Thousands of gallons of pollution recovered from oil & gas spill in Colorado
March 23, 2013
Cleanup continues at the site of an underground spill of thousands of gallons of pollution related to the oil and gas industry in the heart of Colorado’s fracking country.
The underground leak is located near the town of Parachute and has threatened to contaminate Parachute Creek, which flows into the Colorado River. State officials continue to report that buffers have kept the creek safe, so far.
Colorado regulators reported that nearly 6,000 gallons of “hydrocarbons” had been recovered from the site. At least 102,564 gallons of contaminated water have been recovered, as well.
The spill site is near a natural gas plant operated by Williams Energy, and another company, WPX Energy, operates underground oil and gas pipelines in the area. Both companies are working to contain the spill but neither company has taken responsibility, publicly revealed the source of the pollution or identified the type of hydrocarbons contaminating the area.
Spokespeople for Williams did not respond to several inquiries from Truthout.
Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said that work had begun on Wednesday to excavate a large pipe in the spill area, where workers are “proceeding with care and deliberation.”
Earlier this week, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued notices of “alleged violation” to Williams and WPX. The commission ordered both companies to continue working to contain the spill and submit a cleanup plan to regulators.
Williams Energy workers first identified the spill on March 8, but the company did not alert the nearby town of Parachute until five days later, which frustrated local officials who visited the site this week. It’s unclear how long the underground plume of pollution was growing before Williams discovered the contamination in an area adjacent to its gas plant.
A local cattleman told The Denver Post that such spills are common in the area and often remain secret, and state records show that the oil and gas industry is responsible for hundreds of spills each year, the newspaper reports.
Advancements in drilling technology, such as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” have facilitated an oil and gas rush in Colorado and several other states. The environmental group Earthjustice reports that at least eight fracking-related accidents, mostly involving contaminated wells, have occurred across the state.
In a statement, the Colorado Wildlife Federation said the spill might have been detected earlier with better monitoring.
“This is one more strong argument for keeping oil and gas wells and related infrastructure a safe distance from waterways,” said Suzanne O’Neill, the organization’s executive director. “Regulators pledged to form a stakeholders’ group to develop standards for riparian setbacks a while ago. We’re still waiting.”
In 2008, Colorado regulators failed to include protections and buffer zones for waterways as they overhauled regulations for the oil and gas industry, the group noted.
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kwr32:
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More football players charged with rape, another community blaming the victimMarch 20, 2013
Two football player high school students in Connecticut are charged with the second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. The allegations come amid other complaints of hazing at the school, but Torrington High School officials insist that these are individual instances and not a part of a larger cultural problem. (Rape & violence are not a cultural problem? Really?)
But whether or not the alleged rapists Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, both 18, are maverick sexual assailants isn’t really the cultural question. Rather, the fact that students in the neighborhood and the school have taken to Twitter blame the young girl and not the alleged rapists highlights a broader rape culture that assumes men are only haphazardly involved in sexual assault, but it is usually the victim’s fault:
“If you look at crime statistics these things happen everywhere and we’re not any different than any other community,” said [Athletic Director Mike McKenna].
But on social media in recent weeks, dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female, have taunted the 13-year-old victim, calling her a “whore,” criticizing her for “snitching” and “ruining the lives” of the 18-year-old football players, and bullying students who defend her.
The Connecticut Register-Citizen highlights some of the offensive tweets about the girl:
“I wanna know why there’s no punishment for young hoes,” asked “@asmedick.” That comment was reposted three times.
Twelve days after the alleged incident, “@AyooWilliam” tweeted, “You destroyed two people’s life.” Another responded, “I hope you got what you wanted.”
“Sticking up for a girl who wanted the D and then snitched? have a seat pleaseeee,” wrote “@ShelbyyKalinski.”
As the case in Steubenville proved, social media has brought a whole new slew of evidence to sexual assault allegations, particularly among young people. Unfortunately, the lesson some news outlets take from this is that Steubenville was “a cautionary tale for teenagers living in today’s digital world.” In reality, social media helps to underline a very real problem: A victim-blaming rape culture that is inclined to take the side of the assailant instead of the victim.
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So when did the victim-blaming rape culture begin again
So far, it’s been a permanent fixture in our culture. It’s part of patriarchy - which has dominated all Western cultures at least for hundreds of years, and longer for most.
It isn’t that this is a new phenomenon. It’s that we are finally in a cultural moment when there are enough people conscious of patriarchy and rape-culture that outrage is finally being expressed about this bullshit.
It’s our job to raise hell EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we see this terrible nonsense take place. I just saw a Facebook friend post this:
OH MY FUCKING GOD I’M OVERHEARING A NEWS STORY INTERVIEWING STEUBENVILLE RAPISTS IN WHICH THE WOMAN NEWS ANCHOR JUST ASKED, “But did the boys even know they were raping someone? Is that why he told me with sincerity in his voice “some bullshit about how he didn’t think anyone was getting raped”” and then they mourned the full ride scholarship one of the boys lost. “Before you know it, another football season will be here” and their takeaway was don’t put things online because you can’t take them back. NO. NO. NO. RAPISTS SHOULD ABSOLUTELY POST EVERYTHING THEY DO ONLINE SO WE CAN FUCKING CATCH THEM. I am so fucking furious and upset.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/29769528db9e9f67f3032022f8c528d0/tumblr_mjzms78yuw1r6m2leo1_1280.jpg "Zoom Photo")
