Oil Spills and other fun with Hydrocarbons

[Mordae]

I still can't see the logic of using this technique in an area that actively tries to avoid earthquakes

http://www.mintpressnews.com/report-frackers-leaving-behind-earthquakes-in-california/186777/

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck near Los Angeles around 6:25 a.m. PDT on Monday, rudely awakening many of the city’s residents and prompting news anchors to dash under the newsdesk for protection while still on the air.

Damage from the earthquake to structures and roadways remains minimal, and there haven’t been any reports of injuries. The earthquake struck days after a joint report was released by Earthworks, the Center for Biological Diversity and Clean Water Action, warning that if oil companies continue to be granted access to drill for oil in California, the number of earthquakes and the inherent damage they cause will be devastating to Californians.

Specifically, the report’s authors examined the practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in California and how it increases the odds that an earthquake occurs. Fracking has traditionally involved pumping high volumes of water, sand and other chemicals at a high pressure into a rock formation, causing it to crack and release oil and gas.

While the report’s authors recognize that fracking has occurred for years, they pointed out that scientists reported as early as the 1960s that seismic activity can occur from large volumes of fluids injected underground....

http://www.mintpressnews.com/bakken-oil-waste-threatens-montana-farms-local-water-supply/186174/

The 200 or so people who call Lindsay, Mont., home likely never imagined they would find themselves in the middle of an environmental battle fueled by radioactive waste. But that’s exactly what happened in the small community of farmers and ranchers in Eastern Montana after a local farmer opened a landfill and started collecting naturally occurring radioactive waste materials generated by the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota.

Known as Oaks Disposal Services landfill, the dump site is the creation of Ross Oakland and his wife, Tara. The duo are Montana-based farmers who have been growing wheat, peas and lentils on their farm in Lindsay since 1992.

In an interview with MintPress, Oakland said he got the idea to build a landfill on his property after an oil company began to drill on land adjacent to his farmland. Oakland, who worked as a driller in the 1980s after graduating from high school, noticed the oil company didn’t have a pit to dump the waste materials, so he asked a “company man” what was being done with the materials.

“Back when I was a driller, everything went into a pit on location and (we) just buried (the materials),” Oakland recalled. “Now they are environmentally friendly.”

Inspired by the new “environmentally friendly” approach Oakland said the oil companies were taking, he called Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality and went through a two-year approval process for the state’s first, and currently only, Class II Solid Waste Management System.

Open since June 3, 2013, Oakland’s 23.1-acre landfill accepts solid waste primarily related to the exploration and production of oil and gas. This includes sludge, drill cuttings, filter socks and pit liners, among other materials.

Oakland stressed that Montana allows almost anyone to operate a landfill, as long as the dump site is built correctly and can withstand naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) that contains no more than 30 picocuries of radiation per gram. Picocuries are how the intensity of radioactive material is measured.

Oakland noted that North Dakota landfills don’t accept any NORM waste that is over 5 picocuries per gram, which is why the waste is being sent to states such as Montana.

To ensure that the waste material doesn’t seep into the ground and, more importantly, the town’s water supply, Oakland said he created a “state-of-the-art facility” that includes two “top of the line” liners, an 18-inch layer of gravel, four monitoring walls around the perimeter of the landfill, a basal layer, as well as a leachate solution system. MintPress was unable to independently verify this.

Some of Oakland’s neighbors say they are concerned about the toxic materials being brought into their town from North Dakota. They claim that Oakland’s landfill is ruining the local land, air and water, and it’s only a matter of time before disaster strikes, which could result in a polluted water supply or health effects similar to those reported after prolonged exposure to radioactive and toxic waste materials in WWII-era Hiroshima.

Given that the landfill has already spilled or overflowed at least three times, Montana could be in the beginning stages of its own environmental and health disaster...

[Monk (in hiding)]

Yet you live as every other civilized person in western culture.

308 million BTUs a year?

[Mordae]

Not quite, on both counts

Granted, I use a car, simply because it's a bit risky walking 12 km's to work at night...although if I'd been able to get those emus, I'd be using them to tow a cart   

But again, it's a false economy, if oil companies actually had to pay for cleaning up their own mess, and went without subsidies, oil would quickly become unaffordable. Fracking is, in fact, completely uneconomical, which is why operators file for bankrupcy as soon as the well is tapped out.

[Monk (in hiding)]

So what's the answer for pulling away from hydrocarbons?

[Lenzabi]

Investigations into Hydrogen fuel cells, pour in non drinking water, and the cell once it kicks on uses electrolysis to sperate the O2 and Hydrogen, allowing it to seperate and burn the materials. Batteries supply the initial kick on.

Better and longer runing electric cars, but still the things need infrastructure to have rechargers all over the cities and towns for them. solar power can help wit this as well as wind power.

Diesel engines are easily converted to go back to their roots and burn filtered used veggie oil (Professor Diesel saw his idea as a vehicle running on renewable peanut oil when he made it), the car and oil companies tooled the engine to run on compressing oil based diesel fuel.

Farms can re-purpose pig shit to be fuel.

Europe is placing solar windows as well as solar panels on houses and buildings and the dividends are showing up. spiral wind turbines outperform the giant aircraft propellers used, and can even stay functional in 80mile an hour winds.

Just a few ideas

Then there is the idea of the LENR home reactor which uses no Uranium.

another idea that needs looking into is the torsion field power makers. (That is more UFO like tech stuff there).

[Rockhopper]

Yea Mordman. Use public transport where one can. Get off the grid and don't waste power. I use WVO in the Lister and filter it through two toilet paper rolls. That powers my workshop. The area gets bathed in the sweet smell of chopsuey!

When I was a young shaver, my Dad used a team of shire horses to work the farm. It was a education to see him ploughing a field with them. We really don't want to go back to horses, although think of all the fertiliser that would be deposited outside your house!

Tim.

[Monk (in hiding)]

Hey rock, hear you have an RV now? lsol

[Mordae]

Where money goes to die

Fracking has caused an uproar in local communities and split some in two. It has brought environmentalists to a boil. It allegedly caused tap water to go up in flames. A documentary was made in its honor. It caused earthquakes in Oklahoma and other places. It caused Wall Street to froth at the mouth. And now it is causing the balance sheets of oil and gas companies to blow up.

It always starts with a toxic mix. Now even the Energy Department’s EIA has checked into it and after crunching some numbers found:

Based on data compiled from quarterly reports, for the year ending March 31, 2014, cash from operations for 127 major oil and natural gas companies totaled $568 billion, and major uses of cash totaled $677 billion, a difference of almost $110 billion.

To fill this $110 billion hole that they’d dug in just one year, these 127 oil and gas companies went out and increased their net debt by $106 billion. But that wasn’t enough. To raise more cash, they also sold $73 billion in assets. It left them with more cash (borrowed cash, that is) on the balance sheet than before, which pleased analysts, and it left them with a pile of additional debt and fewer assets to generate revenues with in order to service this debt...

And this is on 0% interest, so you can imagine what'll happen if the Fed starts tapering their ponzi scheme

[Rockhopper]

Hey rock, hear you have an RV now? lsol

Yup I have a bus. Had it for a while. And yes, it's diesel turbo, mechanical injectors so it should be easy to convert to WVO.

Tim.

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