"New oil pipeline across Minnesota approved"

From the Star Tribune:

New oil pipeline across Minnesota approved

"Minnesota energy regulators gave their approval Tuesday to a new pipeline that will come out of Canada carrying crude oil across northern Minnesota and on to Wisconsin.

The unanimous decision by the five-member Public Utilities Commission followed a pitch from U.S.-based affiliates of Enbridge Inc., that the 1,000-mile pipeline will help supply the north central United States with reliable energy from a friendly neighbor, at a time of volatile petroleum prices and growing demand by a growing population."

This ruling comes amidst concerns that the Canadian tar sands are exporting pollution to the Great Lakes states. The refining process of oil from the tar sands takes one barrel of oil to produce three barrels of oil. Throughout the Great Lakes region there are several projects aimed at refining tar sands oil.

How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin

Workshops Explain Michigan's Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool

There will be three workshops located throughout Michigan to explain Michigan's water withdrawal assessment tool. The workshops explain the guidelines for large scale withdrawals of 100,000 gallons or more per day of surface or groundwater. The event is being put on by the MSU Institute of Water Research.

The workshops will also show the new online assessment tool that allows potential users to apply for large water withdrawals online.

I reported about this back in March: Scrutinizing Michigan's Assessment Tool

Register Here

West-Central Michigan

Seating limited to 40
Only -12 Seats left!

December 4
Montcalm Community College
Panhandle Area Center
5856 Federal Road
Howard City, MI 49329

Local Contact: Jim Breinling
231-757-4789

Southeast Michigan
Site Registration List
Seating limited

December 8
Macomb Intermediate School District
Educational Service Center
44001 Garfield
Clinton Twp., MI 48038-1100

Local Contact: Terry Gibb
586-469-6430

Ottawa County Michigan
Seating limited

January 22, 2009
Ottawa County Fillmore Complex Admin Bldg Main Conference Room
12220 Fillmore St.
West Olive, MI 49460

Local Contact: Tom Dudek
616-846-8250

Separating the Mississippi from the Great Lakes?

The Alliance for the Great Lakes released a report today about the "ecological separation" of the Mississippi river from the Great Lakes. The call for action comes amid the floundering electric carp barrier in the Chicago River. The electric Carp barrier is still not allowed to be turned on to its full capacity because of safety concerns. Meanwhile, the biggest fear is that the Asian carp will invade the Great lakes. The Asian carp can grow up to 100 pounds and can eat 20 percent of its body weight in plankton. The fish would also disrupt recreational boating since it has a tendency to jump out of the water when it hears boat motors.

Though the proposal would be very expensive it would ensure a 100 percent effectiveness on aquatic invasive species. The only other major source of invasive species that would be left to deal with would be coming to a consensus with Canada on how to regulate the ballast water of ships.

Chicago’s electric carp barrier hits a snag

Conservation group urges separation of Great Lakes, Mississippi basin waters

Alliance for the Great Lakes Press Release

Alliance for the Great Lakes Report on the ecological separation of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes

Donation raises questions for head of FDA’s bisphenol A panel

From a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Investigation

A retired medical supply manufacturer who considers bisphenol A to be “perfectly safe” gave $5 million to the research center of Martin Philbert, chairman of the Food and Drug Association panel about to make a pivotal ruling on the chemical’s safety.
Read on

Ann Arbor News: FDA to look into issue involving University of Michigan professor

EPA to hold open house on the Kennecott mine proposal

The following is a press release from the EPA:

EPA holds open house on Kennecott Mine proposal

(Chicago, Ill. - Oct. 9, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold an open house on October 22 to answer questions about the federal role in regulating the proposed mine and the underground injection control permit application submitted by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company. The open house will be held at the Holiday Inn, 1951 U.S. Highway 41, West Marquette, Mich. There will be three sessions from 9 to 11 a.m., 1 to 3 p.m., and 6 to 9 p.m.

Kennecott proposes to dispose of treated wastewater as part of a nickel and copper sulfide mining operation within the Yellow Dog Plains of northwestern Marquette County. EPA notified the company that any underground disposal system at the mining site must comply with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act's federal Underground Injection Control program before construction and operation. The Safe Drinking Water Act is intended to protect underground sources of drinking water.

The UIC permitting process for the underground disposal system is EPA's only direct regulatory role in the Eagle mine project. EPA is conducting a technical evaluation of the permit application and supporting documents and expects to issue a draft decision before the end of the year. EPA will accept public comments and hold a public hearing when the draft decision is announced.

A copy of the permit application and more information about the Eagle mine project and the underground injection control program is available here

Other recent Kennecott news:

From Save the Wild UP: U.S. Fish and Wildlife requests EPA delay on Kennecott mine

From Save the Wild UP: Kennecott lacks state, Federal permits to proceed with mine plan

From the Michigan Land Use Institute: Mining Company Lobbied Hard in U.P., Lansing

New Report: "How the Oil Sands Got To The Great Lakes Basin"

As the price of oil has skyrocketed, new techniques of extracting oil are emerging. The tar sands of Alberta Canada are promising huge profits as the energy intensive oil extraction is now profitable. Right now 1.3 million barrels are being exported daily, this number is expected to increase to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2011 and eventually to 5 million barrels a day by 2030. This would turn Canada into one of the oil giants.

The problem with extracting oil from the tar sands is that it produces three times the amount of greenhouse gases than producing a regular barrel of oil. It is easily one of the dirtiest energy solutions around.

According to a report released today by The University of Toronto's Munk Centre entitled: "How the Oil Sands Got To The Great Lakes Basin," Canadian company Enbridge who is one of the major players in energy and oil transport are proposing a new network of pipelines and expansion of refineries to be located throughout the Great Lakes region.

This includes: "significantly expanding the refineries in Indiana, next to Chicago, as well as in other states and possibly Sarnia, Ontario." The Canadian oil industry has requested "more capacity out of the oil sands and into the U.S. Midwest markets." This would mean that crude oil would be piped to the Great Lakes region and would then have to be refined here, the results would mean more pollution in the Great Lakes region.

The report lists 17 major refinery expansions that are now either being considered, or already underway. Some of these include:

• Illinois (Conoco Phillips in Wood River, Exxon-Mobil in Joliet, and Marathon
Robinson in Robinson)
• Indiana (BP Products North America Inc. in Whiting)
• Kentucky (Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC in Cattletsburg)
• Michigan (Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC in Detroit)
• Minnesota (Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC in St. Paul Park)
• Ohio (BP Products North America Inc/Husky Energy Inc. in Toledo)
• Wisconsin (Murphy Oil USA Inc. in Superior)
• Ontario (Suncor in Sarnia).

One of the examples of increased air pollution is already being felt in Whiting, Indiana at British Petroleum's (BP) $3.8 billion refinery expansion. BP has applied for permits to increase daily discharges of suspended solids from 3,646 pounds per day to 4,925 pounds per day. Other byproducts that come with refining oil to gasoline is ammonia and sludge.

Other regional concerns included through the report are:

"the region already endures some of the worst pollution in Canada or 131,000 tonnes of air pollution a year. Industrial waste from Chemical Valley has feminized male snapping turtles in the St Clair River, turned 45 per cent of the whitefish in Lake St Clair 'intersexual' and exposed 2,000 members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation to a daily cocktail of 105 carcinogens and gender benders. The Ojibway [members of a First Nation who live in the area] are not faring much better than the snapping turtles or whitefish. In fact the number of newborn girls outnumbers boys by two to one on the reserve. Two thirds of the children have asthma while 40 percent of the women experience miscarriages. Calls for a thorough federal investigation have gone largely unheeded. Environment Canada never bothered to do a cumulative impact study and probably no responsible authority ever will."

"In Wood River, Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri, ConocoPhillips seeks to process Alberta Tar sands oil from EnCana Corporation as part of a $15 billion expansion that would also send processing to Texas. This project has been challenged by the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council; in June, 2008, the U.S. EPA determined that its Illinois counterpart didn’t adequately address air pollution questions raised during the permit process and reopened the project to further public comment."

"In Superior, Wisconsin, Murphy Oil is studying an oil sands-related expansion that citizens fear could damage 300 to 500 acres of wetlands. The project will consume 5 million gallons of water per day from Lake Michigan and boost the refinery’s energy demand 12-fold; the filling of the wetlands, according to one environmentalist, will be 'the largest wetlands filling in Wisconsin since the passage of the U.S. Clean Water Act
of 1972.'"

"In Detroit, a Marathon refinery is awaiting its final expansion permits; unlike other projects, this refinery does not discharge directly into the Great Lakes, but pre-treats its waste and then sends it to Detroit’s municipal treatment system before discharge. However, Detroit is already among the worst 10 (ranked ninth) U.S. cities for short-term particle pollution (the microscopic solids and liquid droplets that are often linked directly with health problems). In Toledo, Ohio, BP has an agreement with a Canadian company to expand its refinery and split the profits from processing oil sands, although no official
permit applications have been filed yet."

The report defines this pipeline as a pollution delivery system and uses a conservative estimate that this will bring an additional 2.3 million tonnes of additional greenhouse gas emissions a year, as well as "large-scale sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions – the building blocks of acid rain – as well as fine particulate matter, which is responsible for premature deaths. In addition, refineries use millions of litres of water per day. It is also worth noting that these would be refinery expansions, not replacements – in many, if not most cases, the old refineries with increasingly antiquated abatement equipment would be running side by side with the new expansion facilities."

Report: How the Oil Sands Got To The Great Lakes Basin

Live Webcast from the University of Toronto on How the Oil Sands Got To The Great Lakes Basin

Globe and Mail story: Oil sands will pollute Great Lakes, report warns

Should water be a commodity or a human right?

As the Great Lakes Compact works its way towards President Bush's desk, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been getting a lot of press lately for opposing the compact.

Stupak is concerned with water being defined as a commodity. Language in the current compact allows water to be exported in containers no larger than 5.7 gallons.

While the current language protects large water withdrawals, the fear is that current U.S. free trade agreements could strike down this arbitrary limit to the amount of water that can be taken from the Great Lakes if water is seen as a commodity.

The bigger controversy worldwide is over whether water should be considered a commodity and opened up to the free market, or is a human right that everyone deserves access to. In other words, who delivers the water and should they be able to profit from it?

The Economist has a debate going on right now over the following proposal: "Water, as a scarce resource, should be priced according to its market value."

The debate is between market advocate Steve J. Hoffmann, Managing Director of WaterTech Capital and co-founder of Palisades Water Index Associates and water rights advocate Vandana Shiva, Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy.

Steve J. Hoffmann's opening statement.

Vandana Shiva's opening statement.

Participate in the debate.