SkyTruth

SkyTruth Testifies Before Congress On Fracking Disclosure

2013-05-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

SkyTruth founder and president John Amos testified yesterday before the House Natural Resources Committee regarding our work on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) chemical disclosure, and the Bureau of Land Management's upcoming decision on regulating drilling and fracking on 750 million acres of public and Tribal lands.

The hearing was entitled "DOI Hydraulic Fracturing Rule: A Recipe for Government Waste, Duplication and Delay." Our testimony addressed the need for public disclosure of chemicals used in fracking. We think this should be accomplished on a user friendly, government operated website that encourages public use and sharing of the data without any restrictions, and allows easy aggregation and bulk download of the data.

Watch the full hearing at C-SPAN - John's testimony begins 39:00

John's full written testimony can be found here.

Data fans: check out our fracking chemical database and show us what you can do.

A Fragmented Divide? Simulating Gas Development in the Thompson Divide

2013-05-02T17:43:00.000-04:00

Top: Aerial photo taken October 2012 of the Yank Creek watershed in the Thompson Divide, a wilderness area located in western Colorado. Credit: Jane Pargiter - EcoFlight

Bottom: SkyTruth simulation of the same area of the Thompson Divide overlain with simulated five-acre well pads and new service roads (in white). To see more views of our simulation, click here.

Recently, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced they would temporarily suspend 25 oil and gas leases in the Thompson Divide, a wild swath of backcountry covering 221,500 acres of public land in western Colorado. Because the lease holders did not diligently develop these leases and are running out of time on their ten-year lease terms, they asked BLM for an extension. While this decision paused the clock on drilling for natural gas in this rugged portion of the White River National Forest, our friends at the Wilderness Workshop and Thompson Divide Coalition, as well as thousands of people from around the country, were pressing for BLM to allow the leases to expire this year.

The Lake Ridge unit of the Thompson Divide is a high quality backcountry dominated by roadless areas reaching from the Sunlight Ski Area (south of Glenwood Springs) in the north to McClure Pass (between Carrbondale and Paonia) in the south. It is heavily forested, spans five watersheds, and provides valuable habitat for lynx, mountain lion, bear, moose, native cutthroat trout, and elk. Recreation, grazing, hunting and fishing in the area brings $30 million a year to Colorado's economy. However, developing gas in this region would require intensive horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and new roads would have to be built in roadless areas.

Looking southwest over our simulation of drilling in the Lake Ridge Unit of Thompson Divide from north of the Sunlight Ski Area. To see more views of our simulation, click here.

Surface disturbance, habitat fragmentation, persistent noise, air and water pollution, heavy truck traffic, and industrial accidents are some of the issues the U.S. Forest Service and BLM will have to consider in their environmental analysis of the impact that drilling will have on this public land. To help visualize what this unconventional gas development could look like in this unfragmented swath of backcountry, we traced out access roads and 132 five-acre well pads onto Google Earth imagery of the Lake Ridge Unit west of Carbondale.

Looking north over the Thompson Divide with Carbondale to the northeast. To see more views of our simulation, click here.

While gas wells, roads, pipelines, compressor stations and other infrastructure would fragment the Thompson Divide, a wide range of stakeholders and citizen groups have joined together out of concern for this valuable resource. Local citizens have united with the goal of preserving the existing value and uses of the Thompson Divide, and we hope our simulation will help put in perspective what the future could look like if the leases are developed when BLM's suspension ends on April 1, 2014.

Watch the video below to take an aerial tour of Thompson Divide as it looks today.

A Divide United from Peter McBride on Vimeo.

Landslide at Bingham Canyon Mine - Satellite Image

2013-04-25T18:48:00.000-04:00

The spectacular landslide that shook the earth at the Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine in Utah on April 10 has been captured in an equally spectacular high-resolution satellite image taken on April 18. The image below is a humble reduced-resolution version; to see the real thing in all it's lovely detail, check out this week's WorldView Report from DigitalGlobe:

High-resolution satellite image taken April 18, 2013, showing landslide in Bingham Canyon mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. Source: WorldView Report from DigitalGlobe.

This issue of WorldView also has an image of the fertilizer facility -- and surrounding neighborhood -- near Waco, Texas that was leveled in a deadly explosion, caught here on a cell-phone video. Watch this in full-screen mode to get a feel for how catastrophic this was -- and maybe a new appreciation for the lifesaving value of good zoning laws.

GMC Monitoring Flight - Mobile, Al to Gulfport, MS: Part I - Coal Export and Terminals

2013-04-25T12:24:00.001-04:00

On March 24 staff from Gulf Monitoring Consortium members SkyTruth, SouthWings, and Gulf Restoration Network flew over the Alabama and Mississippi coastline investigating pollution and degradation related to energy development. Our flight originated from Mobile, arranged by SouthWings with local volunteer pilot Dr. David Mauritson generously donating his time, talents, and fuel to our monitoring efforts.

First, we flew over the Port of Mobile which dominated the landscape immediately after takeoff from the Brookley Aeroplex. The port boasts the McDuffie Coal Terminal, one of the nation's largest coal import-export terminals. In addition to several smaller facilities nearby, McDuffie can handle a staggering 30 million tons of coal in a year, but in the past year they processed *just* 13.9 million tons - only 46% of capacity. These numbers are of interest because of the intensifying debate over coal export. With cheap natural gas flooding the market from fracking plays like the Marcellus Shale, there is growing pressure to sell American coal overseas to foreign markets - particularly Asia and Europe.

McDuffie Coal Terminal on the south end of the Port of Mobile, supplied by coal from from as far away as Wyoming - most of which is transported by rail. Photo: D. Manthos - SkyTruth, via SouthWings

Only one vessel was loading coal at the time of our flight, the Panama-flagged Grand Diva. This operation was depositing a black plume of coal dust in the water.

Plume of coal dust in the water (NRC Report #1042025) off the starboard bow of the Germany-bound Grand Diva. Photo: D. Manthos - SkyTruth, via SouthWings

As an individual case, this may not result in a significant impact on the environment. But a brief review of Google Earth's historical imagery yields two previous events clearly showing coal in the water, and several other less-clear images that appear to show pollution, suggesting this is a common event that may result in significant cumulative impact.

Air pollution is another consideration. Chronic coal-dust blowing off the stockpiles at a coal terminal are the basis of a Clean Water Act lawsuit in Seward, Alaska, and one of the main arguments throughout the Pacific Northwest against expanding coal export terminals to move more Powder River Basin coal from Wyoming to Asian markets. This is only one step along the way from mine to market - coal trains derail far more often than you might think (in North Dakota, Michigan, and Nebraska, just this past month), loaded barges crash into bridges (just this week), terminals flood when severe storms come through, and ships even crash into the loading docks. Not counting carbon emissions from burning the coal, scientists, environmentalists, and concerned citizens along coal transport routes are worried that these cumulative impacts will harm public health, disrupt their daily lives, and negatively impact the ecological health of waterways along the path from mine to port.

Bulk transport by barge is cheaper and more fuel efficient than even freight rail, but extreme weather events exaggerated by climate change threaten its reliability. Last year's drought crippled transport on the Mississippi River at the end of 2012, and without significant rain river operators could face another low water crisis in 2013.

More to come including a leaky settling pond, an oil slick off Gulfport, and severe erosion resulting from ill-conceived oil spill response practices on Dauphin Island. Be sure to check out the photos of the whole flight on Flickr.

Major Earthquake This Weekend Hits Sichuan, China

2013-04-22T16:36:00.000-04:00

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck near the city of Longmenxiang, in the western portion of China's Sichuan province. It did considerable damage, killing nearly 200 people and injuring more than 11,000. This area is very active seismically. In 2008, a much more powerful quake struck about 90 miles to the northeast, killing nearly 70,000 people, including many children who were crushed when poorly built schools collapsed.

SkyTruth Alerts screen-capture showing the locations of foreshocks and aftershocks of greater than 5.0 magnitude around the magnitude 6.6 quake that struck in western Sichuan Province, China, on April 20, 2013.

You may know that through our SkyTruth Alerts system we publish regularly refreshed data on oil and gas drilling activity, fracking chemical disclosures, and oil and hazardous materials spills and other pollution incidents reported here in the US. But we also publish notifications from the US Geological Survey for any earthquake in the world large than magnitude 5.0. Here's what our Alerts map looks like for the area around the April 20 temblor. Six separate quakes over 5.0 magnitude occurred in the immediate vicinity of the main 6.6 quake. Two occurred slightly before the main shock; the other four are aftershocks. Look for the small green squares on the image above, or go to SkyTruth Alerts, type "Longmenxiang, China" into the search bar, and see for yourself.

Landslide at Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah

2013-04-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen photos of the massive landslide that struck Utah's Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine on April 10, check out the story and accompanying photo gallery at the Deseret News, and these spectacular photos at the Kennecott Utah Copper page on Facebook.

Aerial shot of landslide in Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine near Salty Lake City, Utah. Photo courtesy Kennecott Utah Copper via Facebook.

Happily, nobody was hurt in this astonishing incident; mine operators had plenty of warning this section of the pit was failing. But some of the massive mining equipment was damaged, and mining activity was halted for a few days. Check out these giant mining trucks, looking like scattered Matchbox toys under the pile of debris:

Mining trucks partly buried by landslide. Photo courtesy Deseret News.

Here's an aerial overview of the mine and landslide. The mining pit is about2-1/2 miles across at it's widest, and more than half a mile deep:

Aerial view of landslide. Photo courtesy Deseret News.

I've attempted to re-create the view above using the pre-landslide imagery in Google Earth:

Pre-landslide view from Google Earth.

Stepping back a bit, it's interesting to see how close this mining operation is to residential neighborhoods on the western outskirts of Salt Lake City; especially the 9,000 acre (14 square mile) tailings impoundment located on the banks of Great Salt Lake about 15 miles north of the mining pit. Earthworks details some of the environmental problems and public health risks in this brief report [PDF].

You can explore this area with high-resolution imagery from 2010 in Google Earth and Google Maps. And here is a super-detailed view of the area that failed from Bing Maps -- maybe you mining engineers out there can identify the fault or other structural weakness that lead to the failure. Let us know if you see anything interesting!

North is to the right in the pre-landslide Google Earth images below:

Panoramic overview of the Bingham Canyon mining operation, looking west. Salt Lake City suburbs fill the lower third of the view. Great Salt Lake at upper right.

Vertical view from 2010 imagery showing the active mining pit.

Vertical view from 2010 imagery showing the 9,000-acre tailings impoundment. Note residential area at lower left, between SkyTruth logo and the impoundment.

95-Mile-Long Slick in the Gulf of Mexico?

2013-04-16T17:47:00.000-04:00

This report on SkyTruth's handy pollution Alerts system caught my eye yesterday afternoon:

SUSPECTED SLICK IS SEEN AS LONG NARROW PLUME APPROXIMATELY 95 MILES LONG AND 1 MILE OR LESS WIDE.

That sounds like bilge-dumping from a passing vessel -- an activity that is illegal in US waters (and much of the rest of the world). Intrepid SkyTruth intern Patrick busted somebody for bilge-dumping off Angola last year using satellite radar imagery and AIS data. The report was submitted to the Coast Guard-operated National Response Center by image analysts at NOAA. We're thrilled that they've started reporting their analyses of possible pollution incidents to the NRC, so we can easily incorporate them into our Alerts system. (We like to think our Gulf Monitoring Consortium activity helped spur NOAA to get their experts into the game in a more public way.)

NOAA's analysts now think it's probably not oil; more likely it's natural surfactant caught in the convergence zone between two water masses. I agree; this is close to the edge of a loop current now in the northeastern part of the Gulf. And bilge-dump slicks usually look a lot sharper than this (see a slideshow of our examples from radar imagery).

Here's detail from a MODIS/Terra satellite image taken at 16:50 UTC on April 14, 2013, showing the apparent slick.

Location map showing detail from MODIS/Terra satellite image taken on April 14, 2013.

Detail from MODIS/Terra satellite image of slick (dark, east-west trending streak) probably caused by natural surfactants accumulating along the convergence zone between ocean currents.

Panama Canal Getting Bigger. Much Bigger.

2013-04-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!

It's not just a quaint anagram. In this age of relentlessly expanding global commerce, Panama has been planning ahead, and is investing billions of dollars in supersizing the canal (photo gallery here) to allow the passage of the new breed of supersized cargo ships. Even more coal mined from Appalachian mountains and Montana/Wyoming prairies -- and possibly natural gas extracted from shale by hydraulic fracturing -- will likely be shipped to Asia and other markets once this expansion work is completed.

The global warming-driven decline in Arctic sea ice might divert some of the cargo traffic Panama is counting on to pay for this expansion, if the Northwest Passage becomes a viable trade route. So in a bit of irony, by feeding the world's addiction to fossil fuels, Panama may be undercutting its business plan. Just sayin.

Here are a couple of images from Google Earth showing the area around the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal near the Gatun Locks, as it appeared in 2005 and with the expansion project well underway in 2012.

Panama Canal near Gatun, in 2005.

Panama Canal near Gatun, in 2012. Expansion of canal in progress to accommodate much larger 'New Panamax' cargo vessels.

Coal Export Terminal - Norfolk, Virginia

2013-04-12T09:55:00.000-04:00

Every couple of weeks or so, the folks at DigitalGlobe/Geoeye publish a newsletter featuring various examples of recent high-resolution satellite imagery from around the world. This is always an interesting, and often jaw-dropping, little publication to look through. Among other things the latest edition features stunning imagery of Egyptian temples and offshore oil platforms, the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, and this massive coal-export terminal near Norfolk,Virginia:

High-resolution satellite image of coal-export terminal in Virginia. Download the WorldView Report from DigitalGlobe to see a much bigger version of this image.

As the market for coal-fired electricity generation here in North America shrinks due to the rise of cheap natural gas-fired power (thanks to fracking for shale-gas), exports of coal from the US to overseas markets in Europe and Asia are sharply increasing. This booming export market is propping up the continued destruction of Appalachian mountains by mountaintop removal mining. It's also fueling a rash of coal-train derailments impacting health and safety in communities across the nation, some far removed from the coal-mining areas and the export terminals.

As if we needed more reasons to reduce our crippling dependence on fossil fuels.

Support FOIA-Matic: A Tool for Pollution Response Transparency

2013-03-28T13:00:00.001-04:00

Want to know what action the government takes when pollution is reported in the Gulf Region? Help us win support from the Knight News Challenge for our FOIA-matic online tool allowing citizens of the Gulf Coast to easily submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Every day, SkyTruth Alerts users with subscriptions to the Gulf of Mexico get a litany of pollution reports, but now we have a chance at a share of $5 million dollars to build a tool to find out the rest of the story - and we need your help! The BP Gulf Oil Spill in 2010 attracted media attention from all over the world; but what about the dozens of spills, everything from 6 mile-long oil slicks to a few drops of crude oil, that are reported daily to the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center (NRC)?

To help citizens to find out how the Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responded to pollution reports, we are proposing FOIA-matic, a new feature to be added to Louisiana Bucket Brigade's iWitness Pollution Map and our Gulf Oil Spill Tracker. This simple tool will enable anyone to easily submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Coast Guard and EPA to find out if there was any response or enforcement to a pollution report.

FOIA-matic, our proposal to the Knight News Challenge on Open Government, is open for feedback until 5 p.m. E.D.T. on Friday, April 29th. Please click the link below and let us know what you think! Offer suggestions how the tool might work, discuss issues the project needs to account for, and let us know how you might benefit from such a tool.

FOIA-Matic: A One-Click Interface for Gulf Pollution Response

The more feedback and constructive conversation on our entry, the better our chances to win a share of $5 million dollars in funding to build this resource. Providing your comments and applauding our entry requires you to "join the challenge," either by logging in with Facebook or a valid email address, but please take a few minutes to help make this tool a reality!

UPDATE 4/12/2013: Thanks for all your support -- we attracted many positive comments and "applauds" -- but did not get promoted to the finals. However, we are pursuing other avenues for getting this idea funded.

Alaska Oil Spill Detected Using Google? Maybe...

2013-03-25T16:52:00.000-04:00

Tip o' the hat to blogger Michael Cote, who was scrutinizing the imagery in Google Maps around the ConocoPhillips "Alpine"oil field on the North Slope (we like to know we're not the only ones who think this is a fun thing to do). He saw something unusual that he thought might be a small, unreported oil spill, and wrote about it on his blog. Now he's learned more and thinks it's probably not an oil spill, but since this has gotten lots of attention online, I thought you'd like to see it and get our take:

Possible small oil spill found on Google Maps imagery of Alaska? Image and analysis by Michael Cote. Read more on his blog.

The Google imagery at this location is a high-resolution DigitalGlobe satellite image shot in July 2012. I can't say with any certainty if the dark smudge in the water is, or isn't, oil. Michael says a ConocoPhillips spokesman told him it was a "shadow from the river bottom" which is very unlikely (Alaskan rivers are typically very silt-laden and opaque; this river appears typical in that regard, so I doubt we're actually seeing the river bottom). Whatever it is, it's a very small feature, about 150 feet long.

I think this dark patch is most likely wind shadow: a calm patch of water on the downwind side of a topographic (or human-made) obstruction that appears darker than surrounding, wind-rippled, sun-glinty water. Moving upstream and downstream, you encounter many dark streaks and patches on the river that indicate a strong, uniform wind blowing from the northeast. But oilfield infrastructure is often grimy and oily, and it wouldn't be surprising if there was some light oily sheen emanating from this infrastructure and enhancing the water-flattening effect of wind shadow on the downwind side of this facility.

Nevertheless, it's great to see people using these tools to adopt a patch of planet Earth to watch over, and investigate things for themselves. If you feel like trying a bit of skytruthing, check out the imagery in Google Maps and Google Earth -- and the millions of free Landsat satellite images, while you're at it! -- and let us know if you see something interesting, something mysterious, something you'd like us to take a look at!

Landsat-8 Continues 40 Years of Earth Observation

2013-03-25T16:15:00.000-04:00

Well, we are absolutely thrilled here at SkyTruth that the new Landsat-8 satellite (also known in classic NASA-speak as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission) appears to be functioning perfectly following it's flawless launch in early February. Check out these sharp-looking pics of the Colorado Front Range.

Landsat-8 satellite image of Fort Collins, Colorado, taken on March 18, 2013. Images courtesy NASA.

This extends a stellar run of continuous earth-observation going back to the launch of Landsat-1 in 1972. The millions of images collected since then -- all publicly available, for free -- constitute a remarkable record and database for measuring changes in landscapes and ecosystems around the world. Of course, here at SkyTruth we make extensive use of Landsat images to track and illustrate the impacts of human activities like coal and tar sands mining, oil and gas drilling and fracking, and logging.

Back when I started my remote-sensing career, Landsat images were sold through a for-profit company that charged $4,400 per image (even though the entire system was taxpayer-built and operated). Happily, now you can download every single Landsat image for free and do your own skytruthing. Let us know what you find!

BP On Trial - Finally

2013-02-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

At long last BP is finally standing trial (before a single judge, not a jury) for civil damages caused by their catastrophic blowout in the Gulf of Mexico nearly three years ago. That blowout caused an explosion and fire on the massive Deepwater Horizon drill rig that killed 11 workers, injured many others, and sent the rig to the ocean floor nearly a mile below. And the resulting oil spill was the nation's worst to date, spewing some 172 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf.

In-situ burning of oil slicks during spill response operations in the Gulf of Mexico, June 22, 2010. Photo courtesy Dr. Oscar Garcia, Florida State University.

Assuming BP and their partners don't come to a settlement with the Justice Department, the trial is expected to last throughout most of 2013. But don't hit the snooze button just yet: this could get very interesting. The trial will be conducted in two phases. The first phase, underway now, will assign the share of blame for this tragedy among the defendants (BP, Transocean and Halliburton; right now they're all doing their level best to deflect as much of the blame as possible onto each other). It will also decide if, as government lawyers are arguing, BP acted with "gross negligence." That's a key ruling because it ramps up the fine BP will pay from the standard $1,100 per barrel spilled, to $4,300 per barrel. Under the RESTORE Act that Congress passed last year, 80% of that fine will go toward funding restoration projects in the Gulf region. As we wrote back in February 2012,

...federal prosecutors will attempt to paint BP as a "rogue" operator that took unusual risks, to convince the judge that the spill resulted from gross negligence. BP, to defend itself, will likely claim that their operations, well design, and decisionmaking were not so unusual, and were consistent with industry-wide practices. To make that case BP will have to present lots of information about the offshore drilling industry as a whole, including the safety record, accidents and near-misses experienced by other companies that we never hear about. None of the official investigations of the BP / Deepwater Horizon spill looked at the industrywide record, leaving many of us wondering:

Just how risky is modern offshore drilling?

Given Shell's serial blundering during their Arctic drilling program last year -- problems so severe they just announced today that they've scrapped the entire program for 2013 -- we have to wonder if BP is truly a "rogue" or if their level of risk-taking is more or less the norm throughout the offshore oil industry.

By the way, I'm somewhat dismayed at this statement yesterday by the Chairman and President of BP America, Lamar McKay, that suggests BP has a long way to go when it comes to establishing an effective safety culture:

I think that's a shared responsibility, to manage the safety and the risk. Sometimes contractors manage that risk. Sometimes we do. Most of the time it's a team effort.

I'm not a risk-management expert but it's my understanding that this diffusion of responsibility, and unclear definition of authority, is exactly the kind of management muddle that leads to major system failures. In other words, somebody has to clearly be in charge at all times.

The second phase of the trial will determine how much oil spilled into Gulf waters, the key to determining how big a fine BP will pay and how much money will go toward Gulf restoration. That will pit lawyers against scientists. Place your bets.

Thar She Blows! Another Oil "Geyser" in Gulf of Mexico

2013-02-27T15:56:00.001-05:00

According to news accounts and reports coming through the SkyTruth Alerts system, a work boat struck a wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico about 9 miles southwest of Port Sulphur, Louisiana, about 8pm on Tuesday. [NOTE: keep your distance - this well poses a hydrogen sulfide risk.] The well has been intermittently discharging an oily mixture ever since, in a semi-spectacular way judging from this photo provided by the Coast Guard:

Oily geyser erupting from wellhead damaged by a work boat Tuesday. Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard.

This is reminiscent of a similar incident in the Gulf back in August 2010, when an abandoned wellhead in Barataria Bay was also struck by a vessel and spouted oil 100 feet into the air.

Both incidents underscore a serious problem identified in an investigative report by AP way back in 2010. They identified more than 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf, and found that thousands of these wells are allowed by federal and state regulators to linger for many years in a state of quasi-abandonment: they are "temporarily shut-in" or "temporarily abandoned," meaning the steel shutoff valves have been closed but the wells have not been permanently plugged with cement.

This sloppy practice gives the companies flexibility to cheaply and easily reactivate the wells at some point in the future, but here is the problem: steel rusts; valves can be damaged by, say, a poorly piloted vessel. And as long as the well is not permanently plugged and abandoned, it represents a spill risk. As the AP report states:

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s -- even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.

It's time for the feds and the states to get serious about this ongoing hazard, and tighten up their oversight.

Year in Review: Most Significant Articles of 2012

2013-01-29T12:33:00.002-05:00

SkyTruth's vision is for "a world where all people can see and understand the environmental consequences of human activity everywhere on the earth, and are motivated to take action to protect the environment."

In March we shared a particularly striking view of the Gulf Coast - some images illustrate problems, others are simply beautiful. Click here for the full image from NASA.

In the past year we made significant strides toward realizing this vision, and while we have already shared our Top 10 Most Viewed Articles, we thought it would be good to share what we think were our most significant accomplishments in 2012.

Offshore Oil Drilling and Infrastructure

Taylor Oil Spill: 7 Years, 1.1 Million Gallons, Still Going...

We have continued to document the ongoing spill at Taylor Energy Platform 23051, damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Still, the oil keeps coming with no sign of activity to finally plug this continuous leak. We set up a website to document the unrelenting chronology of spill reports.

Sea Ice Receding at Shell's Alaska Drill Sites

We closely followed Shell's attempts to drill in the Arctic Ocean during the brief summer season. Ultimately, a series of embarrassing failures (including both of their drill rigs running aground, a flattened spill containment device, criminal investigations on the drillship Noble Discover, and the drill rig Kulluk holed up in a remote harbor south of Kodiak Island awaiting salvage assessment and repair) reinforced concerns that we're not ready to drill offshore safely in this difficult region.

On the left, sea ice retreating in early August, but still rather close to Shell's Arctic drilling operations this summer in the Chukchi Sea.

Possible Contamination from Stolthaven Chemical Facility, Braithwaite, LA

The Gulf Coast is home to a significant amount of chemical plants, fed in part by petroleum resources pumped out of the Gulf. In the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, members of the Gulf Monitoring Consortium flew over the Gulf and onshore infrastructure, documenting a number of slicks from storm-damaged facilities, as well as highly visible damage at Stolthaven that forced the evacuation of nearby residents.

"You would think that by now, major industrial facilities planted in the middle of Hurricane Alley would be better able to withstand such predictable storm exposure. But I guess you'd be wrong...." - John Amos, Sept. 13, 2012

Incident Monitoring: SkyTruth routinely reports on slicks and spills that we observe, including:

Jan. 20: Chevron Blowout and Rig Fire off Nigeria

March 20: Slicks in Brazil's Campos Basin

April 4: Blowout in the North Sea

Coal Mining and Export

Visualizing Elevation Change - Mountaintop Removal Mining

Few human activities alter the natural terrain more thoroughly and permanently than mining, and modern remote sensing allows us to visualize that and measure it very precisely. Using Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) created from aerial survey imagery taken in 2003, and from a Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) laser survey flown in 2012, we created detailed representations of the terrain before and after mountaintop removal mining at the Spruce #1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia.

Growing Coal Mines in the Powder River Basin

Another area that we turned our attention to is the practice of coal export, predominately to Asian markets due to the growing demand for energy there, and cheaper natural gas prices here. If new coal-export terminals are approved in the Pacific Northwest and on the Gulf coast, coal mining here in the US could accelerate. In this article, we mapped the area that has already been impacted by mining on public lands in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, compared it to a more familiar area -- San Francisco -- and showed the area under permit that could be mined in the future.

Smog (grey clouds) over China as seen by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in October 2010. Increased exports through the Pacific Northwest are expected to find a major market in China and Southeast Asia.

Oil and Gas Drilling and Fracking

Shale Gas Fly-Overs in Pennsylvania and West Virginia

As part of our work on shale gas development in North America, we coordinated two LightHawk flights over active shale gas drilling areas in the Marcellus Shale, documenting the impact shale gas development has on the landscape while showing stakeholders and partners the value of an aerial perspective on these complex issues. Check out the video and our photo galleries.

Waterdogs from The Downstream Project on Vimeo.

SkyTruth Releases Fracking Chemical Database

Worthy of an entire chapter of SkyTruth history, the FracFocus data release was the culmination of a major effort on our behalf and a significant contribution to the conversation on fracking. With it, researchers and decision makers can finally see the whole picture of reported fracking activity, at least as it is disclosed to the public. There are several critical shortcomings with the current state of "disclosure" (we made specific technical recommendations to the federal government to address some of those flaws), but using the aggregate database we released, anyone can quantify some of those problems and bring them to the attention of the public, regulators, policymakers and industry.

SkyTruth Alerts: Drills, Spills, and Fracks, Oh My!

Here, we plotted the centerpoints of all active Alerts subscriptions in the Lower 48 states and coastal waters. Most subscribers are apaprently interested in the Marcellus Shale play in the mid-Atlantic, and pollution monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico. SkyTruth Alerts are viewed and/or shared approximately 10,000 times each month.

We built this system as an internal tool to help us know when and where to look for spills, but we also realized this system had the potential to be a great resource for the public to stay informed about incidents in almost real-time. In 2012 we significantly improved the Alerts system, adding reports from industry about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations nationwide, and drilling-related safety and environmental violations issued by regulators in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Other Environmental Issues

Monitoring Illegal Activity on the Open Ocean: Busting Polluters by Satellite

In April we noticed a 92 mile-long oil slick off the coast of Africa, but on this radar satellite image the likely culprit was revealed as just a bright, white spot headed west at the far end of the slick. Using other data collected by satellites, one of our enterprising Shepherd University interns was able to conclusively identify the mystery ship responsible for this mess. We were told, by folks who should know, that this was the first publicly documented case of detecting a pollution event on the open ocean and identifying the responsible party, using only space-based data.

Micro-satellites tuned to listen in on the location data broadcast by ships (required by many insurance companies to help prevent collisions) recorded the path of the offending vessel. Read more on the blog.

In another first, we are now using the same approach to detect and assess illegal fishing activity in the South Pacific Ocean. This project is will continue throughout 2013, so stay tuned and check back here for updates on our progress!

******

Moderate Earthquake in Colorado Yesterday - Related to Fracking?

2013-01-24T14:58:00.000-05:00

[UPDATE 3:15pm EST - apparently the answer in this case is "NO" - we just heard from a colleague who works in Colorado: "These are not oil and gas drilling waste water wells. These are Bureau of Reclamation salinity control wells where shallow brine water is pumped and then reinjected deep to reduce salinity in the Colorado River system. Same mechanism but not oil and gas related."]
----
An alert skytruther, who describes himself as a retired city environmental health director, gave us a heads up that a moderate (magnitude 3.9) earthquake shook residents along the Colorado - Utah border near the Paradox Valley late last night. He also passed along a link to the USGS information page on this earthquake. This statement caught our eye:

The largest historical earthquakes were a M4.4 in 2000 near the Paradox Valley in western Colorado and a M4.3 in 1953 near Green River, Utah. The M4.4 earthquake in 2000 and many smaller earthquakes in the Paradox Valley were induced by brine injection in deep wells.

"Brine" is drilling-industry lingo for the non-hydrocarbon fluids that are produced by oil and gas wells. This is mostly water by volume, but often includes toxins -- metals and salts leached from deep bedrock, residual chemicals used in drilling and fracking the well, and low levels of radioactivity. Getting rid of this stuff by pumping it back into the bedrock is an increasingly common practice as the current national shale-gas and shale-oil drilling booms are producing large amounts of wastewater that in some places threaten to overwhelm the current disposal infrastructure.

This method of disposal has been proven for decades to cause small to moderate earthquakes, and is strongly implicated in recent earthquake swarms in Ohio, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas. We suspect this shallow quake (1.2 km depth) is possibly the latest example of an earthquake related to oil and gas activity.

So far the only known example of earthquakes caused by the hydraulic fracturing operation itself, is from Lancashire, England in 2011. Given the number of disposal wells and fracking operations, induced seismicity due to oil and gas development remains a relatively rare occurrence, but as one scientist puts it "an earthquake even of magnitude 4 in a populated area can be an unpleasant thing." Indeed.

Cancer-Causing Chemicals Used in 34% of Reported Fracking Operations

2013-01-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

Narrative and Images by David Manthos; Data Analysis by David Darling

Recognized carcinogens are used in 1 in 3 hydraulic fracturing operations across the nation - according to industry self-reporting. Independent analysis of the SkyTruth Fracking Chemical Database by IT professional David Darling found that 9,310 individual fracking operations conducted between January 2011 and September 2012 disclosed the use of at least one known carcinogen. While not all hydraulic fracturing operations or all chemicals used in the process are disclosed by the drilling industry, thanks to the lack of a uniform national disclosure law and exacerbated by the liberal use of "trade secret" exemptions, known cancer-causing substances such as naphthalene, benzyl chloride, and formaldehyde were used in 34% of all fracks reported by industry to FracFocus.org.

Hydraulic fracturing operation near private homes in Wetzel County, West Virginia, November 2012 (photo by SkyTruth; aerial overflight provided by LightHawk).

Since creating a Fracking Chemical Database, which we released to the public back in November, SkyTruth has worked to quantify some of the issues related to fracking, but our main objective in building and publishing the database was to enable research on the subject by anyone interested. This approach has been fruitful in several ways, such as our work with David Darling, an IT professional specializing in database and software programming, who enjoys working with complicated datasets for his own professional development.

Darling has built powerful structured query language (SQL) tools to analyze our database and join it to others, which he writes about in very technical detail on his website. For those of us not familiar with database management and SQL language, we provide a layman's guide to his findings here.

Most recently, we asked him to compare the data from Goodguide.com's chemical profile Scorecard, originally a project of the Environmental Defense Fund to profile the respective hazards of over 11,200 industrial chemicals. For recognized carcinogens, Scorecard provides a database compiled from California's Proposition 65 (P-65), source of the familiar phrase "known to the State of California to cause cancer." Under P-65, California manages a list of carcinogenic substances identified by health authorities such as the International Agency for Reaserch on Cancer and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).

Searching 27,000+ reports from the fracking database, Darling found 11,586 separate instances of recognized carcinogens used in hydraulic fracturing operations during the 20 months the database covers. However, in a long list of substances like Nitrilotriacetic Acid - Trisodium Salt Monohydrate (used 259 times) or ethylbenzene (used 134 times), three known carcinogens were used far more than all the rest:

Furthermore, when Darling expanded the search to include suspected carcinogens, a long list of substances from common household chemicals to arsenic and chromium, he found 24,861 fracks (or 90% of all reports) that listed using at least one suspected carcinogen in the fracking process. Understanding that nearly all industrial processes pose some risk to public health, we think the routine use of these chemicals highlights an area in need of independent research and evaluation: What are the pathways for water, soil, and air contamination from hydraulic fracturing that could potentially lead to human exposure? And how often do failures occur during drilling and fracking operations that could result in unwanted chemical migration along those pathways? Hopefully the EPA's ongoing study of hydraulic fracturing safety is going to produce definitive, scientifically robust answers to these questions. Until then, here are a few relevant observations about likely pathways:

Spills of raw ingredients or wastewater: Drilling chemicals are transported by truck to the worksite along public roads and often over private land; workers must handle these chemicals to mix and pump them into the ground; and in the end some chemicals return to the surface in wastewater that must be either disposed of or treated for reuse. Anywhere along this chain of events human error or unavoidable accidents can and do occur, releasing chemicals into the environment and exposing workers and/or the general public to toxic substances. Our SkyTruth Alerts system tracks oil and hazardous materials spills reported to the National Response Center, as well as state-issued environmental and safety violation reports in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Air pollution: Unconventional shale oil and gas development has substantially impacted air quality around active fields such as the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields in the Upper Green River Basin of Wyoming, where on some winter days ozone levels are worse than in Los Angeles. From aerosolizing these chemicals through the high-pressure process of fracking, to flaring off gases from the well (which may also burn a number of these chemicals), to evaporating the chemicals from open pits of drilling fluids, water is not the only vital resource impacted by fracking.

Groundwater contamination: Images of flaming sink faucets from contaminated wells have ignited a global movement against fracking. If a well casing fails, a cementing job is inadequate, or fractures reach the water table, then groundwater can become not only toxic, but potentially explosive.

The risk of exposure to these chemicals should be thoroughly studied by pubic and occupational health experts, and their findings accounted for in regulatory and policy decisions about drilling and fracking. Full and open disclosure of the chemicals used at all stages of drilling and completion activity -- including during hydraulic fracturing operations -- is a necessary element of protecting public health. We recently provided specific recommendations for improved disclosure to the Bureau of Land Management (which just announced they will go back to the drawing board and publish an entirely new proposed rule for fracking on public lands at the end of March after criticism of the 2012 draft from both industry and environmentalists).

After searching for data from many sources, and hitting what he described as "the fracking wall" around data on oil and gas development, Darling concluded that "FracFocus.org’s website at that time was intentionally constructed to make information extraction difficult." However, with open access to the information, researchers, citizen scientists, and skilled professionals can begin to unravel some of the mysteries that surround the boom in unconventional oil and gas development.

To read David Darling's perspective on the FracFocus data and learn more about how he conducted this analysis, visit his website at:

Preliminary Analysis of FracFocus.org

Coal Exports: Are You Safe?

2013-01-11T16:40:00.000-05:00

Think you're safe from the effects of coal exports because you don't live near a coal mine?

How about railroad tracks? Chances are you either live near railroad tracks or travel next to or across railroad tracks to get from point A to point B in your daily travels. According to this article from the Monroe Monitor and Valley News in Monroe, WA, there were 18 coal train derailments last year in the United States, with 2 resulting in the deaths of 4 people. A couple was killed when a coal train derailed in a Chicago suburb last July, and in August, 2 college girls were killed when another coal train derailed in Ellicot City, MD.

Neither one of those cities is near a coal mine, yet both dealt with the destruction and sadly, the deaths, caused by these train derailments. And what caused those trains to derail, anyway? Debris on the tracks? Human error? Weather? Another side effect of coal exporting is the hazardous coal dust left behind either when the coal is sitting waiting for shipment or when the coal is actually ON the trains being shipped to the coast for exportation overseas.

Still not convinced? Think about this. In a town the size of Los Angeles or Houston, there might not be too much of an effect on traffic if a 137-car coal train came through town. Those cities are big enough to handle traffic. There are hospitals located all over those cities. But what about a city the size of Billings, Montana? You can see from this blog by our Shepherd University intern Yolandita that there would be a serious impact on the region if the town were to be separated -- possibly many times each day -- by coal trains of this size. A fire or motor vehicle accident on one side of the tracks, fire trucks, EMS or hospital on the other side of the tracks, and a coal train blocking all of the railroad crossings, literally cutting the town in half, would cause a major delay. And in emergencies, seconds count.

Living on the coast near a coal-export terminal has its own share of risks. In addition to the chronic dust problem, severe storms can flood adjacent neighborhoods with toxic runoff. Check out the blog we posted about the damage done to industrial facilities near Braithwaite, LA by Hurricane Isaac in September. Our new partner in the Gulf Monitoring Consortium, Gulf Restoration Network, took to the air to document similar storm damage and problems at a major coal-export terminal. Here's aerial survey photography we prepared to support that overflight:

NOAA aerial photography taken September 3, 2012, showing flooded Kinder-Morgan coal export facility and residential neighborhood near Braithwaite, Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Isaac.

So if you think just because you live hundreds of miles from a coal mine, you won't ever be affected by coal exportation, think again.

Shell's Grounded Drill Rig Seen From Space - Other Problems Not So Obvious?

2013-01-11T12:27:00.004-05:00

Lots of folks lately, us included, have chronicled Shell's confidence-shaking series of missteps, bad decisions and outright failures associated with their years-long, multi-billion-dollar campaign (technical and political) to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska. Shell has decided to downplay their latest mishap -- losing control of their multimillion dollar drill rig, the Kulluk, while it was being towed to Seattle from the drilling site in the Chukchi Sea -- as no big deal since the rig wasn't actually drilling at the time.

Uhhh...so we're supposed to feel better? Because they can't get the simple stuff right? Understand that nothing is "simple" in these often wild waters, but in the scheme of things, if you can't even move your equipment around without mishap, then how can you be trusted with the relatively complex and challenging processes of drilling and completing offshore oil wells in these waters? Or mounting a swift and effective oil spill response in ice-choked seas?

High-resolution satellite image showing the drill rig Kulluk aground off the coast of Alaska on January 4, 2013. Image courtesy DigitalGlobe. Subscribe to their WorldView report to see more great images.

It's not just technology failures that lead to disasters. Bad / risky decisionmaking plays a major part too. This November 9 news report said the Kulluk had been scheduled to spend the winter downtime in Dutch Harbor. So why was it being moved? Ostensibly for maintenance work that couldn't be done in Dutch, but Shell admitted they were towing the Kulluk into the teeth of a major winter storm system in part to avoid paying taxes to the sate of Alaska. Shell said the storm was unexpected. This analysis of the forecasts for the area by meteorologist Cliff Mass suggests otherwise, raising the possibility that Shell risked personnel and very pricey hardware to dodge a $6 million tax bill; about 1/10th of 1 percent of the total project investment. And guess who came to the rescue of the crew and the stranded Kulluk? The US Coast Guard, courtesy of US taxpayers. What a deal.

Shell was allowed to start shallow "tophole" work on two of their planned wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas last summer, but they still need to secure Federal approval to continue drilling these wells to their full target depths. This disturbing pattern of technical and decisionmaking failures suggests the kind of corporate culture that investigators have implicated as the underlying cause of the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf in 2010.

That approval needs to be withheld until investigators, regulators and the public have enough information to confidently make the correct decision. There's no rush. The oil ain't going anywhere. And after all, down here in the Lower 48, Shell is producing so much oil they want permission to export it to Canada.

Let's slow down and make sure we get this right.

What's Going On at the BP / Deepwater Horizon Spill Site?

2013-01-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

We've been closely following recent developments at the site of BP's disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There's been a nagging stream of sightings of small oil slicks in the vicinity since August 2011, more than a year after the failed Macondo well was killed and plugged. We documented these "mystery slicks" on radar satellite images taken on August 30, 2011 and possibly again on September 11, 2011. Aerial overflights by On Wings of Care captured photos and video confirming the presence of these thin oil slicks. As we stated in our blog at that time,

Some have suggested that crude oil from the reservoir 8,000' below the seafloor might be working its way up through faults and fractures in the bedrock, or along the Macondo wellbore. If that happens we would expect to see "seepage on steroids" as oil works its way to the seafloor along multiple pathways and floats up to the ocean surface to form persistent oil slicks.

Rainbow oil sheen in vicinity of BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill site, photographed by Bonny Schumaker during low-level overflight on October 5, 2012. Photo courtesy On Wings of Care.

At the time this seemed highly unlikely to me. Yet, just a few months later, Chevron lost control of a deepwater exploration well off the coast of Brazil and something remarkably similar to this scenario unfolded. Now we think it is possible that the recurring small slicks near the Macondo site might be caused by oil that leaked out of the well into surrounding bedrock during the months-long blowout, before the well was killed and cemented from top to bottom. Some oil could have escaped either via cracks and holes scoured into the severely stressed well casing, or through the pressure-relief "burst disks" that were an intentional, and controversial, part of the Macondo well design (for more details read Joel Achenbach's excellent book, 'A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea'). If this scenario actually did happen, the residual oil is gradually migrating to the seafloor through existing natural fractures and faults in the bedrock, as it did in the Chevron incident off Brazil; and is seeping out of the seafloor into the water, floating up to the surface as droplets of oil and possibly oil-coated bubbles of natural gas; and forming thin slicks, behaving very much like the many natural oil seeps scattered throughout the Gulf. Eventually this residual oil will work through the system and this artificially induced "seepage" will decline, as it did in the Brazil example (Chevron has also placed structures on the seafloor to capture the oil leaks off Brazil).

But is this actually happening at the BP / Deepwater Horizon spill site?

A series of recent slick sightings, again documented by pilot Bonny Schumaker of On Wings of Care beginning on September 14, raise the possibility. There are known natural oil seeps in the general vicinity that were identified and mapped by scientists at Florida State University long before the BP spill in 2010, but the closest of these is about 2.9 miles southeast, 3.1 miles south, and 4.9 miles northeast of the plugged Macondo well. BP suggested the slicks were caused by residual oil leaking from the wreckage on the seafloor: the massive Deepwater Horizon rig, the 5,000 feet of tangled riser pipe, the failed and discarded containment devices and other pieces of equipment. In October, BP plugged the cofferdam / containment dome device that had been used in the first failed attempt to stop the Macondo spill, claiming that leftover oil leaking out of this device had been the source of the recent oil slicks. But additional slicks sighted in the area on November 2 and November 9 caused the Coast Guard to order BP to deploy more ROVs to once again investigate the site and try to identify the source of oil for the mystery slicks. BP did so in mid-December, and the Coast Guard released four low-resolution videos of that inspection operation. The videos were apparently shot on December 11-14, 2012. We haven't watched them all but BP and the Coast Guard claim they discovered no signs of leakage from the Macondo well or the two relief wells, or from any of the wreckage. But this doesn't address the question of possible leakage from the seafloor in the vicinity, the scenario that Chevron caused off Brazil.

The only way to answer that question is to conduct a systematic survey of the seafloor itself, not just the wellheads and wreckage. Frankly, I think in all likelihood BP has already done this, so it should be a relatively simple matter of asking them to publish a report on the results, all of the video and other data they collected, and a map showing the survey grid they executed. If a thorough seafloor survey hasn't been done yet, then it's time for the Coast Guard to insist, to solve this mystery in a publicly transparent way that eases everyone's fears.

Best of 2012: Top 10 Most-Viewed Posts

2013-01-01T18:39:00.003-05:00

As we look forward to all that 2013 has in store, we also look back fondly on all that we have accomplished in 2012. So as we dive right into the new year, here are our "Top 10" most viewed blog posts from 2012.

#10: Gas Drilling Time Series Analysis in Pennsylvania

August 7, 2012 - 718 Views:

Using aerial survey images from the US Dept. of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Imaging Program (NAIP), we looked at the way new wells and infrastructure are changing the landscape in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. Using aerial images to track development of natural resources and compare with information from state and industry sources is at the very core of what we do here at SkyTruth.

#9: Wildfires and Gas Wells - Pine Ridge Fire, Colorado

June 28, 2012 - 753 Views:

As wildfire season kicked off in the Western US, we were particularly interested in the proximity of gas wells to active wildfires. While natural gas infrastructure is notoriously leaky, the Grand Junction Sentinel reported that gas operators in the Pine Ridge area shut in their wells as the fire approached so as not to risk adding to the blaze.

#8: Before-After Aerial Photography Shows Damage, Shoreline Changes from Hurricane Sandy

November 1, 2012 - 821 Views:

In order to coordinate relief efforts and assess damages, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coordinates aerial image surveys after natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy. These images are made available to the public as soon as they are processed, and we compiled a few sets of images that illustrated the sheer power of the storm. While the twisted, submerged wreckage of a roller coaster hints at the power of the storm, nothing quite tells the story like seeing the complete rearrangement of the landscape from our perspective in the sky.

#7: Gas Well Blowout in the North Sea

March 28, 2012 - 835 Views:

A blowout at an off-shore rig drilling for natural gas in the Elgin field (located in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway) garnered some attention in March. The leak turned out to be on the rig itself, not underwater, but we observed some kind of spill on the surface around the rig. The spill is most likely gas condensate, a signifiant byproduct of drilling in that region of the North Sea.

#6: Meet the Frack Family

June 8, 2012 - 999 Views:

Our next most popular post was not documenting a spill, but was about a fictitious Pennsylvania family. Based on data from a voluntary industry report about the chemicals used in a typical hydraulic fracturing job in the Marcellus Shale, we created a 3D visualization of volume of various chemicals used in the process. We also pointed out the substantial number of chemicals which industry claims are "trade secrets" and were not identified at all - symbolized by the large quantity of red barrels.

#5: Water, Water, Everywhere: 20 Months of Frackwater in the U.S.

Sept. 14, 2012 - 1013 Views:

Following up on our work with voluntary industry reports on the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, we compiled all of the data voluntarily reported to the industry-funded disclosure website FracFocus.org. Adding up the millions of gallons of water, we found that it would take over 24 hours for all of the water reportedly used for hydraulic fracturing to flow over one of North America's Seven Natural wonders: Niagara Falls. This was also reposted to our partners at EcoWatch.org, where we used this calculation to represent Central Park covered by 240 feet of toxic waste-water.

#4: Chevron Blowout and Rig Fire off Nigeria - Small Slick Visible on Radar Today

Jan. 20, 2012 - 1,102 Views:

A blowout off the coast of Nigeria got some major attention, but thankfully the natural gas well did not produce as large a spill as was possible. We noted the heat of the burning rig on infrared composite images, but radar satellite images showed only a small slick. Not all of the data we use is available to the general public for free, but some images, such as this infrared composite, are freely available from NASA for anyone to look at.

#3: SkyTruth Releases Fracking Chemical Database

Nov. 14, 2012 - 1,582 Views:

We heavily promoted the release of our fracking chemical database to the national media and to our partners. This resource will greatly aid policy discussion about disclosure regulations and aid in research on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing across a wide-range of disciplines. While the database is most useful to researchers and decision makers, this database enables everyone to sign up for SkyTruth Alerts whenever new fracking chemical reports are uploaded to FracFocus.org.

#2: Satellite Images Shows Heat From Chevron Drill Rig, Offshore Nigeria

Jan. 17, 2012 - 1,669 Views:

Our most popular posts are usually related to pollution incidents, and the rig fire off the coast of Nigeria in January was no exception. While our report on the 20th of January (#4 on this list) had more detailed analysis of the incident, this preliminary post gained over 500 more views. Not only do we have the capacity for detailed tracking of environmental incidents, rapid access to satellite images allows us to respond quickly to breaking news. Unfortunately, one of our best resources, the European Space Agency's Envisat, unexpectedly went silent in April. We are looking forward to the launch of its replacement, Sentinel 1, sometime this coming year.

#1: Bakken Shale-Oil Drilling and Flaring Lights Up the Night Sky

March 8, 2012 - 4,630 Views:

Our most viewed post of 2012 was nightime imagery of natural gas flaring in North Dakota's Bakken Oil Shale. Because the main focus of drilling in the Bakken is for highly profitable oil, most of the natural gas that's also being produced is flared off (burned) as a waste product. Much better options are to inject it back into the reservoir, or capture it for sale. After all, why are we drilling and fracking for natural gas in the Rockies and the mid-Atlantic, while we're just wasting it in North Dakota? Expect to see more from us on the issue of flaring in 2013 as we work with a new dataset of nighttime light detection from NASA.

New Zealand: As seen in an infrared composite image taken by NASA's Terra Satellite less then 5 hours after they became the first major city to welcome 2013. Using resources just like this, we will continue to keep a vigilant eye on the earth for years to come. Source: NASA MODIS

In 2013, SkyTruth will continue to provide up-to-date information on pollution incidents and reveal the truth about the environmental impact of large-footprint industrial activities such as mining, drilling, commercial fishing, etc. In all of this, we work to support scientifically credible research and policy decisions that will help us understand and manage our planet's natural resources in the best way possible.

Arctic Drilling: Not Ready for Prime Time

2012-12-28T18:09:00.001-05:00

The USCG said Friday that it is coordinating a response with Royal Dutch Shell representatives after the company’s brand new $200 million tugboat experienced multiple engine failures while towing Shell’s arctic semisubmersible drilling rig, the Kulluk, approximately 50 miles south of Kodiak Island Friday, in 20-foot seas. Rough but not unusual conditions for the Arctic.

The tugboat M/V Aiviq towing Shell's Kulluk drill rig in better times. Photo courtesy gCaptain.

This is right on the heels of the Coast Guard discovering "several major safety and pollution prevention equipment" deficiencies on Shell's other Arctic rig, the Noble Discoverer drillship.

And remember when the Discoverer went rogue and ran aground in Dutch Harbor back in July?

And Shell crushed their supposed oil spill containment device "like a beer can" during a field test this summer in water just 120 feet deep?

After having multiple delays getting their oil spill response vessel to meet Coast Guard standards?

This is a surprising - alarming? - series of missteps, mistakes and outright failures for a company of Shell's size, talent, market cap and ambitions. Especially considering how much time and money, and political capital, they've invested in this program. But it's not too late to take a prudent time out to allow a thorough, critical evaluation of whether we are really ready to drill safely in the Arctic, and respond effectively to oil spills in that tough environment.

Because if Shell isn't ready after all this time and effort and investment, then who on earth is?

Fracking With Diesel Fuel

2012-12-26T16:41:00.001-05:00

We here at SkyTruth are happy to see the our data being put to good use by our colleagues over at FracTracker. Using our fracking chemical database that we released last month, they have created an interactive map that visualizes where diesel fuel is being used in hydraulic fracturing. In October we posted that industry self-reported using diesel fuels at least 448 times, in spite of the fact these substances are the one family of chemicals not included in the abundantly generous "Halliburton Loophole."

Check out FracTracker's interactive map embedded below to see where this practice is used most. (Kerosene in Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, and N. Pennsylvania, and diesel fuel [sometimes called petroleum distillate] in Texas esp.)

To find out more about the practice, why it is dangerous, and how diesel fuels are defined, check out our original post on this issue:

The Exception to the Exception: Still Fracking With Diesel

What on Earth is a Waterdog?

2012-12-26T09:39:00.002-05:00

This past summer SkyTruth and the Downstream Project went up to Northern Pennsylvania to document Marcellus Shale gas development in and around the Pine Creek Watershed, a watershed known to Pennsylvanians as the "Grand Canyon of the East." Our trip was facilitated by LightHawk, a volunteer conservation pilot association who took us up in a single-engine aircraft to get an aerial perspective on unconventional shale gas wells popping up across the Northern Tier (Read more about our part of the story here). However, one of the most unique features we found was the waterdogs.

Eastern Hellbender: Image from Davidson College.

"Waterdog" is a nickname for a type of Hellbender, North America's largest salamander. But because of local citizens' concern for the habitat and health of these elusive creatures, and the amount of time volunteers spend in the streams they care about, these citizen-scientists have taken to calling themselves the "Pine Creek Waterdogs." To learn more, check out:

"Waterdogs: Guardians of a Watershed."

Waterdogs from The Downstream Project on Vimeo.

Special thanks to The Downstream Project, Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group, Trout Unlimited: God's Country Chapter, Dickinson College's Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), and LightHawk.

And the flaring continues off Nigeria...

2012-12-24T12:53:00.003-05:00

Looks like flaring on offshore oil and gas platforms in Africa didn't take a holiday this year. As you can see by this MODIS Aqua 7-2-1 image from 12/23/2012, there was lots and lots of flaring activity going on off the coast of Nigeria.

MODIS Aqua 7-2-1 taken on 12/23/2012 showing multiple flaring incidents off the Nigerian coast.

And not to be outdone, this area where we've seen flaring before is at it again:

MODIS Aqua 7-2-1 taken on 12/23/2012 shows an area of flaring that we've been following for awhile now.

You can read about that spot off the Niger Delta on our blog post of December 3.We still don't know who is operating out there, so if anyone knows, fill us in!