( And off course, Shell argues that this would not happen in South Africa )

Alarming study finds “fracking” chemicals in groundwater.

In a shock report that has sent shockwaves through the global oil and gas industry, the US Environmental Protection Agency has found fracking as the likely source of contamination of groundwater in the state of Wyoming, USA.

The finding is based on a three-year study of groundwater contamination near the town of Pavillion. 

The deep water well monitoring study  found that synthetic chemicals, such as glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production had been detected as well as  hydraulic fracturing fluids, including highly noxious benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards. The study also reported high methane levels. 

The EPA said in the report that it is “concerned about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.’ 

The report included the EPA findings on Private and Public Drinking Water Wells in the Pavillion area of Wyoming and confirmed that ‘chemicals detected in the most recent samples are consistent with those identified in earlier EPA samples and include methane, other petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds.”

“The presence of these compounds is consistent with migration from areas of gas production”

Treasure Karoo Action Group chairman, Jonathan Deal said, “This report is enormously significant in the debate on hydraulic fracturing in South Africa.
There are more than a thousand cases, especially in the US, where fracking is blamed for groundwater contamination, but the oil and gas industry consistently claim that that they are unaware of any documented cases. 
 
“The industry hides behind jargon and avoids the facts that are generally accepted  and in the public realm. 

“After this damning report, which follows other simmilar reports, it is no longer possible for those championing fracking to make the claim that they are unaware of documented cases of groundwater contamination,” he concluded.

* This report was prepared by Treasure Karoo Action Group

Had a terrific Halloween party and met a possible new friend. Repeated my buildering problem at some ungodly hour, picked flowers and made friends with all the cats in the neighbourhood. Watch some great movies, played pool, repeat. Swam. Slept.

Recovered.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”~ Anaïs Nin

It has become clear to me that I’m alone in my endeavours, not because there are no one else interested, but because out of fear of being alone I’ve clung to familiar friends, trying to convince them to be interested. Although they probably are, they don’t feel the same passion for the things that I want to do.

And that’s fine, really. I live & learn.

Now comes the exciting part, where I detach my endeavours from these known people: letting go of the safety of going places & doing things with a safety net. Exploring with the specific intent of finding my passion in life, hunting it down and killing it, before it kills me.

I’ve lined up a few little pet projects, all just for fun, just about exploring, meeting new people on unfamiliar ground and seeing what happens. A path chosen, destination: unknown.

The short version:
Wine tasting & selling if anybody is interested:

On my recent roadtrip to the Cape I got to know about some “bulk wine” of which I brought some home and it was generally a big hit among my friends. I decided to ship some more up here and have some fun - I’m going to do a little wine tasting & buy-if-you-like thing. I had a dry run with Elna testing out snacks with the wine and so forth:  it was a blast!! More to follow closer to the time.

Kefir quest:

My kefir growing & cultivating skills are exceeding my personal demand, so I’m going to increase the demand. I was thinking of a simple bartering deal – details to follow.

Guerrilla gardening:

Please do take the time to sign this petition, or any other that you know of: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/295/–if … onkerning/. Don’t be polite, tell these people to fuck off. If we don’t stand together and in a united voice tell them and whoever follows to shove their drills where the sun don’t shine, we’ll lose the place forever. If you need any convincing, go google “fracking” and see how they have ALREADY destroyed many pieces of land, but still claim it’s safe. Don’t leave the Karoo people to fight this alone, it affects us all.

Fracking the Karoo – The People Say No!
By Julienne du Toit
Somerset East; Jan 31, 2011
“Do you know what fracking the Karoo is like?” demanded Esme Senekal of Somerset East. The people from Royal Dutch Shell and their consultants didn’t reply, their faces impassive.
“It’s like you coming and drilling holes in our mother, and then leaving us to look after her and take her to hospital. Leave the Karoo alone!

Heaven forbid
“This is the last piece of holy nature in this country. No money is worth this. You can’t replace pristine nature with money.”
The surrounding sunburnt Karoo farmers, not a group usually given to high emotion, loudly applauded her.
The public meeting, organised by Shell’s consultants, Golder Associates (slogan: “Engineering Earth’s development, protecting Earth’s integrity”), was held at the Somerset East Town Hall, and started with a prayer to protect God’s creation, nature.
Most of the attendees bowing their heads were farmers who face the possibility of losing everything if, heaven forbid, shale gas is found under their farms – or for that matter, anywhere in the Karoo.
The municipality, which has just as much to lose since Somerset East depends completely on groundwater, had sent not a single representative. In fact, most Karoo towns depend wholly on groundwater, as do farmers.
What the Frack?

Fracking is simply this: it is a process of drilling 1 to 5 km under the surface to a layer of shale where natural gas is trapped. Using millions of litres of water, sand and an array of chemicals (many of which are carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting or just plain toxic), the rock is repeatedly fractured by high-pressure explosions underground, allowing the gas to be collected. Tens of thousands of wells have been dug in 32 American states, Canada, Australia and many other parts of the world, and a groundswell of popular protest has started.
This is because groundwater has frequently been contaminated as a result, either with methane or the chemicals.
Just Google ‘fracking’ (short for hydraulic fracturing) on the internet and you’ll be hard put to choose between the hundreds of heartrending accounts and YouTube videos from all around the world. Ordinary people who have experienced this method of gas extraction close to their homes have recorded their experiences.
Poison, radioactivity, contamination

They are horror stories. The water coming out of their taps becomes flammable, contaminated with methane and oil, undrinkable. They suffer strange lesions, cancers, tumours. Their livestock is poisoned, sometimes with radioactive substances brought up from underground as waste material. Arsenic and other substances poison their vegetables and crops.
Each account is a little different, but almost every one mentions the fact that the oil and gas companies who came to drill and fracture the earth assured them that it was safe.
Shell did the same to this crowd, but the attendees had done their homework and remained completely sceptical except for one emerging farmer who asked hopefully about job creation.
No benefits, only risk

Shell at least had the good grace not to even pretend there will be jobs or any benefit whatsoever to the community. The only ones to benefit will be Government (which owns any and all minerals, gas and oil underground) and Shell, and they admitted as much.
Again and again Shell were asked if they could give an assurance (and to back it with money) that groundwater and therefore the health, livelihoods, communities and towns in the Karoo would not be affected. All Adam Dodson could say was that Shell had never any incident of contamination while doing exploratory fracking.
He also said the Government was the only recourse for compensation of any kind. There was a stifled groan from the crowd.

Rupert to the Rescue?

A few of those attending told me they were buoyed by the front page story in the Afrikaans weekly, Rapport (30 January 2011), which had come out the day before. In it, industrial giant Johann Rupert (no stranger to mining, but a man who has property and roots in the Karoo – in particular the Graaff-Reinet area) pinned his colours to the mast.
“We are not against responsible exploration or extraction; we are against Russian roulette.”
Rupert gave his assurance that he and his family will be fully involved in the battle against Shell to the bitter end, and added they will not be using Shell products.
Not a Clue

Wherever public meetings have been held in the Karoo (including Graaff-Reinet and Hofmeyr), angry community members asking pertinent questions came away with nothing.
According to Adam Dodson, Shell’s Unconventional Oil & Gas Exploration Manager (New Ventures), they still have no idea where the millions of litres of water needed for fracking will come from. Possibilities at this stage included treated surface water (for which read sewage), deep saline aquifers or seawater trucked in by train.
They also could not say which of the chemicals would be used underground, what quantity remained underground after fracking (in other parts of the world, between 20% and 40% have been found to remain).
In fact, Shell and Golder made it clear there would be no real answers at all – this was just the first phase of a very long campaign.
“You’ll be seeing us a lot,” Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates assured the discontented crowd.
The Karoo lives on Groundwater

Also present at the meeting was Ernest Pringle, president of Agri-Eastern Cape and a farmer in the affected district. He stood up in front of the meeting to emphasise the importance of groundwater. The recent crippling drought in the Bedford and Somerset East region was just a reminder, he said.
“I spent all my time trying to pump up more groundwater to keep going. So we want to know with certainty what the effects will be to the underground water supply.”
When asked if there was any kind of possibility that contamination could happen, Dodson pursed his lips and looked down.
Dr Fiona Brown, who also farms nearby, implored Shell to use the precautionary principle.
Radioactive Karoo

“You know nothing about the Karoo’s groundwater and how aquifers are interconnected. No one does. And you don’t know what can go wrong.”
Shell and Golder representatives were unmoved. Tisha Greyling of Golder conceded that there will, inevitably, be unhappy people.
One of the things that can go wrong of course, is that the Karoo is riddled with uranium, and the chance of raising radioactive waste rock to the surface is better than excellent.
Still, despite the complete lack of information coming from Shell or Golder Associates, a few eyebrow-raising facts did come through. One was that Shell was not alone in wanting to frack the Karoo. Just south of their concession was Falcon Oil & Gas’s one. This American company received a permit from the Petroleum Agency of South Africa late last year.

Attack of the Falcon
Their concession area covers a slightly narrower band than Shell’s band including the towns of Merweville, Leeu Gamka, Rietbron, Jansenville and Aberdeen. Sasol and other companies are looking at another broad swathe northwards, including Bloemfontein and surrounds.
Also, they revealed that the long term plan for the gas was that it would be used for power stations to be set up across the Karoo (with the attendant power lines, substations and the rest).
After the repeated entreaties for Shell to drop the bid or to rather look into solar and wind energy, the last ominous word on the matter came from Tisha Greyling of Golder Associates.
“If it’s not Shell, it will be someone else.”

(Thanks Fridge)

Prospecting on the Vaal (News24):  “A controversial mining company has been given the rights to go prospecting for coal in at least 162 spots next to the Vaal River.   

The Department of Mining awarded the prospecting rights without notifying landowners next to the river – something that is required by law.

Environmental experts agreed that it could lead to coal mines next to the Vaal River and that this would mean an ecological disaster for South Africa’s most important river.”

And yes, the aforementioned mining company has ties to President Zuma.

Another mining house is moving in on Bronkhorstspruit (News24): “….a mining company which wants to start an open-pit coal mine bigger than 1 000 rugby fields in the Wilge River catchment area right outside the town.

Duvenhage said on Facebook if Muhanga Mines were allowed to mine in this ecologically sensitive area, 21 natural springs would either dry up or be polluted with acidic mine water.

According to a report by an independent environmental expert ….. ‘No area can ever be completely rehabilitated after mining’”

The Exxaro mining company has been told to cease it’s Mooifontein operations AFTER they managed to (translated from Beeld) “almost completely destroy the wetland. Environmental specialists estimate that it would cost R200m – R400m to rehabilitate the wetland to some degree”

(Aside: Exxaro subsequently denied having be told to halt operations - more on that here. Furthemore, there are widespread concern over the apparent gross over estimation of our coal reserves – read more on that here and here. )

Our electricity problems in recent years ( our governments’ other shining example of resource mismanagement) was a national joke. But I don’t think it would be so funny if there are no more water left to drink – hard to make fun of that.

I believe, and please feel free to amend and add, we need:

• A zero tolerance attitude on water pollution from the president down to the municipal managers of sewerage plants.
• Adherence and strict enforcement of current law. No prospecting along rivers: Prospecting = future mining.
• Aggressive and visible action with regards to current problems.
• New legislation where needed to address loopholes and grey areas, as soon as possible. Looking at the acid mine water disaster unfolding in Gauteng and the Exxaro Mooifontein closure, it’s clear that what’s done can never be truly undone – we need to stop doing the damage first and then try to fix it later.

 Please help if you can:

• I’ve requested campaigns to be launched at www.activist.co.za and www.avaaz.org. Please encourage them to take action and launch a campaign on our behalf by either posting a comment of support on this site or contacting them directly and also requesting a campaign to be launched. Make up your own email, or use this as a template:

Hi

Please launch a campaign on the behalf of concerned South African water users. Our government is not doing enough.

I (we) believe <and please feel free to amend and add> we need:

- A zero tolerance attitude on water pollution from the president down to the municipal managers of sewerage plants.
- Adherence and strict enforcement of current law. No prospecting along rivers: Prospecting = future mining.
- Aggressive and visible action with regards to current problems.
New legislation where needed to address loopholes and grey areas, as soon as possible.

See an article on http://www.chicks-dig-scars.com/a-run-on-our-water for some details of current problems, some links to sources, messages of support etc.

• Pass this information along to your friends & family. It might be common knowledge to you, but some people are blissfully unaware of country’s water woes.

 I for one would like to be able to swim in (at least some of) our rivers.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

Photo by Nico van Wyk. The Wilge river running through the Ezemvelo reserve are among the rivers threatened by planned mining activities.

Swimming in the Wilge rivier

The end of seafood by 2048?
The ocean without fish.
Your meals without seafood.
Imagine the global consequences.
 
Narrated by Ted Danson this award winning, groundbreaking film reveals the impact of overfishing on our oceans. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.

PS: Be sure to keep an eye out how the guys breeding GM fish will use this as an excuse to further their cause, say NO!

Many have noted following our electricity problems in the past year that our water systems are next in line for serious breakdowns. Well, it seems that time has come

News 24: “The Environment and Conservation Association said in a statement on Tuesday that it was estimated that in five years, almost 80% of the country’s fresh water resources would be so badly polluted that no process of purification available in the country would be able to clean it sufficiently to make it fit for human or animal consumption.

“Almost 56% of the products we consume rely directly on the supply of clean healthy water, and if this water is not available, those products cannot be produced.

“Water affects every single part of our daily lives and without it we cannot survive. We cannot eat and we will be left in a country made barren by pollution.”

So why do we have this problem? It’s nothing new, various agencies has been reporting on this issue over several years already. Recently Carte Blanche aired an insert about our acid water problem caused by mining in Gauteng. “57 Million litres of toxic water will be looking for a place to surface every day.”

Another Carte Blanche feature focused on Iscor: “ISCOR is one of the world’s most lucrative steel producers. In Vanderbijl Park alone, Iscor’s profit is almost half a billion rand each year.

But this profit comes at a cost. People living in the vicinity of the Vanderbijl Park plant say they have lost everything: their health, their livelihood and their loved ones. And they cannot afford to move out.”

Even sport has been affected, with one of the world’s most famous canoe races (the Dusi canoe marathon) tainted with a reputation of “Dusi guts” - “diarrhoea and/or vomiting. Duct conducted a survey among competitors which found that 45% of the Dusi 2008 participants became ill.”

Pollution is caused by indutrial pollution and mismanaged (or in some case even unmanaged) waste water plants. With regards to our drinking water, the water treatment plants are a huge headache - firstly they are adding to the pollution by dumping untreated water in our rivers and secondly they are barely capable of cleaning the water to start of with.

And this shit will not be made public by government: ”The Green Drop Report—an audit of 449 of South Africa’s 852 municipal WWTWs, conducted between August 2008 and July 2009 — was released, after long delays, in April this year.

According to the document, a total of 403 facilities were not assessed due to, among others, “municipal officials not sufficiently confident in their levels of competence” and “municipalities not managing waste water services according to expected requirements”.

Among the parliamentary questions posed to Sonjica—by Democratic Alliance MP Annette Lovemore—was whether information for all WWTWs would be made available to the public, and if not, why not.

The minister replied: “No, such detail [sic] information is not available to the public. Revealing details of such a high technical nature will lead to unnecessary additional administrative challenges and serious misinterpretation.”

And lastly, some people just don’t care: “The owners of Rocky drift Nature Reserve are planning to develop the reserve and are requesting authorisation to subdivide the land into 40 free hold stands for holiday homes. In addition they would like to build a 20 bed lodge and a 10 tent luxury campsite, and includes an application to extract surface water from the Joubert Spruit and return sewage system outflows to the spruit.”

 Sooooo, what can you do?

I guess save yourself, investigate and invest in a grey water solution. Otherwise I have not been able to turn up much. There are no real initiatives out there that I could find, apart from Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment that’s “bringing court action and preparing documents against the department of water affairs” according to the Financial Mail – make sure to visit the Federation for a Sustainable Environment site to support them

More than that you could probably try and pressure your local council representative, good luck with that. Perhaps pop a mail to Mark@TheActivist.co.za , they’ve have had some success with petitions, and if enough people approach them to start one it might well be worth it.

That leaves 4 songs to go….

In other news, there’s a Boven trip coming up next weekend, remember you may not ever get another chance!  

I’ve added a page for all things green, and kicked it off with some info on where you can drop off plastic to get it recycled. Hope to expand it with some more hard-to-find goodies.

And then some bad news: Woolworths did not keep to their promise – here an email from Mark who drives the campaign:

“Woolworths claims that the premium on free-range eggs has nearly tripled since June and this has prevented them from delivering on their promise to switch to free-range eggs.

Their first official commitment to us (in writing) was for the first 70 products to be rolled out in April 2010, a second wave to be announced in June 2010, and a new liquid egg factory to be built as a matter of top priority – so that they could expedite the complete changeover within 2 years. They’ve sent lists and plans, yet nothing has materialised.

We are going to meet Woolworths in August to find out more about this delay and report back to you.

Mark Fox (mark@activist.co.za)”

And that’s all the laundry, some clean and some not so clean.

“Those subterranean seas of methane virtually reshaped the planet when they explosively blew from deep beneath the waters of what is today called the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, worried scientists are increasingly concerned the same series of catastrophic events that led to worldwide death back then may be happening again-and no known technology can stop it.

The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.

The oil giant drilled down miles into a geologically unstable region and may have set the stage for the eventual premature release of a methane mega-bubble.

The warning signs of an impending planetary catastrophe—of such great magnitude that the human mind has difficulty grasping it-would be the appearance of large fissures or rifts splitting open the ocean floor, a rise in the elevation of the seabed, and the massive venting of methane and other gases into the surrounding water.

All three warning signs are documented to be occurring in the Gulf.”

They reckon it could all be over in 6 months time. Both BP and the US federal government is serious about keeping scientists and reporters away with threats of fines of up to $40 000 and / or federal charges, yet some of the fissures have been spotted by civilian vessels up to 30 miles away.

Methinks it’s time to watch less TV and do some stuff outside while one still can.