7/28/2019 Drumbeat Rex & Barack 13-06-13 Alberta Horror

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Douglas A. GrandtP. O. Box 6603

Lincoln, NE 68506

June 13, 2013

President Barack ObamaThe White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NWWashington, D.C. 20500

Mr. Rex W. TillersonExxon Mobil Corporation5959 Las Colinas Blvd.Irving, Texas 75039

Re: Non-fiction horror -- Ecocide in Alberta

Dear President Obama and Mr. Tillerson,

Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disastersin North America

Whether you feel righteous indignation in your heart, or are numb to the destruction of life inthe oil patch -- on the plains, in the boreal forest or deep in the sea -- you need to respond.

The two of you could -- indeed, can and must  -- lead our nation and the world toward a new

paradigm. It is your moral obligation to speak out boldly and courageously that immediatesteps must be taken to replace the obsolete practice of burning hydrocarbons with availableand innovative new technology for harvesting carbon-free energy from the forces of nature.

The Globe and Mail report is by Nathan VanderKlippe http://bit.ly/alberta-spill-GM-12June:

The substance is the inky black colour of oil, and the treetops are brown. Across a broadexpanse of northern Alberta muskeg, the landscape is dead. It has been poisoned by ahuge spill of 9.5 million litres of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation in northern

 Alberta, the third major leak in a region whose residents are now questioning whether enough is being done to maintain aging energy infrastructure.

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The spill was first spotted on June 1. But not until Wednesday did Houston-based ApacheCorp. release estimates of its size, which exceeds all of the major recent spills in NorthAmerica. It comes amid heightened sensitivity about pipeline safety, as the industry facesbroad public opposition to plans for a series of major new oil export pipelines to the U.S.,

British Columbia and eastern Canada.

In northern Alberta, not far from the town of Zama City, the leak of so-called “producedwater” has affected some 42 hectares, the size of 52 CFL fields, in an area less than 100kilometres south of the Northwest Territories border.

“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay,chief of the Dene Tha First Nation, whose members run traplines in an area that hasseen oil and gas development since the 1950s.

Apache spokesman Paul Wyke calledthe spill “salty water,” with “trace

amounts” of oil. The Energy ResourcesConservation Board, Alberta’s energyregulator, said it contained roughly 200parts per million of oil, or about 2,000litres in total. But information compiledby the Dene Tha suggests the toxicsubstance contains hydrocarbons, highlevels of salt, sulphurous compounds,metals and naturally occurringradioactive materials, along withchemical solvents and additives usedby the oil industry.

Produced-water leaks are considered easier to clean up than oil spills. But the DeneTha suspect this is a long-standing spill that may have gone undetected for months,given the widespread damage it has done. Apache and the Alberta government sayits duration is under investigation.

The leak follows a pair of other major spills in the region, including 800,000 litres of an oil-water mixture from Pace Oil and Gas Ltd., and nearly 3.5 million litres of oil from a pipelinerun by Plains Midstream Canada.

 After those accidents, the Dene Tha had asked the Energy Resources ConservationBoard, Alberta’s energy regulator, to require installation of pressure and volume monitors,as well as emergency shutoff devices, on aging oil and gas infrastructure. The Apache spill

has renewed calls for change.

“We don’t believe that the government is doing enough to ensure upgrades andmaintenance of the lines,” Mr. Ahnassay said.

The Apache spill took place in an area rich with wetlands. Though the Dene Tha suspectwaterfowl have died, the company said it has seen no wildlife impacts. The spill has notreached the Zama River, although the Alberta government said it has affected tributaries.Water monitoring is ongoing.

President Obama and Mr. TillersonJune 13, 2013

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Neither Apache nor Alberta initially disclosed the spill, which was only made publicafter someone reported it to a TV station late last week. The National Energy Board,by comparison, sent out a news release Tuesday after a spill of five to seven barrelsof oil at an Imperial Oil Ltd. refinery in Sarnia, Ont.

Bob Curran, a spokesman for the ERCB, defended the late release of information,saying it took 10 days to determine the size of the spill.

“The second we knew the volumes, we put out a news release,” he said. Asked how itcould take so long to determine the severity of a large spill, he said Wednesday: “Wedidn’t know it was over 42 hectares. We found that out last night.”

Environmental groups have long criticized the government for being slow to notify thepublic when things go wrong with the oil industry, the province’s financial lifeblood. “Thislatest spill should call into question the provincial government’s decision to hide thepipeline safety report they received last year and the failure to follow through on the public

pipeline safety review the Minister of Energy promised last July,” said Greenpeacecampaigner Mike Hudema in a statement.

 A spokesman for Energy Minister Ken Hughes said the province trusts its energy regulator to decide when to release information based “on a process of established science andprotocol.”

 Apache said in a statement that it has halted the leak and “taken steps to contain therelease as the company continues to map, sample and monitor the impacted areas.”

“Did the Redford Government try to cover-up one of the largest spills in Alberta’s History?”  is the headline of a report by GreenPeace dated today at http://bit.ly/cover-up-gp-13-june.

Be the modern day Charles Grant. Declare such oil patch practices and lack of transparencyand monitoring technology to be not only bad Corporate Citizenship, but criminal and immoral.

The ultimate solution to the deterioration of the carbon fuel infrastructure and the damage that itcauses by spills and the burning of the hydrocarbons is to abandon it. It has served its purpose,and now it is time to move forward before we destroy what we have built using the crude energy.

Take bold, courageous action to bring you colleaguestogether and guide them to immediately schedule theretirement of their refineries, coal-fired power plants,boilers and furnaces -- in a managed, predictably andequitably so as to facilitate a WWII-like ramping up of carbon-free technology to replace the out-dated

pieces of the carbon puzzle.

We must quickly begin to abandon fossil fuelsYou must take bold, courageous actionIt’s time you create your legacy Reduce the infrastructure

Retire the refineries

cc: Secretary John F. Kerry

President Obama and Mr. TillersonJune 13, 2013

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All we want is . . .

Clean energy!Carbon-free!Carbon feeRebate to meRetire the refineries

All we want is . . .

Clean energy!Carbon-free!Carbon feeRebate to meRetire the refineries