cancer risk assumption for drinking water with arsenic.

Arsenic Level in Tap Water (in parts per billion, or ppb)	Approximate Total Cancer Risk (assuming 2 liters consumed/day)
0.5 ppb	1 in 10,000
1 ppb	1 in 5,000
3 ppb	1 in 1,667
4 ppb	1 in 1,250
5 ppb	1 in 1,000
10 ppb	1 in 500
20 ppb	1 in 250
25 ppb	1 in 200
50 ppb	1 in 100

Arsenic is most easily removed from drinking water with distillers, reverse osmosis, specialized filters, or anion exchange. Even common carbon filtration can remove a significant percentage of arsenic.   More details about arsenic removal.

Arsenic, it should be noted, is not entirely a water issue.  A great deal of arsenic is present in foods and in common products like  wood preservatives.

 Environmental Groups Are Suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Failure to Protect Florida’s Caloosahatchee River

Several environmental organizations– Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest

Florida–have joined Earthjustice to file suit in federal court against the US Army Corps of Engineers alleging that the Corps has violated water protection laws regarding Florida’s Caloosahatchee River.

The Caloosahatchee, officially designated as a public drinking water source, has been covered with slimy green algae outbreaks in eight of the past 11 years, and an outbreak slimed the river in late July 2012.  According to Earthjustice, the algae releases a nauseating smell, gives people respiratory problems, causes massive fish kills and harms many wild species.

Cities drawing drinking water from the Caloosahatchee have also had to quit using the water because it is unsafe to drink in spite of extensive treatment.

The suit is filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because it has allegedly caused the Caloosahatchee’s problems by cutting off the river’s water supply. The Corps operates three water control structures that regulate the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee estuary at the Gulf of Mexico. According to Earthjustice, instead of providing the Caloosahatchee with the flow it needs to stay healthy, the Corps diverts water to irrigate 500,000 acres of sugar cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee, leaving the river stagnant and polluted.

The river has a nasty stench  in downtown Fort Myers, and many dead fish have washed up on the beaches in front of condos and hotels in Naples.

More Details about the Caloosahatchee Lawsuit.

Broken Pipeline Dumps 550,000 Gallons of Gasoline into Wisconsin Groundwater

A gasoline pipeline belonging to West Shore spilled half a million gallons of gasoline over a two week period near Jackson, Wisconsin.  Testing of local wells has led to the oil company’s installation of  water treatment systems capable of removing gasoline in several homes with several more expected.

One of the wells had almost 550 times the acceptable level of benzene in its drinking water.

A single spilled gallon of gasoline can pollute 750,000 gallons of water.

 More details.

Rarely Seen Fish Demonstrate How Little We Know of the Planet We Inhabit

Ancient Greeks thought the sea was a river that flowed around the planet. “Ocean” comes from okeanos, Greek for “river.”  —National Geographic. 

Humans rarely encounter frilled sharks, which prefer to remain in the oceans’ depths, up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface. Considered living fossils, frilled sharks bear many physical characteristics of ancestors who swam the seas in the time of the dinosaurs. This 5.3-foot (1.6-meter) specimen was found in shallow water in Japan in 2007 and transferred to a marine park. It died hours after being caught.

The frilled shark is one of many marvels that can be seen on the National Geographic’s wonderful Ocean Life section.