Marine Pollution Control8631 West Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48209 USA
313.849.2333 - 24/hour
11320 E Lakewood Blvd., #11
Holland, MI 49424
800-521-8232 – 24/Hour
GSA Contract #: GS-10F-0268R
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US system for flagging hazardous chemicals is widely flawed
August 12, 2013
(Reuters) - A 27-year-old U.S. program intended to warn the public of the presence of hazardous chemicals is flawed in many states due to scant oversight and lax reporting by plant owners, a Reuters examination finds.
Under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, private and public facilities must issue an inventory listing potentially hazardous chemicals stored on their properties. The inventory, known as a Tier II report, is filed with state, county and local emergency-management officials. The information is then supposed to be made publicly available, to help first responders and nearby residents plan for emergencies.
But facilities across the country often misidentify these chemicals or their location, and sometimes fail to report the existence of the substances altogether.
Gag Order Bars US Children from Fracking Talk
August 7, 2013
Two children aged seven and 10 have been told they are banned for life from discussing fracking under an oil company settlement reached in the US state of Pennsylvania.
Under the 2011 settlement, unsealed last week, plaintiffs Chris and Stephanie Hallowich were explicitly told that an attendant lifetime gag order -- under which they were never to discuss the Marcellus shale basin or fracking -- also applied to their children.
President Obama Issues an Executive order to Improve Chemical Facility Safety & Security
August 2, 2013
President Obama issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at improving Safety & Seurity at Chemical Facilities.
The executive order requires that a Chemical Facility Safety & Security working group be established. Among the objectives of the working group are to improve the coordination of governmental agencies and first responders as well as to determine methods for interagency collaboration for sharing data.
Under the executive order, the working group is to provide a report to the President within about 9 months.
A copy of the Executive Order can be found here:
Michigan Cites Company For Fracking-Related Spill
August 2, 2013
LANSING (WWJ/AP) – Michigan has cited an energy company for spilling 300 to 400 gallons of water and brine into the ground on the site of a fracking well in Kalkaska County.
The state Department of EnvironmentalQuality this week issued a violation notice to Encana Oil and Gas Inc. for an incident that occurred July 15. The spill was related to hydraulic fracturing, which releases natural gas trapped in deep underground rock formations.
Canadian-based Encana was cleaning out the well hole to prepare for production testing. But water pumped back to the surface inadvertently leaked from a tank.
Samet Island: Thailand oil spill spreads to other islands
August 1, 2013
As authorities race to clean up an oil spill that has washed up on the beach of one the Thailand’s popular islands, new news has been released that the spill has spread to other nearby islands as well.
On Saturday morning around 13,200 gallons of oil was spilled into the sea from a pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemical, a part of the state-owned oil and gas company, PTT Plc. The spill occurred when crude oil was being transferred from a tanker moored offshore to the pipeline where it would then be carried to the Map Ta Phut refinery.
The oil slick floated on the sea for a day before being washed up in Prao Bay on the small resort island of Samet on Sunday night as a black tide of crude oil. PTT immediately issued an apology and claimed that the mess would be cleaned up within three days.