Keystone XL prelim? 230,000 People Told Not To Drink Their Water After Diesel Fuel Spill In Canada

[Ferd Berfel]

Last edited Fri Jan 16, 2015, 03:36 PM - Edit history (1)

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/15/3612298/longueuil-do-not-drink-water-diesel-spill/

The 230,000 residents of Longueuil, a city just outside of Montreal, Canada, have been told that their tap water is unsafe to drink following a diesel fuel spill that leaked into the water supply.

According to media reports, 7,400 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a city-owned wastewater treatment center in Longueuil, apparently due to equipment failure. Canada’s CBC News reported that the spilled diesel made its way into the sewers from a generator, eventually flowing into the river that supplies drinking water to the city.

The city told its residents on Wednesday morning not to drink their tap water, but then told residents later that afternoon that the water was safe to drink, according to a report from Global News. Then, after reports that residents could still smell diesel in their water, the city on Thursday again put a “do not drink” advisory in place.

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When the Keystone XL pops (as ALL pipelines do), and they poison the Ogallala Aquifer the number will be 2.3 million Americans that cannot drink the water.

It is complete insanity to allow Keystone XL. I keep hearing about ‘Climate Change’ as the reason to not build this suicide machine. This is important for the long term (maybe not so long term) however, there are very immediate, and ‘hand-to-mouth’ reasons, for not allowing this stupidity. These are centered around Fresh Water. Specifically the Ogallala Aquifer

Fresh Water is a requirement for survival,
Canadian Oil is not a requirement for survival.
Profits of Corporations and Billionaires are not a requirement for survival.
A few temporary jobs and 35 permanent jobs is not a requirement either – sorry to the 35
ALL Pipelines leak.
The Ogallala Aquifer
Crosses 8 states
IS the Fresh Water supply for 82% of the 2.3 Million people in the area
27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States overlies and uses the aquifer
Is about 30 percent of the ground water used for irrigation in the United States
It would take hundreds to thousands of years of rainfall to replace the groundwater in the depleted aquifer. Certain zones of the aquifer are now empty; these areas will take over 6,000 years to replenish naturally through rainfall.
Once this aquifer is poisoned
30% of the crop production of the United States will end – permanently.
Millions of people will be forced to abandon these areas and relocate.

There are probably many additional points to be made here, but the ones listed should be more than enough to make any rational person just a bit nervous. It scares the shit out of me.

[marions ghost]

1. good post but

suggest to get Keystone into your title. Maybe you can still change it.

"Canadian diesel fuel spill affects water for 230K people--Keystone anyone?"

...or something like that

[KoKo]

2. Agree...Post would get more attention...

[Ferd Berfel]

6. Tx to both - Great idea - DONE

[KoKo]

3. Recommend...!

[KamaAina]

4. Welcome to DU!

[marions ghost]

5. K&R

[former9thward]

7. This was a city owned and operated facility poisoning the water supply.

Not a pipeline break.

[Ferd Berfel]

14. It's about what oil does to your water supply.

Keystone is a significantly larger problem

[former9thward]

17. No, its not.

It would be one pipeline of hundreds. Where are they breaking?

[Ferd Berfel]

19. Really? Wwe have to do this. OK

Exxon’s oil spill in Arkansas leaves neighborhood like a scene from ‘The Walking Dead’: official


Colorado flooding: Evacuations, broken oil pipeline in Weld County


Enbridge Pipeline Spills Oil in Wisconsin


Broken Michigan Oil Pipeline To Stay Shut For Now : NPR


Two Decades of Spills


Here, just click this

[former9thward]

21. Then I guess we should shut down all pipelines, Right?

Should we also shut down all wastewater treatment plants since that is where the leak in the OP came from?

[Ferd Berfel]

22. Fresh water is vastly more important than oil

done

[former9thward]

23. You are posting from a machine made from oil.

So, shut it all down, Right? Got it.

[Ferd Berfel]

26. Yep, that would be a good direction

You have seen the latest - right?


Ruptured Pipeline Pumps Tens of Thousands of Gallons of Shale Oil Along Yellowstone River

and the initial result:

Cancer-causing agent detected in water after pipeline spill


There WILL be additional horrors emerging with time, right?

[former9thward]

27. Good, shut them off now.

Let the people in the Midwest and NE freeze to death.

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. I hope Keystone and the Oil companies weren't inconvenienced.

Obviously, the 230,000 people are "takers, not makers".

[former9thward]

18. Apparenty the city thought they were "takers"

The city poisoned the water supply due to their mismanagement.

[SidDithers]

10. Q - What does a diesel fuel spill at a water treatment facility have to do with oil pipelines?...

A - Absolutely fucking nothing.

Sid

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. Potential Consequences

It is illustrative of the high stakes gamble represented by siting an oil pipeline over an aquifer that provides drinking water to millions, and unlike a river, petroleum products would there not be purged and cleansed over days weeks or months by a flowing river. The means of introduction of diesel fuel into the drinking supply of that city involved an infrastructure breakdown. All infrastructure runs a risk of breaking down. What happens to drinking water when an oil pipeline over an aquifer suffers an infrastructure breakdown? Water can become toxic in both cases.

[Ferd Berfel]

16. zackly!

Thank you

[Ferd Berfel]

15. see #14 & #11

[Ilsa]

12. Bottle the water and send it to Congress. nt

[Takket]

13. "spilled diesel made its way into the sewers from a generator"

This means the fuel most likely came from a stationary tank the supplies the fuel to the generator, not from a transport pipeline.

Please do not construe this post as a defense of keystone....

[Spazito]

20. Using this spill to argue against Keystone XL dilutes the valid arguments against Keystone...

imo. This spill was not the result of an oil sands pipeline spill, it wasn't even a pipeline.

There are plenty of oil spills to use as examples of the dangers of Keystone, this is not one of them, imo.

[SidDithers]

24. Exactly...

Remember ensho and his "Nuke Event" posts? And the links to that Hungarian disaster site?

This OP reminds me of all those threads.

Sid