The Great Lakes, as well as other aquatic systems, have seen the accidental import of many invasive species. Some, as it turns out, are stronger than the native forms which dramatically changes local conditions and not always for the good.
Amidst the public battle over handling of the Asian carp threat in the Great Lakes, there is good news on the invasive species front. A New York State appellate court dismissed a challenge brought by shipping interests against the state’s tough new ballast water requirements, which are designed to limit the introduction of more invasive species into the Great Lakes. This is the second time that the state, with help from intervening Non-Government Organizations, has successfully defended the ballast water restrictions in court.
The Asian carp is the particular culprit in this case, including the bighead carp and the silver carp. Other species include the quagga mussel that now carpets the bottom of Lake Michigan. The population of prey fish, which sustain big fish like salmon, has dropped to less than 10% of what it was before invasive mussels arrived two decades ago.
An invasive species is an animal or plant that moves into a new environment, often badly disrupting it. Invasive species are becoming more common, in part because of international trade, which allows easy and accidental transport of wildlife from one corner of the world to another, and partly due to climate change, which prompts species to migrate to more hospitable environments, often at the expense of those that already live there.
The Asian carp are particularly dangerous. Native to China and parts of Southeast Asia, the freshwater carp have been cultivated for aquaculture for more than 1,000 years, often raised in submerged rice paddies. Catfish farmers in the U.S. imported the carp decades ago to eat up the algae in their ponds; the fish slowly escaped into the wild and have been making their way up the Mississippi river.
Due to the environmental threat posed by invasive species, lawyers from NRDC intervened in the shipping industry lawsuit alongside the State of New York. The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, Third Judicial Department, rejected shipping industry arguments that the New York ballast water regulations were illegal because they were stricter than the U.S. EPA's nationwide discharge permit.
“Today’s court decision is an important victory in the ongoing saga to protect our majestic Great Lakes from invasive species.”? said Marc Smith, Policy Manager with National Wildlife Federation. “Requiring the shipping industry to install effective protections against these invaders is long over due. Now more than ever do we need aggressive federal action to help reinforce New York’s leadership to ensure a more comprehensive defense policy against invasive species."
The New York court's ruling that states have authority to adopt ballast water rules that are more protective than federal standards is consistent with the decision last year in a lower state court as well as the federal appeals court in Cincinnati to uphold Michigan's ballast water rules against a similar shipping industry challenge.
The Great Lakes are a unique ecosystem representing 1/5 of the Earth's surface fresh water, but the vitality of the ecosystem has been threatened by alien species that have wreaked havoc on native fish and plants. Over 150+ invasive species have been identified in the Great Lakes since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959. 65% of these invasive species introductions have been attributed to ballast water.
The Canadian and U.S. operators of the St. Lawrence Seaway have begun requiring freighters to flush their ship steadying ballast tanks with ocean saltwater to kill or expel any unwanted organisms before they arrive in the Great Lakes.
Marine advocates say the flushing largely has solved the ballast problem, and point to the fact that no new species have been detected in the lakes since late 2006. Others disagree.
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/41001
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Cradle-to-Grave H2O Management
Water supply is an enormous concern not only for natural gas companies involved in hydraulic fracturing (abbreviated as fracking), but also for government and environmental groups. Currently, the 4 to 6 million gallons of freshwater required for each natural gas well is drawn from rivers, lakes and streams. To further complicate matters, acquiring water rights is a time-consuming and costly process. Environmental impact studies must additionally be completed before well- or water-pumping permits can be issued, which can absorb up to two years of time.
Integrated Water Technologies believes that it has solved the fracking obstacles of both providing adequate freshwater supplies and wastewater disposal—fracking water and wastewater management—with its FracPure™ water treatment system. This cradle-to-grave solution both environmentally and cost-effectively generates reusable water and beneficial salt products.
The company has proven the effectiveness of FracPure-produced water remediation for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection by solving the problems of hydraulic fracturing water supply, handling and disposal, while eliminating long-term liabilities. As a matter of fact, John T. Hines, deputy secretary of the Office of Water Management says, “This is the first wastewater treatment system that has been successfully demonstrated for the treatment of Marcellus Shale frack wastewater.”
FracPure On-site Treatment
According to the company, the FracPure water treatment system removes all contaminants from frack water and returns 80 percent of flowback (translating into more than 1 million gallons per well) into pure water distillate for reuse on drilling sites. The remaining 20 percent of the treated water is highly concentrated salt brine, which goes through testing to ensure it is contaminant-free.
At this point, the brine is high in chlorides and not yet ready for return to the environment. However, it can be safely transported to Integrated Water’s crystallization plant for the final treatment phase.
More specifically, the steps involved in the FracPure process are:
Frack water testing—this determines wastewater processing rates.
Chemical precipitation—using a proprietary chemical treatment, a solid is formed that removes heavy metals or dissolved solids from the wastewater. The solids are dewatered and sent to a research laboratory to determine beneficial uses.
Filtration—purified water continues through multiple stages of filtration to remove organics and total suspended solids. The water is then sent to a concentrator.
Evaporation—the concentrator evaporates the brine down and yields purified distilled water for reuse on the drilling site, in addition to a greatly reduced salt brine that can be transported to the company’s crystallization plant to be processed.
On-site testing—Integrated Water Technologies’ testing labs ensure the concentrated brine meets standards for processing in its crystallization plant, and the distilled water exceeds EPA and all state regulatory groups’ recognized drinking water standard of 500 PPM. In fact, FracPure™ processed water averages less than 100 PPM and is completely safe to return to the environment.
Crystallization and desalinization—the final stage of the FracPure process turns the concentrated salt brine into salt products and distilled water. The brine is then manipulated to increase the percentage of solids in the liquid. After multiple phases of treatment, the process creates 99.7 percent pure dry salts for water softening, 99.7 percent liquid salts for road de-icing and erosion control, as well as the aforementioned distilled water.
More on Integrated Water Benefits
According to the company, a typical natural gas drilling site returns 1.3 million gallons of contaminated flowback in the first two weeks of operation. Generally, all 1.3 million gallons would have to be transported to an off-site wastewater treatment plant where it would be diluted for discharge into the environment. Integrated Water Technologies President Anthony DiTommaso says, “It is unacceptable that in the world today the primary solution to water remediation is dilution.”
In contrast, the FracPure process permits 1 million gallons to remain on-site as distilled water for reuse, eliminating about 200 incoming truck loads of freshwater for fracking. Moreover, it creates 300,000 gallons of highly concentrated salt brine, thus reducing disposal costs by 80 percent or 200 truckloads.
Over the next few years, the natural gas industry will require billions of gallons of freshwater—in the Marcellus Shale alone—for the hydraulic fracturing or drilling process. To that end, the FracPure mobile water treatment system can also create freshwater on-site from multiple other contaminated wastewater sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, sewage facilities, mining operation water effluent and other industrial wastewaters.
FracPure water management reduces water supply costs by creating new sources, trucking costs by 100 percent on-site treatment and recycling, and plant operation costs by creating commercially sold salt products. The company engineers centralized treatment plants and FracPure mobile on-site treatment units to provide 100 percent frack water recycling, production brine disposal, pit water filtration and disposal, and source water supply.
http://www.chem.info/Articles/2010/07/Processing-Equipment-Cradle-to-Grave-H2O-Management/
Integrated Water Technologies believes that it has solved the fracking obstacles of both providing adequate freshwater supplies and wastewater disposal—fracking water and wastewater management—with its FracPure™ water treatment system. This cradle-to-grave solution both environmentally and cost-effectively generates reusable water and beneficial salt products.
The company has proven the effectiveness of FracPure-produced water remediation for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection by solving the problems of hydraulic fracturing water supply, handling and disposal, while eliminating long-term liabilities. As a matter of fact, John T. Hines, deputy secretary of the Office of Water Management says, “This is the first wastewater treatment system that has been successfully demonstrated for the treatment of Marcellus Shale frack wastewater.”
FracPure On-site Treatment
According to the company, the FracPure water treatment system removes all contaminants from frack water and returns 80 percent of flowback (translating into more than 1 million gallons per well) into pure water distillate for reuse on drilling sites. The remaining 20 percent of the treated water is highly concentrated salt brine, which goes through testing to ensure it is contaminant-free.
At this point, the brine is high in chlorides and not yet ready for return to the environment. However, it can be safely transported to Integrated Water’s crystallization plant for the final treatment phase.
More specifically, the steps involved in the FracPure process are:
Frack water testing—this determines wastewater processing rates.
Chemical precipitation—using a proprietary chemical treatment, a solid is formed that removes heavy metals or dissolved solids from the wastewater. The solids are dewatered and sent to a research laboratory to determine beneficial uses.
Filtration—purified water continues through multiple stages of filtration to remove organics and total suspended solids. The water is then sent to a concentrator.
Evaporation—the concentrator evaporates the brine down and yields purified distilled water for reuse on the drilling site, in addition to a greatly reduced salt brine that can be transported to the company’s crystallization plant to be processed.
On-site testing—Integrated Water Technologies’ testing labs ensure the concentrated brine meets standards for processing in its crystallization plant, and the distilled water exceeds EPA and all state regulatory groups’ recognized drinking water standard of 500 PPM. In fact, FracPure™ processed water averages less than 100 PPM and is completely safe to return to the environment.
Crystallization and desalinization—the final stage of the FracPure process turns the concentrated salt brine into salt products and distilled water. The brine is then manipulated to increase the percentage of solids in the liquid. After multiple phases of treatment, the process creates 99.7 percent pure dry salts for water softening, 99.7 percent liquid salts for road de-icing and erosion control, as well as the aforementioned distilled water.
More on Integrated Water Benefits
According to the company, a typical natural gas drilling site returns 1.3 million gallons of contaminated flowback in the first two weeks of operation. Generally, all 1.3 million gallons would have to be transported to an off-site wastewater treatment plant where it would be diluted for discharge into the environment. Integrated Water Technologies President Anthony DiTommaso says, “It is unacceptable that in the world today the primary solution to water remediation is dilution.”
In contrast, the FracPure process permits 1 million gallons to remain on-site as distilled water for reuse, eliminating about 200 incoming truck loads of freshwater for fracking. Moreover, it creates 300,000 gallons of highly concentrated salt brine, thus reducing disposal costs by 80 percent or 200 truckloads.
Over the next few years, the natural gas industry will require billions of gallons of freshwater—in the Marcellus Shale alone—for the hydraulic fracturing or drilling process. To that end, the FracPure mobile water treatment system can also create freshwater on-site from multiple other contaminated wastewater sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, sewage facilities, mining operation water effluent and other industrial wastewaters.
FracPure water management reduces water supply costs by creating new sources, trucking costs by 100 percent on-site treatment and recycling, and plant operation costs by creating commercially sold salt products. The company engineers centralized treatment plants and FracPure mobile on-site treatment units to provide 100 percent frack water recycling, production brine disposal, pit water filtration and disposal, and source water supply.
http://www.chem.info/Articles/2010/07/Processing-Equipment-Cradle-to-Grave-H2O-Management/
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Feral pigs a threat to freshwater ecosystems
THE feral pig – an environmental scourge - will be better managed following new research into its impact on freshwater areas.
Biosecurity Queensland senior zoologist Jim Mitchell said anybody who travelled through the outback of far north Queensland could see the environmental impact of feral pigs.
“Around almost every water body, be it a creek or lagoon, you will see large areas of ground dug up by feral pigs in search for food,” Dr Mitchell said.
“We commonly see groups of 20 to 100 pigs around water bodies in Cape York during the dry season and wondered if the repeated diggings had significant long-term impacts.
“A project to analyse the impact of feral pigs on water bodies has confirmed they are environmental vandals.
“The study was conducted at Lakefield National Park, a region on Cape York renowned for its vast river systems and spectacular wetlands.
“Our research defined the damage that feral pigs cause to tropical freshwater ecosystems.
“As expected, feral pigs clearly had a dramatic impact on the ecology of the unprotected freshwater lagoons.”
Dr Mitchell said the impacts included major destruction of plant communities, particularly water lilies, which were the pig’s favourite food.
“They dig underwater to forage for plant tubers,” he said.
“The destruction of aquatic plants and the sediment disturbance significantly reduced water clarity.
“Pig diggings caused high turbidity levels, reduced the amount of dissolved oxygen and increased the nutrient loads in the water.
“The data collected in this study will help organisations and land managers make decisions on the best way to manage the environmental damage caused by pigs.”
Dr Mitchell, who led the multi-agency study, will present his findings at the Pest Animal Symposium to be held in Gladstone from August 3 to 5.
“During the research we compared the water quality between lagoons fenced to keep out pigs and lagoons left unfenced,” he said.
http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/
Biosecurity Queensland senior zoologist Jim Mitchell said anybody who travelled through the outback of far north Queensland could see the environmental impact of feral pigs.
“Around almost every water body, be it a creek or lagoon, you will see large areas of ground dug up by feral pigs in search for food,” Dr Mitchell said.
“We commonly see groups of 20 to 100 pigs around water bodies in Cape York during the dry season and wondered if the repeated diggings had significant long-term impacts.
“A project to analyse the impact of feral pigs on water bodies has confirmed they are environmental vandals.
“The study was conducted at Lakefield National Park, a region on Cape York renowned for its vast river systems and spectacular wetlands.
“Our research defined the damage that feral pigs cause to tropical freshwater ecosystems.
“As expected, feral pigs clearly had a dramatic impact on the ecology of the unprotected freshwater lagoons.”
Dr Mitchell said the impacts included major destruction of plant communities, particularly water lilies, which were the pig’s favourite food.
“They dig underwater to forage for plant tubers,” he said.
“The destruction of aquatic plants and the sediment disturbance significantly reduced water clarity.
“Pig diggings caused high turbidity levels, reduced the amount of dissolved oxygen and increased the nutrient loads in the water.
“The data collected in this study will help organisations and land managers make decisions on the best way to manage the environmental damage caused by pigs.”
Dr Mitchell, who led the multi-agency study, will present his findings at the Pest Animal Symposium to be held in Gladstone from August 3 to 5.
“During the research we compared the water quality between lagoons fenced to keep out pigs and lagoons left unfenced,” he said.
http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/
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