By KATHERINE WUTZ Express Staff Writer

Blaine County submitted a request to Gov. Butch Otter for an emergency drought declaration late last week, following requests from local water officials.

Blaine County requests drought declaration

County Commissioner Larry Schoen said at a commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, May 7, that he had been contacted by regional water master Kevin Lakey, as well as Lawrence Kimball, water master for the Fish Creek Reservoir Co. Schoen said both men requested that the county petition both Idaho Department of Water Resources Director Gary Spackman and the governor for an emergency drought declaration.

“We have had cold, dry conditions, and the coolness has kept some of the moisture from flowing into the main rivers,” Schoen said, noting that this is the earliest emergency drought declaration request from Blaine County in recent history.

“We did it quite early last year, but not as early as this,” he said. “As far as the water master knows, this is the earliest ever.”

Schoen said the declaration, if approved, would allow water masters more flexibility to reallocate water rights in the Fish Creek area, near Carey.

Commissioner Jacob Greenberg initially declined to sign the letter of request on May 7, stating that he wanted more time to make his own phone calls and do his own research to determine if the declaration was necessary.

Greenberg signed the letter late last week, and Schoen said on Thursday that the letter had been sent to the governor’s office for review.

Toxic chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and ethylene glycol (antifreeze) are among those pumped underground to help release natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, according to a database operated by the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

Environment Canada wants gas companies to fully disclose what fluids they inject deep underground during fracking, a process that fractures shale rock with tonnes of sand, water and chemicals injected at high pressure to get the gas out.

Disclosure is voluntary and the database FracFocus.ca reveals some of the fluids used. However, it doesn’t list quantities, and types of chemicals vary from site to site.

In correspondence obtained by the Vancouver Sun, Environment Canada’s top official told the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers — the main Canadian oil and gas lobby group — that the government needs more information about the fracking process.

Environment Canada wants gas companies to fully disclose fracking fluids.

While both industry and government regulators claim that the depths at which fracking occurs — up to two kilometres — prevent pollution of surface water, there is growing evidence in the U.S. that fracking does affect groundwater supplies, according to Ben Parfitt, a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“We are seeing contamination of groundwater that is used by people,” he said in a phone interview.

“There is evidence in Colorado and Wyoming where tests have been done of signatures of gas showing up in drinking water supply. The troubling thing about these findings is that the gas originates in very deep zones.

“There is an unquestionable link with water contamination in some states in the United States as a result of fracking activities.”

The non-profit ProPublica newsroom has reported water contamination in almost 1,000 rural water wells in regions where drilling is taking place. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the link between hydraulic fracturing and water contamination and expects to release its report next year.

On FracFocus.ca, oil and gas companies drilling in B.C. list some of the fluids injected deep into the ground at high pressure. Suncor Energy well #27583 in Peace River North, for example, is listed as using more than 30 ingredients, including hydrochloric acid, xylene, light aromatic naphtha, polyethylene glycol and kerosene.

The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission said there are no documented cases of groundwater in B.C. being contaminated by either the fluid used in hydraulic fracking or by natural gas released through fracking.

“In B.C., any produced fluids must be either recycled, meaning they are used again in the production of natural gas, or disposed of at an approved disposal facility or deep underground in a licensed disposal well, approved by the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission,” Hardy Friedrich, communications manager for the commission, said by email.

Geoff Morrison, manager of B.C. operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said fracking doesn’t contaminate groundwater either through the release of natural gas or through the use of fracking fluids.

Fracking fluid is isolated from surrounding surface and groundwater by layers of steel and concrete, he noted. As well, fracking in B.C. takes place far below where groundwater is found. In B.C., he said, groundwater is 80 to 300 metres below the surface while fracking drills down 2,500 to 3,000 metres.

“Anything that goes in the pipe, stays in the pipe,” Morrison said by phone. “When it gets down to its destination, two or three kilometres down — that’s when it enters the formation where it would be isolated from any drinking water.”

He said the industry has been successfully fracking in Canada for 50 years.

“We have had 175,000 wells hydraulically fracked without an impact on drinking water.”

Parfitt said there’s no easy answer on the extent of the health hazard from the chemicals used in fracking.

Last year, more than 800 deficiencies were found during 4,223 inspections conducted in the oil and gas industry by the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Of those, 80 resulted in charges, mainly under the provincial Water Act for the non-reporting of water volumes. Other charges included violations under the provincial Environmental Management Act.

Neither details of the violations nor the names of the companies responsible are available because the commission wouldn’t release that information.

Chemicals are added for numerous reasons, including reducing friction to lower resistance as the fracking fluid moves down the well and to prevent bacterial growth so the flow of gas isn’t inhibited.

“Some of those chemicals are clearly carcinogenic,” Parfitt said. “It depends on the chemicals being used. It depends on the combination. It depends on the concentrations of those chemicals as to what kind of public health threat they could pose.”

In 2010, Parfitt wrote a report on the effects of fracking on water called Fracture Lines: Will Canada’s Water be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas? He quoted the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, which said about 40 per cent of injected water remains in the ground. The other 60 per cent flows back within the first four months following fracturing.

“The water is contaminated with chemicals and, more importantly, anything that water has come in contact with,” Parfitt said, citing heavy metals and minerals. Depending on the geological formations it comes in contact with, the water can also come back five times saltier than ocean water.

Some of the 60 per cent of water that flows back can be used again as fracking fluid. Eventually, he said, the fracking fluid becomes too contaminated even to be used for fracking any longer.

“At that point, the only ‘treatment’ in quotation marks in B.C. is to inject that highly toxic water deep underground for what they call permanent disposal,” he said.

But Parfitt said that in the U.S., evidence is showing that deep-well injecting is being linked to the occurrence of earthquakes.

The amount of water used in fracking operations is staggering. Parfitt’s report cites what has been called the world’s biggest frack northwest of Fort Nelson at Two Island Lake. That frack used an estimated 445,000 cubic metres of contaminated flow-back water — enough to bury a soccer field under 15.6 metres of water.

Parfitt suggests that what is needed are industrial-sized waste water treatment plants near fracking operations. He estimates that treating waste water would cost between $10 and $15 a cubic metre.

“But the cost must be weighed against what is gained,” he said. “For starters, with waste water treatment the industry will be able to recover half of the water it uses, meaning it will save the cost of accessing that much new water.

“Second, the cost of disposing of the water by trucking or piping it to disposal well sites and then pumping it back underground is saved as well.”

Work on the $33.5 million East Langley Water Supply project officially began with a ground-breaking ceremony on May 1 to mark the first phase of work on a new pipeline to bring Metro Vancouver water to Aldergrove and Gloucester.

Water improvements slated for Aldergrove and East Langely

It is the biggest project ever undertaken by the Township of Langley’s engineering department, with 14 kilometres of water main and a booster pump station.

Phase 1 will run a one-metre diameter steel water main between Willoughby and Murrayville following 72 Avenue, 210 Street, Worrell Crescent, 216 Street, 56 Avenue, and 224 Street.

Work will run Monday to Friday until December, 2013.

East Langley’s water currently comes from seven groundwater wells.

In the summer, when water usage peaks each year, water restrictions have to be enforced.

The Aldergrove Community Plan projects increased demand for water, with the population in the area growing from 12,000 to 20,000 people within 20 to 30 years.

Mayor Jack Froese said the project will ensure a sustainable supply of water.

“Aldergrove and Gloucester’s current water supply comes from ground water aquifers and aging wells, and long-term monitoring has shown this is not sustainable,” Froese said.

“It [the project] will significantly pay off in the long run.”

Ramin Seifi, Langley Township’s General Manager of Engineering and Community Development said bringing in water from Metro Vancouver will reduce the rate at which local aquifers are being depleted and their ability to recharge will be enhanced.”

Once the pipeline’s first phase is completed, additional connections will be constructed into the Salmon River Uplands, including the municipal Tall Timbers and Acadia water systems, to give other rural areas access to Metro water.

The East Langley Water Supply Project will not be paid through property taxes.

Instead, it will be funded through higher utility fees that went up a couple of years ago to pay for the project.

By Kieran Cooke, May 1, 2013
Climate News Network

LONDON – Very few companies in Australia give climate change much attention, either in terms of corporate planning or in assessing future risks to their businesses, according to survey of more than 100 companies by the government’s National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.

Few Australian companies plan for climate change.

“The private sector’s failings in assessing and managing existing climate risks are becoming increasingly evident,” the report said. The transport sector knows little about about the potential impacts of climate change. The tourism industry has done little to prepare for what the report describes as considerable cascading effects of changes in climate.

And the property and real estate sector faces “a phenomenal challenge,” with an estimated 81 billion Australian dollar ($84 billion) worth of property vulnerable to a rise in sea levels and more than half a million homes at risk of floods, the review found. Much of Australia’s infrastructure is aged, says the report, and has not been designed or operated with climate change in mind.

The study also questions the role of the Australian Government: on one hand government expects the private sector to adapt to climate change, yet on the other it gives few, if any, incentives to promote changes in corporate behavior, the report said. Australian companies are missing out on opportunities and innovations associated with climate change while Asian-owned mining, gas and technology business are cashing in.

Economic shock absorber

The report notes that the insurance industry is at particular risk, as it acts as an economic shock absorber and underpins much of present-day economic activity.

“Climate related events are causing an increasingly disproportionate percentage of payouts,” it said. The costs of insurance are going up – and in some instances businesses might find their activities can no longer be insured.

The study also highlights what it calls the legal imperative which should be driving businesses to adapt to climate change.

“One of the key legal findings from the research is that corporations need to identify their climate-related risk, and, once quantified, ensure that such risk forms an integral part of their environmental risk management process,” said Mark Baker-Jones, one of the report’s authors.

A separate report released in London earlier this month warned of the risk of investing in mining and other companies which have assets that ultimately – if climate change is going to be tackled – might have to stay in the ground.

On a per capita basis Australia is one of the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitters, mainly due to its giant coal mining industry. Noting an increase in extreme heat waves, flooding and bush fires in recent years, the Government’s Climate Commission has called for fast and deep cuts in emissions in order to cope with future changes in climate.

Climate change is likely to be a key issue in federal elections scheduled for later this year. Tony Abbott, leader of Australia’s main opposition Liberal Party, has dismissed climate change science as “crap.” He has vowed to repeal a carbon tax introduced last year by the ruling Labour Party, headed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. He has also promised to repeal a tax on mining activities.

Kieran Cooke is a founding reporter of the Climate News Network and a former BBC and Financial Times correspondent in Ireland and Southeast Asia.Climate News Network is a journalism news service led by four veteran British environmental reporters and broadcasters. It delivers news and commentary about climate change for free to media outlets worldwide.

Updated 4:28 pm, Monday, April 29, 201

CHICAGO (AP) — After a former suburban Chicago water official was convicted Monday for lying about secretly mixing carcinogen-tainted well water into the village’s drinking supply, the sense of bitterness and betrayal among residents remained.

Speaking through her tears shortly after the verdict, Crestwood resident Tricia Krause, who was credited with first raising the alarm about the water quality, said village officials had displayed shocking callousness.

Tainted well water case ends in guilty verdict

“What did the citizens of Crestwood and my family do to the water department? Nothing,” she said at the federal courthouse in Chicago. “We were secretly poisoned and it wasn’t right.”

Longtime water department supervisor Theresa Neubauer, 55, stared down at the defense table earlier Monday and showed no emotion as a judge read the verdict — guilty on all 11 counts. But addressing reporters later, she struggled to keep her composure.

“I’m devastated,” she said, her voice breaking. “My family and friends are devastated.”

Neubauer, who is on paid leave as Crestwood’s police chief, was found guilty of making false statements to environmental regulators. Each of the 11 counts carries a maximum five-year prison term. The judge set a tentative sentencing date of Oct. 2.

From 1982 until the allegations arose in 2008, the village mixed the tainted well water with cleaner but pricier water from Lake Michigan, prosecutors said. Officials kept pumping the polluted water even after environmental officials warned in the mid-1980s that cancer-causing chemicals had oozed into the well, prosecutors have said.

And the motive? Leaders in the 11,000-resident village about 20 miles south of Chicago hoped to score political points with voters by pointing to low water rates and bragging about how they were fiscally responsible stewards, prosecutors said. By drawing the well water, they saved around $400,000 annually.

The revelations infuriated residents and left many fearing for their health.

Krause began looking into village water records in 1999. Though a clear cause and effect has not been independently established, Krause says she was spurred into action after suspecting the water sickened her children and was responsible for her daughter’s brain tumor.

“People did not believe in me,” she said about the initial reaction to her suspicions.

It was after reports by the Chicago Tribune in 2008 that investigations were launched — eventually leading to the charges against Neubauer and one other official. Frank Scaccia, 61, Crestwood’s certified water operator, changed his plea to guilty earlier this month to one count of making false statements and faces a maximum five-year prison term.

Neubauer repeated in her remarks Monday what her lawyer had told jurors during the trial: Officials higher up the chain of command devised and carried out the plot to divert a percentage of well water into the village’s supply.

“I was unknowingly sucked into it,” she said. Despite being the longtime supervisor of Crestwood’s water department, she described her role as little more than a clerk.

She apologized to Crestwood’s residents but quickly qualified the apology.

“I would also like to add that it was none of my decision,” she said.

During closings Friday, a prosecutor said Neubauer was part of the Crestwood government’s inner circle and signed forms for years indicating no well water was drawn.

“She told lie after lie, month after month, year after year,” Tim Chapman said.

But defense attorney Thomas Breen questioned how Neubauer could have possibly known the water was poisoned when she herself took showers in and drank the same water, and when she made oatmeal for her children with the water.

Prosecutors at trial did not directly raise the issue of how contaminated the well water was and whether it made residents sick. Instead, they focused on the narrower issue of whether Neubauer lied about the use of well water.

But pending lawsuits, one that includes Krause as a plaintiff, blame the well water for a variety of illnesses. A 2010 health department report did find cancer rates were higher than average in Crestwood but didn’t make a definite link to the tainted water.

The full consequences may not be apparent for year to come, argued Krause.

“These citizens will be getting sick,” she said. “It happens and will continue to happen.”

City of Chilliwack is doing its usual spring freshet preparations including keeping an eye on the snow pack.

The latest snow pack report from the River Forecast Centre says levels are at about 100 per cent of normal for the most part across the province, which is about as average as can be.

Flood risk is reduced this year thanks to near normal snow pack.

Currently in the entire Fraser River system, all basins are at 101 per cent of normal snow pack.

That means a five per cent chance of peak flows, said staff, or 11,500 cubic metres per second at Hope, which is what they reached last year.

There’s less than one per cent of a chance of a peak flow of 15,000 m3/s, which was the Flood of 1948 level.

One exception is in the Upper Fraser basin, where the current snow basin index of 119 per cent indicates a moderate increase in the seasonal flood risk. For comparison, last year’s April 1 snow basin index in the Upper Fraser was 152 per cent.

Half of what happens every spring is weather related, so engineering staff will continue to watch the rising levels as snow pack melts this spring.

Last year high water levels flooded some of Chilliwack’s unprotected areas, despite valiant efforts to build flood-protection barriers.

The next snow bulletin is expected May 8.

CBC News Posted: Apr 5, 2013

The Alberta government is considering expanding its mandatory water well testing program to include areas near fracking activity.

Mandatory WQ testing considered for fracking sites.

Currently, the program tests water quality for gas sites that use the coalbed methane extraction method, which was popular several years ago. However, it does not require water quality testing at sites where oil and gas are extracted by fracking.

“Right now, the program does not apply to those particular types of activity,” says Steve Wallace, a groundwater policy advisor with Alberta Environment. “However, we are certainly considering expanding our [coalbed methane] requirements to hydraulic fracking.”

While coalbed methane developers must test all active water wells within a minimum 600 metre radius of a proposed coalbed methane well prior to drilling, there is no specific testing requirements for other oil and gas extraction methods.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers recommends that any water wells within a 250 metre radius of fracking sites be tested for water quality but companies can choose whether or not to do this.

Some Albertans are concerned that the chemicals used in fracking could be affecting the quality of their drinking water.

Nielle Hawkwood lives near Cochrane and says she no longer drinks the water at her ranch.

“Our eyes are irritated, our nose is irritated, I’ve lost a lot of hair,” she says.

She lives near fracking sites and is concerned that chemicals may be leaking into her well.

“The chloride levels are really fluctuating,” Hawkwood says. “This is untreated well water. We are wondering why there are chlorides at all.”

She has hired an independent testing company but the firm can’t search for all the chemicals involved in fracking.

Her husband, Howard Hawkwood, says he is concerned about the effect his livestock’s drinking water will have on them.

“I have no idea what it does to their meat, their quality,” he says. “Reproductive system is a major issue because right now we’re calving.”

Wallace says that a group of experts from across the country is studying the issue and will present their recommendations to Alberta Environment later this month.

“We’ve lived here for 32 years,” says Nielle Hawkwood. “We’ve always assumed our water was wonderful and fresh and clean, that the air was fresh and clean, and now we have serious doubts about that.”

They’re barely visible to the naked eye, but the Mayor of Osoyoos doesn’t want people to turn a blind eye to a pair of dangerous mussels that could ruin Okanagan waters and beaches.

The cost of invasive mussels in Okanagan will be significant.

After last week’s meeting in Osoyoos to address the threat of zebra and quagga mussels that had four presenters and 30 to 40 attendees, Mayor Stu Wells says everyone in the region needs to continue the awareness campaign.

“When you understand what these mussels can do to bodies of water, it would just change our whole economic issues here with tourism, with fishing and everything. They’ll change whole aquatic habitat patterns,” said Wells.

The mussels have already devastated many of the Great Lakes and their surrounding beaches, but now they’re starting to make their way through the United States and are heading towards the Northwest. Aquatic biologists say there’s no way to get rid of the mussels once they arrive and they’re also very difficult to keep out. However, Wells is more optimistic about preventing them from arriving in B.C., but says there’s no price to put on the type of damage they could do the beaches and lakes of the Okanagan.

“When you turn a sandy beach into one that you have to wear river shoes on, what’s the value of that? It’s priceless,” explains Wells. “There’s no going back, there’s no natural enemies and there’s no stopping it. So the only hope we have in the province of British Columbia is to keep them from getting established here.”

One positive step is a grant of $30,000 that was recently given to the Invasive Mussel Prevention Programs in the North Okanagan, Central Okanagan and South Okanagan-Similkameen by the Okanagan Basin Water Board. Wells says that money will help create printed materials to be posted by the water for awareness, but he would like to see more meetings occur throughout the Okanagan. In fact, he believes that a meeting in Penticton will take place in the near future.

In recognition of World Water Day and Canada Water Week, the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council was presented with the first-ever Excellence in Water Stewardship Award for British Columbia.

McCulloch Reservoir is one of many water sources for the Okanagan Valley

The presentation was made Friday afternoon.

“The Okanagan Water Stewardship Council exemplifies the World Water Day theme of ‘water co-operation’ perfectly,” says Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson who presented the award on behalf of Minister of Environment Terry Lake.

“The council’s membership is made up of more than two-dozen volunteer representatives from a wide range of interests who come together to work as a team to find effective solutions to benefit everyone in the Okanagan.”

The Excellence in Water Stewardship Award was established by the Council of the Federation – a collaboration of Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers – to recognize outstanding achievement, innovative practice and leadership in the area of water stewardship.

The award is presented to organizations, partnerships, businesses, institutions and community groups in each province and territory across Canada, including British Columbia.

“Fresh water is one of the most precious natural resources we have,” says Lake.

“While the BC government continues to act on ‘Living Water Smart’ – which is our vision and plan for keeping our water healthy and secure for the future – what the Province does is only part of the solution. Local and regional groups like the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council are stepping up and demonstrating leadership throughout the province.”

The council, which is a technical advisory body of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, was chosen from 16 BC nominations.

Nominees were evaluated based on the contribution of their project toward the Council of the Federation Water Charter objectives, including leadership, innovation, collaboration, water conservation and the achievement of measurable results.

The Okanagan Water Stewardship Council exemplifies these objectives by bringing about demonstrable change through leading-edge research, decision-making tools and plan development.

All of this is done in a highly collaborative environment with a broad spectrum of interests who don’t always see eye-to-eye.

“Stewardship in the Okanagan is a balancing act among various, often competing, interests,” says Okanagan Basin Water Board water stewardship director Nelson Jatel who is responsible for the council.

“It is essential to build bridges across the different interests in the water sector – including farmers and urban planners, fishers and developers, First Nations, and local and senior governments.”

Thomson presented the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council with a glass trophy, a certificate signed by Premier Christy Clark and a $1,000 honorarium provided by the Council of the Federation.

British Columbians are increasingly turning to tap water for their daily needs and giving bottled water the boot.

BC’ers are turning away from drinking bottled water

Only 11 per cent of households in B.C. choose bottled for their primary source of drinking water, compared with 22 per cent of all Canadian households, according to data released Monday by Statistics Canada.

While bottled water is dropping in popularity across the country, British Columbia recorded the biggest drop of any province, more than 50 per cent. Nearly one in four households primarily drank bottled water in 2007, compared with about one in 10 in 2011, the last year for which data are available.

“I think people are running out of excuses for drinking bottled water, especially on the Lower Mainland,” said City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto, chairman of Metro Vancouver’s utilities committee.

Metro Vancouver’s new $820-million water filtration plant is 97 per cent complete. The final phase of the project — a pipeline to connect the summer-used Capilano reservoir to the filtration plant — will be completed within 14 months. UV filters for water from the Coquitlam reservoir will be installed by the end of 2013.

“When those projects are complete we will have the best drinking water of any place in the world,” Mussatto said. “I say that without hesitation; the water that is now being produced from the Seymour — and soon from the Capilano and Coquitlam Reservoirs — will be unequalled.”

Water passing through the plant is filtered through anthracite sand to remove fine particles then treated with UV light to kill micro-organisms and finally chlorinated to keep the water free of bacteria as it passes through the regions network of pipes.

Mystifyingly, the number of Metro Vancouver residents who cited safety or health as their reason for choosing bottled over tap water rose from 19 per cent to 33 per cent between August 2008 and January 2011, according to a poll of 800 people conducted for Metro Vancouver.

Most of the people who prefer bottled water cite convenience (38 per cent) or taste (30 per cent).

“There is absolutely no reason for anyone to buy bottled water in the Lower Mainland. If you want convenience, buy a reusable bottle and fill it with tap water,” Mussatto said.

Metro Vancouver encourages people to drink tap water rather than bottled through a variety of public awareness campaigns, including a smartphone app called Tap Map that locates drinking fountains and local businesses and restaurants that will refill reusable water bottles, and the Tap Water Team, Metro employees who hand out water samples from the Metro Vancouver Water Wagon at community events and festivals through the summer months.

A 2010 waste audit estimated that 500 tonnes of plastic water bottles enter the 1-million tonne waste stream each year in Metro Vancouver.

A campaign to rid the University of B.C. campus of bottled water is gaining traction, according to student campaigner Veronika Bylicki, a first-year science student.

Members of the group Bottled Water Free UBC collected more than 3,200 signatures on a petition calling for an end to bottled water sales and received an endorsement for their efforts from the Alma Mater Society student government.

After meeting with senior administrators, the group believes the university will set a date to rid the campus of bottled water.

“First we have to increase the bottle water alternatives on campus, then we can start to reduce supply,” said Bylicki.

About one year ago, Vancouver Island University became the first university in B.C. to ban bottled water sales, a year-long process that included increasing the number of water fountains on campus.