Martinez Environmental Group

Influence

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/10/6616446/chances-of-crude-oil-train-fire.html

By Tony Bizjak   Sacto Bee   Aug. 10, 2014
In the middle of the night a year ago, a runaway train laden with crude oil derailed in a Canadian town, igniting a firestorm that killed 47 people, some of them asleep in bed, vaporized buildings for blocks, and awakened rail cities like Sacramento across the continent to a new fear:

Could that happen here?

Although trains have long ferried hazardous materials, including crude oil and other potentially lethal products such as chlorine and ammonia, the amount of flammable crude oil now shipped by rail is unprecedented, and growing fast.

A string of recent derailments and explosions, some requiring evacuations, have prompted federal transportation officials to call for new safety measures, including stronger tanker cars and slower speeds for trains carrying a particularly volatile form of crude oil from the suddenly booming Bakken fields of North Dakota. Continue reading →

Acme-Landfill-Draft-Post-Closure-Permit-Community-Notice

By Jon Carroll   SF Chronicle   August 6, 2014

On the road again, searching for places to touch the bay and, by extension, finding out about the shoreline. Strictly a two-person expedition, not at all a guided tour. I find what you’d find if you decided to find it.

We decided to turn right at the Martinez exit, heading east into … something. The map was silent about what that might be. No towns inhabited this stretch of shoreline.

Almost immediately we came to a sign: Waterbird Regional Preserve. Who knew? The road led away from the bay, up the knob of a hill. There was a parking area; there were interpretive signs. In the parking area, there were two cars besides ours. Both featured men sitting in the front seats using their cell phones.

Lonely divorced dads on a Sunday? Cheating husbands sexting their girlfriends? Drug dealers waiting for customers? We have seen such men before on our travels, always sitting in parking lots attached to scenic locations, just killing time or waiting for Godot.

So how did this park come to be, you ask. Funny story there. An informational signboard overlooking McNabney Marsh, as it turned out to be called – a lagoon-like body of water apparently teeming with birds at some other time of the year – explained it all.

In 1988, there was a big oil spill from the Shell Oil refinery just up the coast. Its huge tanks are clearly visible along the ridgeline opposite the marsh. McNabney Marsh was flooded. Gunk everywhere.

Continue reading →

By JUSTIN MIKULKA   desmogblog.com   2014-08-08

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/08/08/regulators-ignore-one-proven-way-eliminate-bakken-bomb-trains-oil-stabilization

http://earthfix.opb.org/energy/article/crew-fatigue-remains-unsolved-problem-underestimat/

By Tony Schick   Oregon Public Broadcasting   July 22, 2014

On a November morning in 2003, a sleeping Union Pacific crew missed a signal in Kelso, Washington. Their train collided with the side of an oncoming BNSF Railway train. Fuel tanks ruptured and spilled 2,800 gallons. Total damage neared $3 million. Unlike a similar collision in the same spot 10 years earlier, the crews escaped alive.

Firefighters spray the wreckage of a 2011 collision between a BNSF coal train and an equipment train. The collision was caused by crew fatigue. Photo courtesy of NTSB/Red Oak Fire Department
Continue reading →

By MARAM MAZEN   Associated Press   Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/03/6602491/nigeria-shell-not-cleaning-oil.html

LAGOS, Nigeria — Little action has been taken to clean up pollution caused by oil production in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, either by the government or Shell Oil, Amnesty International and other groups charged Monday.

Oil production has contaminated the drinking water of at least 10 communities in the Ogoniland area but neither the Nigerian government nor Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigeria subsidiary have taken effective measures to restore the fouled environment, said the new report by Amnesty International, Friends of The Earth Europe, Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Environmental Rights Action, and Platform. Continue reading →

By Paul Burgarino   Contra Costa Times   08/02/2014

http://www.contracostatimes.com/contra-costa-times/ci_26264741/pittsburg-we 

PITTSBURG — The brakes remain on a massive $200 million plan to transport domestic crude oil by railroad cars and ships, store it in refurbished storage tanks and pipe it to refineries throughout the Bay Area.
And after almost six months of no action, it may stay that way for a while.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-coleman/tesoro-begins-cleanup-of_b_5642571.html

“However, “full remediation” will only take place down to 8 feet. [Ed. Note: The oil seeped down 42 feet.] This means significant amounts of contaminants (up to 500 ppm) will remain in the soil and water pockets under the wheat field. The root systems of wheat can penetrate 7 feet down, depending on the type of wheat.”

North Dakota Pipeline Oil Spill Oil can be seen in ditches dug byTesoro. These ditches collected over 1,200 gallons of oil per week for months after the spill was discovered.

By Ari Phillips   ThinkProgress   01 August 14

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/25099-frackers-spill-olympic-pools-worth-of-hydrochloric-acid-in-oklahoma