Monday, April 21, 2008

In The News

I used to practice perspective exercises -- I looked like I was staring out the window. Sometimes I would -- I would focus on the glass, then on the screen, then out the window. There are forsythia out there today. Back and forth and back. You have to look at the layers. You have to understand they are all part of the same sight -- you have to think about what you are looking through -- what you have to look through to see what you want to see...

For a while, I read and wrote about individual oil spills. I'm sure I will again. Today, the numbers strike me, though.


Kennebec Journal (April 19):

Andrews responds to an average of 170 spills a year (including gasoline, oil and chlorine). Some are only a gallon or two, but most are much larger, home heating oil spills, he said.

So far this year, 252 spills have been handled by DEP's Augusta regional office, where Andrews is based. Two dozen such specialists respond to spills throughout Maine.


All Africa.com (April 17):

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria, has said it is intensifying efforts to clean up oil spills on a section of its 16-inch Nun River - Kolo Creek trunkline that passes through Aguobiri community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The company said this in a statement made available to yesterday, adding that the facility, which evacuates crude oil from Nun River Flow station to Bonny, via the Trans Niger Pipeline system, was the target of 19 separate sabotage attacks in 2007.


The Wall Street Journal (April 19):

By its own admission, Petroecuador has since made an environmental mess in the Amazon, with some 1,000 oil spills in the past five years alone.

LA Times (April 2):

The state Fish and Game Department and the EPA are investigating alleged violations of environmental and safety laws. At the January hearing, county officials said the Fire Department has responded at least 400 times to oil spills and gas leaks at Greka since the energy company opened for business in 1999.

Those spills have sent more than 450,000 gallons of thick crude and polluted waters into creeks and soil, officials said. EPA regulators are supervising cleanups of spills or leaks at three Greka sites since Jan. 1, Wise said.


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