The environment in the news friday, 20 June 2008
By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
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By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
As President Bush called for increased oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountain West and offshore, an environmental group launched a legal battle Wednesday against the Interior Department, saying the agency broke its promise to limit environmental damage from natural gas and oil development on the Pinedale Anticline, one of the country's top reserves. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a nonprofit coalition of hunting, fishing and other organizations, filed suit against the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in U.S. District Court in Washington. The suit alleges the BLM, a division of the Interior Department, "failed unequivocally" to comply with its plans to monitor and mitigate the effects of gas and oil drilling on wildlife across the Anticline and violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The Pinedale Anticline, which includes about 198,000 acres of federal, state and private land in western Wyoming, is estimated to hold 21 trillion cubic feet of gas -- enough to heat 12.5 million homes for as many as 20 years. The Bush administration has highlighted the Anticline, a scrub-land mesa south of Jackson, as a model for oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain West. But massive development of oil and gas fields there has pushed up ozone levels and broken up the habitat of mule deer, pronghorn antelope and sage grouse, according to a study by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the environmental group that filed suit. The project plan formulated eight years ago for the Anticline called for the development of about 700 well pads over a 10- to 15-year period. It included procedures to monitor and evaluate the effects of development. The suit alleges that a working group set up for that task held its first meeting in 2004, and has not met consistently thereafter. "They haven't been following the processes that they put in place that would address impacts to the natural resources of the area and would comply with their obligations under federal law," said Katie McKalip, a spokeswoman for the conservation group. Teresa Howes, a spokeswoman for the BLM, said she had not seen the lawsuit and could not directly address it, but added that the agency had been following procedures in the project plan. The lawsuit comes at a time when three companies, Shell Exploration & Production, Ultra Resources, and Questar Exploration and Production, have asked to have seasonal restrictions removed to allow for expanded year-round drilling. Rules require development be shut down during wildlife breeding and migration. The BLM is examining the request, part of a plan that would develop as many as 4,399 wells over 60 years on about 12,272 acres in the Anticline, Howes said. The plan, which is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks, would generate about $16 billion in royalties, half of which would go to Wyoming, she said. The Anticline has more than 800 wells, she said. The Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator, Robert E. Roberts, said in a recent letter that the BLM's proposed plan should be revised because it did not adequately analyze the effects of development on air quality and groundwater. Paul Matheny, vice president for Questar Exploration's Rockies region, said the new plan would allow for them to increase their output while better addressing environmental sensitivities. The company, which drills five months a year, funded a 2004 study that showed drilling year-round from a limited area, and using pipes instead of tanker trucks, was less environmentally destructive to the mule deer population. "We really minimize the amount of habitat fragmentation and surface disturbance due to the drilling . . ." Matheny said. "Since then, the deer population stabilized and has started to rebound when we operate this way." A 2006 report showed the deer population declined 46% since 2000, the suit said. The study was industry-funded and performed by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. The suit does not ask the BLM to stop production in the Anticline. "We're not opposed to public lands' energy development," McKalip said, "as long as it adheres to efforts to sustain fish and wildlife resources throughout the course of development activities." http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-pinedale19-2008jun19,0,2289341.story Long Beach agrees to study removing breakwater to cleanse beaches Los Angeles Times By Deborah Schoch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Surfers and environmentalists are cheering the Tuesday night vote, saying that the World War II-era breakwater prevents waves from cleansing the coastal sands. They have long lobbied city and federal agencies to launch a serious study of tearing down the breakwater's easternmost segment or lowering it so waves can wash over it. The 2 1/2 -mile segment lies directly offshore from the city's beaches. It was built between 1941 and 1949 to shield ships of the U.S. Navy, which left the city in 1997. "It was built for the Navy, the Navy left and let's get rid of it," said Robert Palmer, chairman of the Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a national environmental group. But that's easier said than done. The breakwater is federal property, overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, which cannot launch its own study without congressional approval, corps spokesman Greg Fuderer said. Long Beach officials plan to prepare an initial study to help determine if the federal government would back a full-scale feasibility study, which could cost $3 million to $5 million. The council voted 6 to 2 to hire Moffatt and Nichols Engineers for up to $100,000 to conduct the preliminary study. The Coastal Conservancy will pay half the cost if the corps agrees to review the study when it is complete.
ROLAC MEDIA UPDATE June 19 2008 OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: I English: 1- Caribbean - Meteorologists watching Atlantic tropical wave 2- Caribbean Weathers Tourism Storm 3- Cuba - Cuba Turning Dumps into Parks 4- Cuba Wind Saves Energy, Cleanly 5- Guatemalans Protest Use of Food for Biofuels 6- Panama - Power projects protested II Spanish: 7- Argentina - Estudiantes debatirán sobre el medio ambiente 8- Chile - Chaitén: Recrudecimiento de actividad volcánica obliga a suspender rescate de vehículos
1- Caribbean - Meteorologists watching Atlantic tropical wave 06 – 19 – 08 NEW YORK, USA: Meteorologists were watching a tropical wave move west across the North Atlantic on Wednesday. Environmental conditions, however, were not favorable for tropical development of the wave, the US National Hurricane Center said in a forecast. The wave was located about 1,250 miles east of the southern Windward Islands. AccuWeather.com said there were actually three tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, but did not expect any development over the next 48 hours due to strong winds in the upper atmosphere. The Windward Islands include Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Dominica. The NHC will name the next Atlantic tropical storm Bertha. Source: http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-8636--46-46--.html 2- Caribbean Weathers Tourism Storm 06 – 18 - 08 CASTRIES, St. Lucia. The Caribbean will have to embark on innovative strategies to mitigate the fallout in Caribbean travel, says Allen Chastanet, St. Lucia´s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, according to a report by Bevan Springer. While the price of oil sky-rockets and airlines reduce services and increase fares to some Caribbean destinations, Chastanet suggests there is a silver lining in today's economic crisis and the Caribbean must be aggressive in the short and medium terms in order to be competitive in the long term. "With the cutback in long haul travel between the United States and Europe and Asia, for example, there is an opportunity for our region if we aggressively market the Caribbean to the segment of the American market that's unlikely to be affected by the economic downturn," he said, explaining that during crises Americans still travel, but want to stay closer to home. Suggesting there is an opportunity in focusing on the upper end of the market, he feared that "bargain destinations" like Cuba and the Dominican Republic, would have a harder time surviving in the prevailing economic environment. Nevertheless he encouraged the entire Caribbean to pool their marketing resources and to find the opportunity in today's crisis. Upcoming regional meetings in Washington DC and Antigua should help chart the way forward, he predicted. He also suggested tapping into multicultural communities in North America such as the Asian American market. "We are spending a lot of time talking about bringing Chinese and Russians to the Caribbean, but without the direct airlift, wouldn't it be logical to target their sizable and upwardly mobile expatriate communities in North America and Europe?" the Senator asked. The tourism minister suggested an immediate channeling of existing marketing energies into the challenging Fall season - between September and November - rather than injecting precious marketing resources for Summer travel. "It's already too late for the summer months, we need to start planning for the Fall when business will be very difficult," he suggested.
Gertrudis Valdez Hernandez, specialist of the Geophysics and Astronomy Institute, affirmed that this work is a tool for local governments to recognize, alleviate or eradicate sources of human contamination. The study offers characteristics of the physical and socio-economic environment where communities are located and the main causes affecting water, soil and atmosphere, the expert explained during her participation in Tropico 2008 meeting. This project to protect ecosystems proposes possible alternatives to solve problems such as the management of solid and liquid waste. The studies are based on human repercussion on local flora and fauna in coastal areas, she said. Environment programs of education in communities, schools, elderly groups and work centers have determined to eliminate micro-dumps and substitute them with parks or gardens, she explained. The forum being held in the Havana International Conventions Center gathers 300 participants from about 12 nations will continue until the 20th discussing subjects of geography, agriculture, meteorology and bio-diversity within a tropical context. Source: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={E136046D-1A80-4ACE-94AB-B483989332BA}&language=EN 4- Cuba Wind Saves Energy, Cleanly HAVANA, Cuba: The "Los Canarreos" experimental wind energy park on the Isle of Youth in southern Cuba has saved 488 tons of fuel since its opening in January 2007, media reported Tuesday. Odeleisis Flores, director of the Basic Managerial Unit for the rational use of energy in that territory, told "Juventud Rebelde" newspaper that figure is equivalent to the loads of 19 tankers with 25.1 tons of fuel oil. Since its opening, the eolian park has generated 1,952.5 megawatts, in addition to benefiting environment by eliminating emissions of over 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Daniel Pascual, CUC general coordinator, stated that strengthening the use of great extensions of land with these objectives harms the soils and reduces the basic grain cultivation areas. In statements to Prensa Latina, the indigenous leader criticized the decision of the Guatemalan government to give a setback to the application of a legislation made in 1974, which forced great landowners to dedicate 10 percent of their lands to food production. Pascual urged the authorities to retake the agrarian topic and the analysis of a rural development law in an urgent way to face the current food crisis, not only affecting Guatemala, but also the rest of the countries of the world. For the sake of fostering family agriculture that supplies the country of grains, CUC signed a cooperation agreement Wednesday with the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of San Carlos and with non governmental organization ACTIONAID. The agreement includes sending of students of the last year of Agronomy to communities to the north and south coast. Francisco Vazquez, Rector of the Faculty of Agronomy, manifested the commitment of the University of helping to overcome the serious situation that the country is facing, where 50 percent of the children suffer malnutrition. Guatemala suffers the consequences of agrarian policies giving a privilege to the export of agricultural products and, in the last years, the biofuels production instead of the cultivation of foods for popular consumption. Source: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={3642EED8-DEBB-4D52-94B8-3FBAD417E769}&language=EN 6- Panama - Power projects protested 06 – 19 - 08 Environmental groups closed the Pan-American Highway in Chiriquí to protest two hydroelectric plants in the province. Activists claim the plants will have negative affects on communities near the Chiriquí Viejo and Gariché rivers. Police arrested at least nine environmental activists who blocked traffic on the Pan-American highway in the province of Chiriquí to protest the development of two hydroelectric projects powered by the Chiriquí Viejo and Gariché rivers, in the Bugaba district. Opposition groups marched two kilometers, from San Andrés to the two bridges that cross the Río Gariché, and were met there by Harmodio Santamaría, regional director of the Authority National Environment (Anam), who came out to hear the demonstrators’ arguments against the dams. “I don’t know if it is fair or not,” said Santamaría. “All I can say is that we live in a state of laws, and all Panamanians and businesses have the right to what the law gives them.” Activists read a manifesto explaining how communities in the districts of Bugaba, Barú, Renacimiento and Boquerón would be affected by the hydroelectric plants, justifying their request for halting the projects. At the end of the meeting, Mayor Ismael Herrera ordered riot police to disperse the protesters. Police arrested one woman and eight men, including Luis Espino, an activist with the Movimiento de Defensa del Río Chiriquí Viejo. One of the people detained had been taking photographs of the event with a cellular phone. Paso Canoa resident Eliécer Aguirre said the project would affect the water purification plant located on the river.
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