The environment in the news thursday, 30 August 2012

EDMONTON - Thousands of people depend on the water below Alberta’s oilsands region, but the effects of industrial development on those water tables is not yet fully understood, a new report says.

The Cumulative Environmental Management Association released a 37-page report Tuesday that explains groundwater in the region, and warns that lower water levels and poor quality could have “far-reaching consequences.”

“The cumulative effects of mining and in-situ operations on regional groundwater are not fully understood, so more data are needed ... to understand the quality and supply status of groundwater,” the report says.

Changes in groundwater “may be a concern for fish and fish habitat, wildlife, and water supply needs for a range of local uses,” the report says, adding that “the potential effects of lower water levels and poor water health on the harvest of traditional resources could have far-reaching consequences on the health, culture, and social and economic well-being of First Nations and Métis communities.”

Roughly 80 per cent of the CEMA’s funding comes from industry, with the remainder from government. Tuesday’s report and accompanying video cost nearly $25,000 to produce.

Dustin Shauer is the co-char of CEMA’s groundwater working group and a hydrogeologist at Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. He said Tuesday’s report is the first in a series to examine groundwater. The next step is a multi-year, $320,000 project to investigate the interactions between rivers and streams and the groundwater that feeds them.

The working group will identify places where locals access water and recommend those locations for monitoring.

“Just getting the data is the most important, the first step,” Shauer said. “Hopefully five, 10 and 15 years from now we will at least understand what changes have occurred and whether they’re natural, based on development, or a combination of the two.”

Critics praised the group’s efforts but said the government ought to slow down the pace of development until more is known about the impact on water tables.

“There’s so little known about groundwater in that area, anything ought to help,” ecologist David Schindler said. “I really think we ought to be having a lot more work done before some of the (oilsands) approvals go forward.”

He said groundwater keeps many streams alive through the winter and “it’s absolutely essential for fishbearing waters that we understand what the industrial development is going to do to those groundwater flows.”

Pembina Institute oilsands director Jennifer Grant said “there are a number of unknowns when it comes to groundwater management in Alberta.

“The concern is we’ve already approved a number of projects that are relying on groundwater,” she said. “In 2010 the in-situ industry consumption was approximately 17 million cubic metres per year, and that amount was expected to increase to 22 million cubic metres.”

Alberta Environment spokesman Andy Weiler said the Lower Athabasca Region Groundwater Management Framework will come into effect Sept. 1, setting interim “triggers” that will prompt interventions.

“Right now we have some interim triggers, simply because we don’t have enough data on groundwater in the area to say: ‘these are the triggers that we will be using.’

“So we’re going to establish a Regional Groundwater Monitoring Network and from there we will be able to develop the regional groundwater models, and from there, the triggers.”

It’s not clear when the network will be established, but the work is expected to be completed by 2014. 

CBC News

Environmentalists in New Brunswick are warning of the possibility of an increased threat now that more than 150 federal environmental assessments have been cancelled.

In its most recent budget, the federal government changed the law to make big cuts to the types and numbers of projects that require environmental assessments.

In New Brunswick, there are 159 projects that will no longer require a federal environmental assessment. There are 3,000 cancelled projects across Canada.

Bill C-38, Ottawa's omnibus budget legislation, passed in the House of Commons in June.

All were wiped out last month when the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act came into affect.

Ottawa says it will make doing business more efficient, but environmentalists say it's making it easier for the federal government and industry to push through projects that could harm the environment.

"We're talking about potential significant environmental damage by a thousand cuts,” said Michel LeBlanc DesNeiges, legal counsel for the New Brunswick Environmental Law Society.

“Problems in environment accumulate. So when a lot of these projects are tossed aside, there's always the potential that the cumulative affect is going to be detrimental to the environment."

While many of the projects on the New Brunswick list seem routine, some are not, such as the removal and construction of bridges, the dredging of several New Brunswick harbours and the expansion of salmon farms in the Bay of Fundy.

It's those projects that concern Matt Abbott, Fundy Baykeeper for the New Brunswick Conservation Council.

"Salmon farms are located in sensitive inshore coastal regions. They produce sometimes very large volumes of waste.

“As well there are various chemicals used in the feed, as well as used to treat the salmon for sea lice, so if there's changes as to where that's located in a given bay, I think there should be assessment to see what the environmental impact is, and I think really there should be greater scrutiny," Abbott said.

For New Brunswickers concerned about the impact of the loss of the federal assessments, options are limited.

"The fact that the federal government will no longer be present means that the burden will either fall on the provincial government to pick up the slack, or a lot of these projects are going to fall into the cracks," said DesNeiges.

VICTORIA — The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant: a western red cedar measuring five metres in diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, AFA executive director.

“To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.

The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said AFA campaigner TJ Watt, who discovered the tape.

In an email response to questions, however, the Forests Ministry said no activity is planned in Castle Grove, although some logging is planned in the area farther south.

Teal Jones Group of Surrey holds the licence for the area, but spokesman John Pichugin said he could not say whether the company has applied for a cutting licence in the area until he has seen a map.

Wu said it’s time the province came up with its promised “legal tool” to protect B.C.’s largest trees and monumental groves.

“Of all places, Castle Grove is the place where such a legal designation would make most sense. Otherwise, the B.C. Liberals’ rhetoric has been as empty as a clearcut,” Wu said.

The ministry statement said there are legal mechanisms to provide protection to unique or special trees and all British Columbians who find special trees are encouraged to register them on the Big Trees Registry.

“The ministry continues to look at other ways that may provide stronger proactive protection,” it said.

By Michael Gregory, Edmonton Journal 

A forest is rising again across a stretch of boreal landscape north of Fort McMurray that was destroyed last summer by one of Alberta’s largest wildfires in recent memory.

Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development provided a tour Tuesday of the 560,000 hectares of Richardson backcountry that burned out of control for two months before 1,000 firefighters were able to contain it. It’s the largest wildfire in the province since the government started keeping records in 1919.

The blaze was likely caused by human activity and spread from 10 hectares to 16,000 overnight last May. The area had received little rain, and strong westerly winds combined with a low relative humidity created ideal conditions for a wildfire.

“We knew we had a situation that was going to cause us some problems,” said Bob Mazurik, a fire behavioural specialist with the province who tracks an area’s susceptibility to wildfires through data collected from more than 100 weather stations.

The Richardson wildfire jumped the Athabasca River and eventually covered an area roughly the size of Prince Edward Island, spreading at an average rate of 4.5 kilometres a day. Some areas burned to ash while others were only slightly affected, creating a mosaic of earth tones across the barren land visible from above.

A year later, Cordy Tymstra knelt down among the singed trees Tuesday holding a budding two-inch jack pine between his fingers — one of the signs of new life in a forest that has adapted to wildfires for thousands of years.

Tymstra is the province’s wildfire science co-ordinator and says jack pines are a “phenomenal” species that rely on fire for their survival. As soon as the tree is exposed to heat it will release its cones to regerminate. As the resin around the cone melts, hundreds of seeds are released into the ground in a process called a seed rain.

“What (the jack pine) gets as a result of the fire is mineral soil, warm temperatures, and more importantly than anything at all, it gets fertilization — a huge nutrient pulse,” Tymstra said.

Aspen and birch trees produce similar offshoots from parent trees to ensure survival. Pointing to a section of dead aspen surrounded by growth roughly 60 centimetres tall, Tymstra said the dense bush started to take root within months of the fire.

“It’s a really well-designed forest that literally embraces fire, and the whole plant and animal community does too.”

Along the forest floor pockets of bicknell’s geranium and pin cherries are also starting to sprout. Both use seed banks that sit in the ground for years until fire breaks their dormancy and they begin to sprout. Nearby, bear and moose droppings are another sign wildlife has returned.

Woodpeckers are usually first to return to an area because of the abundance of bugs in the dead trees, Tymstra said.

The dependency of the boreal forest has sparked conversations about allowing more fires to burn themselves out naturally, a strategy that could help reduce huge wildfires such as Richardson, which spread in part because of a vulnerable older generation of trees.

The difficulty, however, has been convincing the public that fire is part of “natural evolvement of the forest and it has to happen,” said Geoffrey Driscoll, wildlife information officer with the province.

“When a fire does come through it doesn’t burn everything — it’s not a moonscape afterwards. The boreal forest without fire is like the rainforest without rain.”

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Vancouver sun: Crews use delicate methods to take down Okanagan wildfire 

Fire crews wrestled an Okanagan wildfire into submission Tuesday with delicate tactics sensitive to the ecosystem surrounding it.

“It’s burning in sort of a riparian area … a watershed, an ecosystem,” said Kamloops Fire Centre spokesman Kevin Shrepnek. “We don’t want to disturb too much. We’re trying to be kind of light-handed on the line.”

Sparked Monday afternoon roughly 30 kilometres southeast of Vernon, the blaze expanded to 50 hectares within several hours, “burning a long, skinny south-to-north finger” near Aberdeen Lake, Shrepnek said.

“Because of where it’s located we have really easy access to water, so we can hook up plenty of hoses without needing to create those heavy lines containing it.”

Crews used axes and other handheld tools to create additional containment lines, withdrawing the more destructive bulldozers and heavy equipment brought in initially to dig containment trenches.

The blaze died down during the day as winds slackened, temperatures dropped and precipitation rose.

Thirty-five firefighters and two reconnaissance planes fought the fire, which had shrunk to 43 kilometres Tuesday and no longer demanded air tanker assistance.

Shrepnek expected crews to extinguish it almost completely and start mopping up the charred forest by the weekend.

“That’s a combination of the success of our tankers spreading retardant over it early and the night temperatures lessening spread of the fire,” he said.

On Monday, crews informed guests of a lodge five kilometres northeast of the fire about the possible impending danger. “Some have chosen to leave the area, but there isn’t an official evacuation order,” Shrepnek said.

No other people or buildings were in danger.

“It’s burning in a pretty remote area, so that suggests it could be lightning,” he said, pointing out holdover fires can smoulder for weeks before flaring up into full-blown wildfires.

However, the precise cause of the fire remains unknown.

Meanwhile, a massive wildfire in the Cariboo region was virtually extinguished Monday, but others are still being doused as crews continue the summer fire season battle.

Fighters put out most of a week-long wildfire 40 kilometres west of Clinton as an evacuation alert remained for 40 people.

A helicopter is scouring an area east of Mable Lake, near Cottonwood Creek, as a crew of 65 people work to control the 30-hectare blaze that’s not threatening any homes.

Investigators are also now examining the cause of a brush fire north of Kekuli Bay that is now contained, but last night put six homes on evacuation alert.

Meanwhile, Mounties became instant fire fighters on Saturday when a campground fire got out of control late Saturday.

The officers worked with Weaver Lake staff near Agassiz to contain and extinguish a blaze for about 30 minutes before a water truck arrived.

Const.Tracy Wolbeck says the group’s quick thinking likely prevented what could have ignited into a large forest fire.

Police believe the fire’s source may have been a propane tank left close to the fire.

29 August 2012

The city will focus on more aggressively pursuing its water conservation goals in 2013 with a long-term plan developed and approved by city council Monday night.

Under the Water Conservation, Efficiency and Productivity Plan, St. Albert will pursue three specific measures for 2013.

One measure is a bylaw that would require water-efficient fixtures in new developments and retrofits. Another is escalating block rates in billing, in which water rates increase for consumers who use more water. The third measure is to target industrial, commercial and institutional clients to reduce their usage.

The city will also continue to use existing water conservation measures such as its toilet rebate and rain barrel programs to bring water use down to its target of 200 litres per capita per day by 2020.

“The plan is designed to help the city address a number of challenges affecting the supply and treatment of water,” said environmental co-ordinator Kalen Pilkington. “We can have measures in place so we are prepared.”

The largest group of water consumers is residential customers, but they are already averaging 200 litres per capita per day. When industrial, commercial and institutional clients are factored in, as well as water loss and municipal uses, the city averages 262 litres per capita per day, already down four from the previous year.

In fact, since 2006, the city’s daily per capita water consumption has dropped, even as the population has grown.

“That means water conservation measures are working, but there is still work to be done,” Pilkington said.

Requiring builders to install amenities like low-flow or dual-flush toilets, as well as more efficient shower heads and aerators on sinks shouldn’t be a problem, Pilkington said. Edmonton passed a similar bylaw in 2006 that most builders now incorporate throughout the Capital region.

“They are already doing it here in St. Albert,” Leah Jackson, environmental manager said. “Those groups are using water efficient fixtures just because the market in Edmonton is so huge. They’ve been doing it since 2006.”

Escalating block rates on utility bills would reflect a user-pay approach to water consumption, meaning households or buildings that use less water would pay less on their water bills, also a practice in Edmonton. The goal, said Pilkington, would be to reward users who consume less water rather than punish high users.

“We do not want to penalize the average rate,” Pilkington said. “We want to make the incentive rate attainable by a large percentage of the population. We want people trying very hard to pay for only what they use.”

She added that St. Albert would need to conduct a more rigorous analysis of the city’s water consumption patterns before proceeding with block rate billing.

Of the industrial, commercial and institutional clients, schools would be the most easily accessible, as the city can prepare curriculum materials and presentations for different classes on water conservation. Websites and other printed materials could also encourage industrial and commercial clients to engage in more conservation measures, such as water audits, Pilkington said.

Future measures could include harvesting rainwater and conducting water audits of city buildings, she said, but such measures wouldn’t be considered for at least another year or two.

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ROWA MEDIA UPDATE

THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS

Thursday, August 30, 2012
Trade Arabia: UN green climate fund holds first talks

Leaders of a UN green fund meant to channel billions of dollars to help developing economies cope with climate change met for the first time on Thursday after months of delays.

The 24-strong board began 3-day talks in Geneva, trying to decide where the fund will be based and other details, officials said. Ways to extract planned new aid from the anaemic economies of rich countries will be left for later meetings.

Developed nations agreed in 2009 to raise climate aid, now about $10 billion a year, to an annual $100 billion from 2020 to help developing countries curb greenhouse gas emissions and cope with floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

Once up and running, the Green Climate Fund is meant to manage rising aid flows. Candidates to host the fund's headquarters are Germany, Mexico, Namibia, Poland, South Korea and Switzerland.

"The Green Climate Fund can be an important tool in the world's common work to prevent climate change," Norwegian Deputy Finance Minister Kjetil Lund, a member of the board, said in a statement on Thursday.

He said developing nations needed aid to spur greener growth that also enables them to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels. The fund is part of a wider effort to work out a United Nations deal to combat climate change.

The board's first meeting was delayed by five months because Asian and Latin American nations took longer than expected to agree on their board members.

"The most important thing is selecting the host country," Omar El-Arini, a member of the board from Egypt, said of the Geneva talks. He said that the board was due to report back on the sitting to a U.N. meeting in Doha in late November.

"I don't think there will be any serious discussion of the $100 billion," he added in a phone briefing earlier this week. Brandon Wu, of anti-poverty campaigners ActionAid USA, noted that U.S. farmers were struggling with drought. But the effects of similar weather "are even more severe in developing countries where there is no crop insurance, no safety nets," he said.

"People living in poverty will suffer most," he said. The board started its work by electing two co-chairs, Zaheer Fakir of South Africa and Ewen McDonald of Australia, the fund said in a statement. – Reuters

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/ENV_222173.html

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QATAR

Qatari Real Estate Company “Msheireb” using ‘green concrete’

Msheireb Properties, Qatar’s leading sustainable real estate developer, is introducing more environmentally responsible concrete in the construction of its flagship development, the QR20bn Msheireb Downtown Doha project.

The project now operates an on-site concrete batching plant, one of the most environmentally efficient of its type in the region, using cement mixes that consume significantly less energy and produce fewer harmful emissions.

The ‘green concrete’ produced at Msheireb’s now fully operational batching plant reduces emissions by using recycled materials as a substitute for cement.

Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag, known as GGBS or ‘fly ash,’ a by-product of iron and steel making, replaces up to 70% of conventional cement in the concrete mixing process. GGBS-based concrete is also stronger than ordinary concrete and emits less heat while curing.

With construction of Msheireb Downtown Doha now well underway and concrete being poured around the clock, the environmental benefits of the new batching plant are considerable. “Msheireb Downtown Doha aims to be sustainable both in its construction and operation. That is why we are prioritising investments in the most advanced and environmentally friendly building techniques,” said Mohamed al-Marri, chief officer - design and delivery at Msheireb Properties.

“The project’s new batching facility is another example of the stringent environmental standards we are applying to the development of one of the world’s largest urban sustainable regeneration projects.” Cement manufacture is generally energy intensive producing large amounts of carbon dioxide. Cement production globally is responsible for around 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions, a figure set to rise in line with dramatic population growth and urban development.

Locating the new batching plant at the Msheireb Downtown Doha construction site also saves fuel in the transportation of labour and raw materials, and reduces the need for cooling to maintain concrete at a stable temperature during summertime transportation and pouring. Compared with making 100 round trips per day to the nearest concrete batching plant, located 25km from Doha, the new facility will slash the distance travelled by supply trucks by nearly half, from 3.9mn km per year to 1.4mn km per year, and reducing vehicle CO2 emissions by 4,551 metric tonnes per year or equivalent to 750 passenger vehicles consuming 1,759,470 litres of gasoline.