Exxon has yet to craft Montana pipeline fix plan

Tue, Jul 5 2011

* No date for restart as investigation continues

* High river levels hampering investigation of cause

* Refinery at "minimum rates" until secure other supply (Recasts, updates details about spill, adds comments from pipeline company president)

By Kristen Hays and Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, July 5 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) does not have a definite repair plan yet for the ruptured Montana crude oil pipeline that it shut over the weekend, and company and government officials are still trying to determine the cause of the spill, a top executive said on Tuesday.

The company and state and federal investigators are "working in parallel, looking at both the investigation, trying to determine what happened, as well as possible repair plans," Gary Pruessing, president of Exxon Mobil Pipeline Company, told reporters in a briefing.

"We do not yet have a definitive plan on when we will be able to restart the line," he said.

Exxon estimated that up to 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil spilled into the rain-swollen Yellowstone River when its Silvertip crude oil pipeline ruptured late Friday. Exxon said it shut the 40,000 bpd pipeline early Saturday within seven minutes of discovering a pressure loss that indicated a rupture.

High, rushing water in the river was hampering the probe, but Pruessing said the company hadn't confirmed any soiled areas beyond 25 miles downriver.

"River levels continue to be very high, the river is very strong, that does become something we need to consider in trying to get at the actual site where the incident occurred," Pruessing said.

He said Exxon may use directional drilling to reach the rupture site.

"We need to give the experts a little bit of time to determine the safest way to do the repair," he said.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are investigating the cause of the spill, along with Exxon Mobil and Montana state environmental regulators.

Sherman Glass, global president of Exxon's refining and supply, said the company's 60,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Billings, Montana, was running at "minimum rates" as the shut pipeline is its primary source of crude supply.

Glass said Exxon was working with other refineries in the area to line up additional crude supply, with "some success," and that the plant would have adequate gasoline and diesel for customers "for at least the next couple of weeks."

"We're optimistic that over the next few days we'll line up the crude needed to keep the refinery running. Maybe not at full rates, but certainly running well," Glass said.

Last year Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) experienced two larger leaks from ruptured crude oil pipelines.

Nearly a year ago Enbridge's (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 290,000 bpd Line 6B, which runs from Indiana to Ontario, was shut for nine weeks after it ruptured and spilled 19,500 barrels (819,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River system. The line feeds refineries in Detroit, Toledo, Ohio and several in Canada.

In September Enbridge's 670,000 bpd Line 6A, which feeds Chicago-area refineries as well as the Cushing, Okla. crude oil hub, leaked 6,100 barrels (256,200 gallons) of crude near Romeoville, Illinois, and was shut for about two weeks. (Additional reporting by Anna Driver; Editing by David Gregorio)

Courting Justice: Sarayaku v. Republic of Ecuador

July 1, 2011 | Kevin Koenig

Amazon Watch

In a packed press room in Ecuador's National Congress building yesterday, leaders of Sarayaku – the representative community of Kichwa indigenous peoples at the gateway to Ecuador's Amazon – brought their calls for justice to the country's capital en route to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica, where they will testify in the final hearing of their case against the Republic of Ecuador for human rights violations.

The case stems from a variety of rights abuses inflicted upon the community between 2002 and 2003 when armed forces and oil workers from Argentine company CGC entered Sarayaku territory – without the permission nor consultation of the community – and began seismic testing activities in search of oil.

"In the beginning we did not understand what was happening, it seemed like a nightmare; all of a sudden armed forces entered with the petroleum company," recalled Sarayaku President Jose Gualinga in a press release. "We had always believed that there was a respect for our territory and our authorities. The company incited panic, created divisions amongst families and provoked violence. The impacts are still felt and will be difficult to erase from our memory."

In response, Sarayaku waged a historic campaign to defend their lands and keep the company out. Met with adamant resistance, the Ecuadorian military and company, in cahoots, sought to break the community by any means necessary. Sarayaku members were detained and tortured by the armed forces at the CGC oil facility, the military blocked and patrolled rivers in and out of Sarayaku in an attempt to isolate and intimidate the community, and CGC left highly explosive material used in seismic testing scattered throughout Sarayaku territory.

The case has wide sweeping implications for indigenous peoples across the Americas. It is a major, precedent-setting case of accountability – will the government of Ecuador be held accountable for egregious rights abuses against its own citizens? Given that the current administration of Rafael Correa seeks to open up some six million acres of pristine rainforest and indigenous lands to new oil drilling, which includes Sarayaku, a "get out of jail free" card to the government will only guarantee future abuses.

Also at play is the right to consultation regarding "development" activities on indigenous lands. Sarayaku is advocating for the principle and application of Free, Prior, Informed, Consent (FPIC). This is essentially the right to say "No" to any proposed project that the community is not in agreement with. A binding decision from the Court on FPIC and its application this will not only set precedent in Ecuador (where there currently is no law on consultation though the Constitution guarantees the right to it), but throughout Latin America where indigenous peoples are fighting for this basic right.

According to Gualinga, "We do not want oil exploitation in our territory. Where there was seismic exploration there are no longer animals, the forest is empty. My people are fighting for their dignity, for reparations of the damages caused, and for the removal of the pentolite planted in our territory. We hope to achieve justice, that this never comes to repeat itself."

Stay tuned here where we will post updates of the Sarayaku delegation to Costa Rica and their historic effort for justice. The hearing will be streamed live on July 6th (3 pm Costa Rica time) and July 7th (9 am Costa Rica time) at www.corteidh.or.cr.

The roughly 20 men, women, children, elders and medicine people are still in need of financial support to get there. Please support them by joining the Cause on Facebook and donating now!

http://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0701-courting-justice-sarayaku-v-republic-of-ecuador

LA Times: Oil spill outrages Montana residents

Up to 42,000 gallons surge overnight Friday into the Yellowstone River, and some say Exxon Mobil's cleanup needs more oversight.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
July 4, 2011

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An oil spill in Montana's Yellowstone River surged toward North Dakota on Sunday as outraged residents demanded more government oversight of Exxon Mobil's cleanup.

An estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels, or up to 42,000 gallons, spilled through a damaged pipeline in the riverbed, Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said. The break near Billings could be related to the river's high water level, officials said.

More than 120 people were working on the cleanup late Sunday, Jeffers said. But local officials said because of the raging floodwaters, only a handful of crews were laying absorbent pads and booms to trap the oil along short stretches of the river between Billings and Laurel. In some areas, residents said, oil may be flowing underneath the booms and continuing downstream in the murky water.

Jeffers said most of the oil was believed to be within 10 miles of the spill site, and Exxon crews were flying over the area late Sunday to assess how far it had spread since the Friday night spill.

But Montana's governor disputed the 10-mile estimate.

"Nobody can say definitively," Gov. Brian Schweitzer said. "It's too early. We need boats on the water," not just flyovers. Because of the high water, however, boats were potentially unsafe.

There were reports of oil as far as 100 miles away near the town of Hysham, Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy said.

Although the spill is downstream from Yellowstone National Park and the fertile Yellowstone fly-fishing grounds, some officials worried it could harm the tourism industry, which draws 11 million visitors a year to a state with a population of just 980,000.

"We take our rivers very seriously here in Montana," said Schweitzer, a soil scientist who planned to visit the spill site Tuesday. "We will not allow this catastrophe to affect the $400-million trout industry in Montana."

Schweitzer, a Democrat, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had been working with state agencies to investigate the cause of the spill and would test air, water and soil samples. Exxon will be expected to pay for the cleanup so that "everybody along that river is made whole," he said.

But residents were worried.

"We can't really tell what it's going to do for our fisheries downstream," Eric Beebee, 37, said as he worked Sunday at Bighorn Fly and Tackle Shop in Billings. "If it was going to affect anybody, it's going to be the farmers and the ranchers because the water is pushed up so high, when it recedes [the oil is] going to be left on their land."

Goat rancher Alexis Bonogofsky pulled on waders and slogged through the oily residue at the bottom of her pasture, snapping photographs of oily grass and water.

"Places where the water has gone down the soil is shiny, there's residue oil and you can see where the grass is already dying. I'm really concerned about the wildlife," said Bonogofsky, 30, who also works for the National Wildlife Federation. "I've seen Canada geese try to take off and they can't get lift because of oil on their wings."

An Exxon crew arrived at her ranch south of Billings late Sunday to lay absorbent pads on oil patches.

Bonogofsky and husband Mike Scott, 31, who works for the Sierra Club, were trying to organize landowners to demand more transparency and accountability from Exxon. She faulted local public health officials for failing to conduct their own reports and relying instead on Exxon.

"Exxon says they are monitoring it, but we don't have access to that data," Bonogofsky said.

"We're sort of in limbo here," Scott said. "We have been spending a lot of time in the soil, and our livestock has. Nobody is telling us what we could have been exposed to."

Jeffers said he met with some residents Sunday and assured them that company tests, including air quality monitoring, showed no cause for alarm.

"There's no effort to withhold important information from the public," he said. "We have not seen anything that causes public health concern."

Exxon pipeline workers became aware of a problem shortly before midnight Friday when pressure readings in the pipeline dropped, Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing said Sunday. Workers turned off the pumps within six minutes, he said.

Jeffers said Exxon had temporarily turned off the foot-wide pipeline in May out of concern that seasonal flooding could damage it. The company reopened it a day later after reviewing the 20-year-old pipeline's safety record.

"We did a safety analysis and concluded the line was safe to operate," Jeffers said.

The pipeline was last inspected in 2009 using a robotic device designed to detect corrosion and other flaws, Jeffers said.

The most recent depth tests, in December, showed the pipe was 5 to 8 feet below the riverbed, he said. But that was before record rains and melting snowpack flooded the river in May, which Exxon and government officials have said may have exposed the pipe to damage from debris.

"That's just speculation at this point," Jeffers said. "We don't know at this point what caused it."

Some officials feared the oil would reach the Missouri River, just across the border in North Dakota.

"The water is fast and furious," said Kennedy, the Yellowstone County official. "I'm hoping that we get it cleaned up and stopped before it even approaches there."

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Barranco and the Temash River, site of oil exploration

The Temash River, Sarstoon Temash National Park, near the site of US Capital Energy's seismic testing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advocacy_project/sets/72157626450434987/show/

Gas Flaring in Belize

·       BNE continues to flare around the clock. These pictures were taken on May 18, 2011 at 9:40am. Because of the haze, the waste from the flare is staying close to the ground as it travels toward the Belize River. Every time one passes Belize Natural Energy (BNE), you notice the flare and the particles.  Gas flaring is generally discouraged as it releases toxic components into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

·       Flares have harmful effects on the health and livelihood of the communities in their vicinity, as they release a variety of poisonous chemicals including nitrogen dioxides, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds like benzene, toluene, xylene and hydrogen sulfide, as well as carcinogens like benzapyrene and dioxin. Humans exposed to such substances can suffer from a variety of respiratory problems. These chemicals can aggravate asthma, cause breathing difficulties and pain, as well as chronic bronchitis. Benzene known to be emitted from gas flares in undocumented quantities, is well recognized as a cause for leukemia and other blood-related diseases.

 

Win for environment at SATIIM school fair

As a part of its Environmental Education Program, the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) held its third Environmental School Fair on April 8, 2011, in Conejo Village, Toledo District. Local schools from across the district took part, giving pupils the opportunity to learn about the environmental issues affecting their lives.

A child from Conejo enjoys ones of the displays

Students were tasked with finding innovative ways to protect the environment around the theme of “Community Based Natural Resource Management”. Teams from each school worked together to create an interactive  display and to give a presentation.  From songs to dances to poetry, the performances were diverse and imaginative. Though it was San Felipe Government School that most impressed the judges and they took first prize.

The upper division students of the Primary Schools from the villages of Barranco, Conejo, Crique Sarco, Midway, Santa Anna and San Felipe all participated in the fair.  Taking first place San Felipe received $1000. In second place, Santa Anna were given $600 and Midway, who were placed third received $400. All three winning schools were given a plaque to commemorate their success.

The team from San Felipe make the judges smile

All day the sun shone as students took the opportunity to look and learn from each other’s displays. Every school made a gallant effort, with posters, 3D models and artifacts all being used to raise awareness on environmental issues. Meanwhile, judges Glenford Parham from the Toledo Education Department, Christine Valerio from Protected Areas Conservation Trust and Julio Chub from the Ya’axche Conservation Trust closely looked at each school’s entrant and asked the children questions on their displays. 


Judge Glenford Rarhum said: “The science fair is important as it creates an awareness in children of taking care of the environment and how the environment affects their daily lives. San Felipe won first prize as they were well organised and very knowledgeable on everything they had displayed.”

Teacher Miss Finela Wagner, from winning school San Felipe said: “We are so pleased to win as the children worked very hard. It is the first time we have ever won anything, so I am so proud to be bringing this prize back to the school.”

In the words of students from San Felipe school: “Thank you SATIIM”.

Students from Santa Anna give their presentation

The earth cried over plans for oil

As if casting an omen on the plans being discussed beneath, the sky spilled relentlessly upon the oil meeting organized by the Government. 

Buses had brought villagers from across the district to the Mayan community of Corazon. There they sheltered beneath thinly thatched roofs as the rain fell, scattering mud with every thud as it hit the ground. Defiant, the Deputy Prime Minister and other Government officials stoically continued, raising their voices above the hissing weather. In front of the stage stood a solitary woman, her umbrella bright against its dreary backdrop. 

Woman listens to Government panel

The Mayan and Garifuna people had gathered to listen to the Government put forward an argument for why they should willingly surrender their land to oil extraction. It was here that these Toledo residents would decide whether to put faith in the nation’s leaders when they say “there are impacts but we can manage them and minimize them.”

In organizing the outdoor event, the Government had not taken the risk of bad weather into account. Juxtaposed against their claims that they would take all necessary precautions to prepare for and minimize the risks of oil exploration, their words did little to appease the concerns many bystanders. As Dr Colin Young said himself “Oil spills that can happen, especially when you don’t have the right procedures in place”. 

The consequences of the possible oil spillage disaster were also discussed. A member of the audience asked whether stories that he had been told of people dying and of fish being killed as a result of oil exploration were true. Such examples had been given at an event held by SATIIM the week before. The Honorable Gaspar Vega cut straight to the point, accusing the NGOs that talk of such case studies as “liars”. 

Sea breaking more than 90 miles from the BP oil spill

Given that in February a court in Ecuador found ChevronTexaco guilty of crude oil pollution causing serious and ongoing environmental and health problems, Vega’s accusation seems unfounded. The judge obviously did not conclude that the residents of the Amazon, who are experiencing increased rates of cancer as a result of crude oil pollution, were liars at all.  In fact, the judge awarded them over US$8billion in damages.

The residents of coastal towns on the Gulf of Mexico, where oil pollution from a BP off-shore rig has destroyed their fishing and tourist trade, would also beg to differ with the Deputy PM’s assertion that their tale is untrue. As families of fisherman unable to work in their polluted oceans struggle with growing debt and oil smeared beaches lie desolate of their usual sun seekers, the effects of oil exploration are excruciatingly evident.

Dr Young stepped in, “when there is an oil spill, perhaps there are some species of fish and marine organisms that will be affected. So we are not saying that the figure is an absolute lie.” He contradicted. “What we are saying is that some of the NGOs like to use the extreme, the worst case scenario, to scare people into not choosing development for themselves.” 

In response, Gregory Ch’oc of SATIIM later stated “We are working with a number of organizations to ensure that the people who will be most affected by oil pollution are aware of all the possible consequences. The rights of communities are violated when anyone comes and makes claims that there are no consequences associated with oil exploitation or that the communities are going to benefit economically. We are inviting the people to make their own decision, based upon all the facts and experiences from around the world.”

Honorable Gaspar Vega, Deputy Prime Minister

In the afternoon the speaker panel moved to a second event in Punta Gorda, at the same venue that had been used by SATIIM for an event just days before. The room was crammed, chairs spread from wall to wall, each one filled. People even sat in aisles or leaned against the walls. Each face was young, their attire identical. The room was filled with school children. As Young explained to the children “listen and pay attention, as you will need to go home and tell people what you know”.

What continued was an argument in support of oil that purported its advantages. The people, and children particularly, have a right to hear all the information surrounding the consequences of oil extraction. The Government view it as a low risk and high profit initiative, whilst non-profit organizations highlight issues they find concerning: environmental damage, human rights violations, disregard for law and low profit economic structure. At the end of the presentation, two school children took to the stage at the end of the presentation to state that “we know there are advantages to oil development, but we know there are disadvantages too”.

It was then explained that as the event had overrun, there would be no time for questions. Gasps shot from around the room and people immediately protested, demanding that it was the people’s turn to be heard. The panel soon realized this could not be avoided and before numbers could be minimized, a line of people with queries had formed. The questions that followed each demonstrated that the interrogator was firmly opposed to oil exploration. As they spoke, they were treated to whoops of encouragement from the audience.  

A gentleman finally queried on the Government’s opinion of the People’s Position Paper, written collaboratively by leaders and members of communities across the district the week before. It outlined their concerns and appealed for the Government to work alongside them on oil development plans. 

Vega responded to say that he would look and respond to it in due time. The paper in question had been read aloud in front of all the major news outlets, shown on national television, discussed in newspaper reportage. Not to mention having been sent to his office, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. Yet no attention or response had yet been given to the collaborative voice of the people whose lives are built upon the land where oil drilling to commence. 

That morning, men, women and children had gathered in their droves despite the pouring rain to listen to what Vega had to say. The Government themselves asked “listen and pay attention”. The people did, but when will the Government listen to the people?

Mayan villagers in Corazon