SkyTruth

NASA Launches New Weather Satellite

2009-07-08T09:06:00.005-04:00

GOES-14 launch - click to see a larger image

On June 27, 2009, NASA successfully launched GO ES-14, the newest in a long line of workhorse weather satellites, and will soon turn over operation of the bird to NOAA. Most of the images you see on TV weather reports come from the GOES satellites. They're low-resolution, but cover huge chunks of the planet in a single view. And since they are geostationary (the "G" in GOES) -- parked at an altitude of 22,000 miles where the orbital motion of the satellite precisely keeps time with the rotation of the earth -- these satellites are continuously monitoring cloud patterns and other atmospheric parameters, allowing forecasters to predict the weather and keep a close eye on severe storms.

GOES image of Hurricane Katrina, August 28, 2005

Here at SkyTruth, we use GOES images to help us track the motion of hurricanes that threaten offshore oil and gas facilities, and to evaluate the wind and rain conditions in an area when we're acquiring satellite radar images to detect and map oil slicks. With another hurricane season upon us, we're glad to see this perfect launch.

Natural Gas Drilling, Hydrofracturing, and Ground Water - Drink Up?

2009-06-16T13:16:00.004-04:00

A couple of YouTube videos have been making the rounds and causing some alarm among the ever-increasing number of homeowners who have active natural gas drilling in their area, and rely on groundwater for their drinking water supply. This video shows common, normal operations at a modern natural-gas drilling site in western Colorado, operated by the Canadian company EnCana, a major player in the Rockies. One video shows drilling fluids being stored onsite in a plastic-lined open pit (a "fluid reserve pit") while the well is hydrofractured, or "fracced." The other video shows this same pit being closed: as a crew removes residual fluids and pulls out the liner, a bulldozer buries the pit.

We've created a small gallery showing the drill site depicted in these videos, and adjacent residences. Although the operations depicted are probably allowed by Colorado law, nearby homeowners who have water wells for drinking and bathing are concerned about these practices as drilling permeates the area. Multiply this scene tens of thousands of times, and you get the idea what's been happening in recent years with drilling in many parts of the country.

Grasberg Mine Tailings Inundating Forest in Indonesia

2009-06-09T17:50:00.009-04:00

File this under "you gotta be kidding me" -- tailings (waste rock, mud, etc.) from the massive open-pit Grasberg copper/gold mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, are actually dumped right into the river system. It's called "riverine tailings disposal." Sounds very sophisticated. When the fast-flowing mountain streams hit the forested lowlands, though, they slow down and dump their load of crud across a steadily growing floodplain of desolation, killing most of the vegetation:

Grasberg mine tailings in 1988 (above) and 2003 (below)

According to the New Orleans-based mine operator, Freeport McMoRan, this is all perfectly legal in Indonesia. But some of their investors aren't too happy about this.

We've created a gallery of satellite images showing how rapidly the area of devastation grew between 1988 and 2003. Can't wait to see a more recent image...

Our images appear about 4 minutes into a 2007 documentary film by Kurt Diegert called "Exploiting West Papua." The film also includes spectacular low-altitude aerial shots of the inundated floodplain.

SkyTruth - How Do We Help (Part 2)?

2009-06-08T11:21:00.004-04:00

All too often, public notice of a proposed well or other industrial facility -- particularly those related to oil and gas drilling -- gives the location in legal terms that are meaningless to the average citizen. Where, exactly, is the thing going to be drilled or built? We just got another great example of this: a proposed well to dispose of acid gas (carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, waste products of natural gas processing) on the site of a large gas processing plant, by injecting it into an underlying rock formation. Here is the public description of the location:

CASE 14329: Application of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for approval of an acid gas injection well, San Juan County, New Mexico. Applicant seeks approval to drill an acid gas injection well at its Kirtland New Mexico site. The well will be drilled 1650 feet from the North line and 2310 feet from the West line in Unit F of Section 1, Township 29 North, Range 15 West NMPM, to inject up to 2000 barrels of acid gas per day at a maximum pressure of 1985 psi, into the Entrada Formation, at an approximate depth of 6500 feet to 6700 feet.

Concerned citizens in New Mexico contacted SkyTruth. We loaded the township/range grid into our GIS software, identified the location, and converted it to latitude/longitude coordinates. Then we plugged the location into Google Earth to generate a few images showing the proposed disposal well. Here's the response to our work:

Thank you so much! I do believe you have located it. I was not aware that the plant was this large and so near Kirtland. It is much closer to residences than their permit request implies. We of course are worried about H2S leaks as well as the underground process...

It is really amazing how much we use these satellite pictures now. You have really opened up a valuable tool to us with your work. I find that they really help cut to the chase when shown to someone during a discussion. Usually people are stunned to see them. Can't hide and it is hard to argue with pictures. They are a terrific and valuable tool for sure. - Kris Dixon

SkyTruth - How Do We Help?

2009-05-26T13:55:00.006-04:00

At SkyTruth we focus on creating images from satellite and aerial imagery that shed light on environmental concerns, especially landscape- and ecosystem-altering activities such as oil and gas drilling, mining, and deforestation. Many citizen's groups, large and small, use our work to help raise awareness of the problems and issues they're confronting. Every so often we get a note of thanks, letting us know exactly how we've helped, often in ways we didn't even foresee. We just received this one, with permission from the author to share it with you. She is fighting uranium mining in Colorado, and writes this in response to images of mining near residential neighborhoods that we posted last week:

You can never know how much you've helped our effort.

In our pain and anguish, we never found the Butte, Montana, mine. We always looked for a uranium mine. However the Berkeley Mine is pertinent because of the devastation to their water.

We've always believed that there was one issue that would save us... and that is water!

Your photos of the Berkeley Mine led us to diagrams of the dewatering of their area. That mine is literally across the street from Butte, Montana, and the people with private water wells were probably hooked up to city water (that fact is no excuse for this disaster),but what will we do when our water table is lowered and our water wells run dry? We are 9 miles, as the crow flies, from city water.

The Fremont Board of County Commissioners voted to approve Uranium Exploration within 500 feet of 44 land and homeowners. They've stated that they do not believe they can "take" the rancher's minerals. They won't exercise their own authority to deny an inappropriate adjacent land use to our homes and retirement properties.

Water is our last weapon. Your photos lead us to examples of how massive dewatering affects the area. Not only by the absence of water, but by the contamination of the water that infills the contaminated hole that is left. More than one mine in Montana has to have water treatment in "perpetuity." Who pays for that cost? Taxpayers! It's disgraceful to allow this to happen. It's a waste beyond words... of precious Western water, and taxpayer resources.

How can these backwards legislators continue to vote to allow this kind of thing to happen when the results are so proven to cost multi-million dollars more than the few jobs these projects bring?

Thank you, more than words can express. Doesn't mean that they will do the right thing, but it's a fantastic start!

Gold Mining In the 'Hood: Morro do Ouro Gold Mine - Paracatu, Brazil

2009-05-22T16:03:00.013-04:00

How'd you like to have a fast-growing open-pit gold mine in your neighborhood?

Town of Paracatu with mining operation (gray) in the background.

That's a serious question facing the folks in Paracat u, in the Minas Gerais state of eastern Brazil. Gold mining there has occurred since the early 1700's, but really kicked into high gear with full-scale open-pit mining beginning in the 1980s, becoming the biggest gold mine in Brazil. Since 2006, a Canadian company, Kinross Gold Corporation, has owned and operated the mine and recently began a major expansion. SkyTruth has created a gallery of vertical and panoramic views showing the mine, processing facilities, tailings impoundment, and proximity to Paracatu, a city of about 100,000 people.

This certainly isn't the only place where mining and neighborhoods collide. Check out our gallery for Cerro de Pasco in Peru.

Cerro de Pasco mine, Peru

And here in the US, the Berkeley Pit copper/gold mine in Butte, Montana, gradually ate up neighborhoods throughout the life of the mine. Now the closed mine poses a toxic threat to groundwater that has landed in the lap of local residents and US taxpayers. It's the gift that keeps on giving. We've posted a couple of pics of this gem.

Berkeley Pit, Butte, Montana

Thanks are (over)due....

2009-05-04T17:05:00.004-04:00

...to our friends at ERDAS, makers of Imagine, the powerful image processing and mapping software that we use here at SkyTruth. They provide this at a steeply discounted rate to non-profits like us. Almost everything we do uses Imagine; a couple of examples are our time-series of urban growth in Las Vegas, and our multi-decade analysis of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.

...and to our friends at Google Earth, who once again have extended, at no cost, the license for us to continue using Google Earth Pro for another year. Check out a couple of the ways we've used Google Earth Pro: for mapping coal-combustion waste disposal in high-risk flood zones, and showing residential development encroaching into the habitat of the endangered Preble's Mouse.

A big tip o' the hat to companies like these who make a real effort to support the non-profit community.

Swine Flu and CAFOs - Any Connection?

2009-04-30T14:27:00.007-04:00

Swine flu is certainly getting people's attention, and raising a lot of discussion about factory farming and its possible impacts on our health, as well as the environment. We've just published a few satellite views of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) near La Gloria, the town in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, where the first case of swine flu associated with the April, 2009 outbreak was identified. Large hog-farming operations near town have been implicated by local residents as a possible cause, but as of now (4/30/09) no evidence has emerged to support any such link. These pictures were derived from Google satellite images taken in 2003 and 2006.

We're not sure if these facilities are hog farms; chicken farms look similar, although in the U.S. chicken farms typically don't have such large open waste lagoons. Write a comment to let us know what you think (and why). On-the-ground photos of a hog farm near La gloria, clearly showing the metal sheds and large waste lagoons, are here and here. And to see closeup air photos of hog farming facilities in Canada for comparison to these Google satellite images, peruse this gallery.

The incredible volumes of manure produced at CAFOs that raise cattle, hogs and chickens pose a threat to water quality wherever the manure is improperly stored or over-applied as fertilizer. To learn more about CAFOs, check in with the folks at Waterkeeper Alliance and browse this report from NRDC; and look over these possible solutions to the hog-waste problem proposed by Environmental Defense Fund.

Renewable Energy

2009-04-13T12:22:00.002-04:00

Everything we do has an impact, and utility-scale renewable energy development is no exception. Wind farms, solar power facilities, and geothermal energy developments share some of the same characteristics that make up the visible "footprint" of oil and gas drilling: access roads, utility corridors, equipment staging/storage. Of course, these renewable energy projects are a lot lighter in impacts that we can't see so easily, like air and water pollution and contribution to global warming.

Geothermal energy development at The Geysers, California

We present these images to illustrate that any big energy project has an environmental cost, and that all energy-development projects should be subject to the same level of scrutiny and public review. Maybe our top priority should be to fully exploit energy efficiency - a vast, untapped resource that yields immediate and perpetual dividends - before we rush to approve a host of industrial, utility-scale renewable projects on public lands and waters.

Cotter Uranium Mill Superfund Site, Colorado

2009-04-03T12:04:00.003-04:00

We're finding some interesting things with the FEMA flood data. Yesterday it was coal-combustion waste storage in high-risk flood zones; today it's uranium mill process wastes:

The Cotter Corporation, a subsidiary of General Atomics, began operating a uranium mill on the outskirts of Canon City, Colorado, in 1958. Liquid wastes containing radionuclides and heavy metals were discharged from 1958 to 1978 into eleven unlined tailings ponds. The ponds were replaced in 1982 with the construction of two lined impoundments. Prior to 1982, a number of Lincoln Park wells showed elevated levels of contamination. The site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites on September 21, 1984.

In 2001, Cotter Corp. applied for a license amendment to reopen the mill. (Click here for more information).

We overlaid flood data from FEMA showing areas at high risk of flooding that cross the Cotter facility and lead directly into residential neighborhoods just one mile from the site. Check out our small gallery of images.

Yikes. I wonder what we'll find tomorrow.

Data source: FEMA Stay-Dry flood data (a Google Earth file)

UPDATE 4/27/09: Watch a 10-minute documentary film on the Cotter mill site and other issues surrounding uranium mining and milling (produced by Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste).

Coal Combustion Waste - Another Dirty Aspect of "Clean" Coal

2009-04-02T11:33:00.012-04:00

Coal combustion waste (CCW) is the fly-ash and other residue left over from burning coal. It typically contains toxic components, such as heavy metals, that are known carcinogens. CCW is disposed of in landfills, dumped (legally!) in leaky old mines and quarries, and often stored onsite in large impoundments near the coal-fired power plants.

In yet another stunning reality check on the Myth of Clean Coal, one such impoundment failed last December at the power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, spilling over 1.1 billion gallons of toxic fly-ash sludge into neighboring residences and the Clinch and Emory Rivers:

Aerial photograph of the Kingston spill taken one day after the event.

See more pre- and post-spill photos.

Earthjustice called us, wondering if CCW waste impoundments could be vulnerable to flooding. Power plants need a huge supply of fresh water for cooling, so they're typically located right on the banks of large rivers. We took a look at 11 coal-fired power plants operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - including the notorious Kingston facility - to assess the risk that CCW impoundments could be breached by flooding. Using Google Earth, SkyTruth identified areas where the impoundments lie within high-risk flood zones by:

locating the TVA power plants from a national database recently published by NRDC;
delineating what we interpreted as on-site CCW impoundments; and
overlaying the federal government's official "Stay-Dry" flood dataset from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that shows areas of high flood risk.

The FEMA flood data only covered 6 of the 11 sites. FEMA notes that their digital Stay-Dry dataset is incomplete; FEMA also produces paper flood maps, but we were unable to find any online digital flood data covering these sites. And Google Earth had old, low-resolution imagery for 4 of the sites, including Kingston, making it difficult to delineate the impoundments in those areas with high confidence (you can't use Google for everything...yet).

Nevertheless, out of the 4 sites for which we had both full flood data and high-resolution imagery, we found 2 clear instances (Gallatin and Widows Creek) where impoundments are located within areas mapped by FEMA as high-risk for flooding. We also identified another facility (Johnsonville) where the FEMA data are missing, but it's reasonable to infer that the impoundments are in an area of high risk.

Given the serious flooding we've seen lately on the Red River and some of our other midwestern rivers, not to mention the Great Flood of 1993, it seems like we're tempting fate by storing large quantities of toxic waste in officially designated "high-risk" flood zones.

UPDATE 4/3/09: Amy Mall at NRDC just let me know about yet another aspect of the CCW mess -- "In Arkansas, some of this coal waste is dumped in pits used by the natural gas industry to store drilling waste, and buried. Some of these pits are on people's property, close to their homes, and the toxic ash blows in the air..." Read her blog post to learn more.

UPDATE 4/13/09: The Tennessean newspaper just published an article on this subject, referencing SkyTruth's maps and images. Their website also includes links to other images and resources. Check it out here.

UPDATE 5/11/09: Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project just released an analysis of a 1999 study conducted by the U.S. Environmnetal Protection Agency that found increased cancer risk for people living near CCW dumps. Apparently EPA sat on this report during the previous administration, only releasing it now under new leadership. I guess elevated cancer risk doesn't jive very well with "clean coal" boosterism.

Mount Redoubt Volcano and the Drift River Oil Terminal

2009-03-27T09:19:00.008-04:00

Maybe in retrospect it wasn't such a great idea: storing six million gallons of crude oil next to a major waterway, just a few miles downstream from an active volcano with a recent history of explosive violence. But that's just what the oil industry has done in the state of Alaska. The Chevron-operated Drift River Terminal, a battery of crude-oil storage tanks, sits on the western shore of Cook Inlet about 100 miles south of Anchorage, at the mouth of the Drift River. Location is everything -- the terminal has a cranky neighbor just 25 miles upstream: Mount Redoubt Volcano awoke on March 22 from a geologically brief 18-year slumber, with a series of explosive blasts that sent ash towering into the sky and chaotic flows of ash, mud, ice chunks and boulders streaming down the Drift River valley (see photos of debris flows at the terminal, taken on March 23).

Redoubt erupts: March 26, 2009 photo by Bret Higman of Ground Truth Trekking

Check out SkyTruth's gallery of images, showing the relative locations of Redoubt and the terminal, and outlining the likely path for debris-flows cascading down the volcano's flank and following the Drift River channel to Cook Inlet. So far, several flows have reached the terminal, but there are not reports yet of any significant damage. With 6 million gallons of crude on board, let's hope the terminal can withstand this onslaught - it's likely that Redoubt will continue to erupt violently for months, as it last did in 1989-1990. The Cook Inletkeeper has additional resources here including a letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting that they remove the oil from the storage facility.

Yesterday at about 9:30am (eastern time) I was on the phone with Bret Higman who lives in Seldovia, a town about 80 miles south of Redoubt, when he suddenly gave a shout - "Whoa, the volcano is erupting." Hig grabbed several pics of the event, which sent ash 65,000 feet into the sky and more debris flows down the Drift River toward the oil terminal.

UPDATE 4/15/09: NASA's Advanced Land Imager captured a stunning view of erupting Mount Redoubt with a long plume of airborne ash streaming to the southeast across Cook Inlet. The image also clearly shows multiple lahars that have flowed down the Drift River valley and around the oil terminal, with some reaching Cook Inlet. We've created two posters from this image (11"x15" at 200dpi) - an overview showing the volcano and the terminal, and a cloesup detail view of the terminal.

Urban Growth: Las Vegas 1984-2009

2009-03-10T13:48:00.011-04:00

Not everything that happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas: the city has seriously bulked up in recent decades, something that is very obvious from space. In honor of the Landsat-5 satellite's jaw-dropping 25th year of operation, NASA has released images taken from 1984 to 2009. The population of Clark County, home of Las Vegas, quadrupled during that time from 463,000 in 1980 to just over 2 million this year.

We used the NASA imagery to generate a time-series of images showing this growth. Another notable feature in the images is the sharp drop in water level in Lake Mead, one of the most important reservoirs on the Colorado River. The rapid population growth in the Colorado basin is colliding with an ongoing drought, and increasing use of water for oil and gas drilling. The development of oil shale -- an ongoing controvery -- would divert large amounts of water out of the Colorado River system (see a report on projected energy development (including oil shale) and water demands issued by the Colorado River Water Conservation District, and a factsheet on oil shale development and water use from the U.S. Department of Energy).

UPDATE 3/17/09: Western Resource Advocates issued a report today called "Water on the Rocks," taking a look at the water rights in Colorado that are currently held by companies interested in oil-shale production, and the potential water use that oil-shale production would entail.

UPDATE 6/16/09: Our friends at EcoFlight have uploaded a gallery of photos of Lake Powell, from an overflight on April 30, showing the striking white "bathtub ring" that indicates how far water levels in the reservoir have dropped in recent years. Here's a good one:

Hurricane Ike - Collateral Damage?

2009-03-09T10:42:00.008-04:00

A 900-foot oil tanker carrying 41 million gallons of crude oil from the North Sea is in trouble in the northern Gulf of Mexico, about 65 miles from its final destination of Galveston, Texas. The SKS Satilla is listing because three of its ballast tanks were punctured. Nobody is sure yet what caused this sudden and mysterious damage, but coincidentally the submerged wreck of a drilling platform that had been missing since Hurricane Ike last year was just discovered near the crippled tanker. Current speculation is the tanker collided with the submerged ruins. Crews are working to transfer the crude from the tanker to other vessels.

This is yet another reminder that offshore oil and gas drilling, even with all of today's advanced technology, remains a risky business. The mobile offshore drilling unit that went missing is one of several drilling rigs that were lost or set adrift nearly six months ago by the relatively moderate Hurricane Ike, a Category 3 storm. This particular rig was the ENSCO 74, a relatively new (built in 1999) jack-up owned by Ensco International. It's very fortunate that the cargo hold of the tanker was not breached -- the Satilla, less than three years old, has a double hull. Has that saved the Gulf Coast from a massive oil spill?

This time the Gulf got lucky. But not all tankers in US waters have double hulls yet, and sometimes even that is not enough. Remember that in November 2005 a barge carrying heavy fuel oil hit the submerged wreck of an offshore oil platform that had been destroyed several weeks earlier by Hurricane Rita, a monster Category 5 storm. The Coast Guard reports that nearly 3 million gallons of heavy oil were spilled into the Gulf in that incident. See the final paragraph of the USCG Katrina-Rita damage summary.

These incidents are stark reminders of the risk that still accompanies offshore oil and gas development, particularly from the associated facilities and other infrastructure -- both onshore and offshore -- that are necessary to support drilling and production.

Athabasca Tar Sands - No Day At The Beach

2009-03-05T14:27:00.004-05:00

National Geographic's latest issue has a timely article on the massive tar-sands mining operation that is chewing up large swaths of boreal forest in Alberta, Canada. It's accompanied by a stunning online photo gallery and video. This heavy-oil extraction process ranks right up there with mountaintop removal mining as one of the truly apocalyptic things we're doing to the planet. And truly un-fixable, unless we wait for a few million years of plate tectonics to clean up after us.

SkyTruth has produced satellite images showing the scope of this operation, and how fast it's grown since the early 1990s. Check out our latest Flickr image gallery.

Fishing The Line: Do Marine Reserves Improve Fishing?

2009-02-16T10:20:00.013-05:00

Low-altitude air photo showing small boats "fishing the line" on the border of a protected area that is off-limits to fishing. Photo courtesy of Billy Causey, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Here's a blast from the past: a recap of one of the first projects SkyTruth ever conducted, a limited study of satellite imagery as a tool to demonstrate "fishing the line." There is abundant anecdotal information that when an area of the ocean is closed to fishing, fish populations rebound and "spill over" into adjacent areas outside of the protected zone. Fishermen, who go wherever the most fish can be found, take advantage of spillover by fishing as close to the boundaries of the protected area as possible -- fishing the line. Wherever we see an accumulation of fishing vessels close to the borders of a marine reserve or other area off-limits to fishing, conservationists argue that the fishermen themselves are demonstrating that the protected zone is doing a good job at increasing fish populations and improving the fishing opportunity.

But how do you actually go about showing this "fishing-the-line" phenomenon?

One way is to collect data on the locations of fishing vessels. The U.S. Coast Guard does this for certain fishing grounds, requiring all vessels to have a transponder on board that continually broadcasts data on the vessel's position. This is called the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). SkyTruth acquired VMS data for scallop fishing in the northwest Atlantic ocean, in the vicinity of George's Bank off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The aggregated data, plotted on a map that includes the boundaries of three areas that were closed to scallop fishing at that time, clearly showed vessels avoiding (or simply transiting through) those closed areas, and spending a lot of their fishing time congregated along the borders of those closed areas.

Aggregated VMS data showing fishing-vessel locations (colored points) and areas closed to fishing (blue polygons) in the northwest Atlantic Ocean in May, 1999.

We used this pattern to guide an analysis of archived satellite imagery to test whether fishing-the-line behavior could also be detected, and illustrated, using satellite images as the sole source of data on vessel locations. Thanks to a small research grant from American Oceans Campaign (now Oceana), Dr. David Campagna at SkyTruth was able to purchase, process and analyze three Radarsat satellite images taken in March and May of 1998, while the closure of Area 1 was in effect. Vessels typically appear on radar satellite images as very bright targets.

RADARSAT-1 satelite images used in this study.

The combined locations of vessels on the images was plotted on the map shown below. Although the pattern isn't as obvious as in the VMS dataset (we were not able in this limited study to discriminate between fishing vessels and the many other types of vessel that transit the north Atlantic), possible fishing-the-line is apparent, particularly along the western boundary of the closed area.

Vessel locations in and around an area closed to fishing off Cape Cod.

Compiled by SkyTruth from radar satellite images.

As fisheries around the world struggle, many scientists claim that establishing more protected areas can be an effective tool to help those fisheries recover and move toward sustainability. With a little more work by SkyTruth, we may find that satellite images can help convince skeptical fisherman and managers to embrace protected areas.

Mountains at Risk

2008-10-09T08:59:00.006-04:00

SkyTruth, in partnership with Appalachian Voices, recently documented the impact of Mountaintop Removal coal mining (MTR) over a 59 county area in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia by mapping the historical occurrence of mountaintop removal mining over a 30 year period beginning in 1976 to 2005 using satellite imagery. The historical record shows a 250% increase in MTR occurring over the last two decades, from 77,000 acres in 1985 to over 272,000 acres in 2005. The size of the individual mines also ballooned, with some now covering 15 square miles. Over 2,700 mountain ridges were destroyed by mining.

While this impacts an enormous area, how many more ridges and mountaintops are vulnerable to this destructive practice? Knowing which ridges are at risk of being mined is the key to developing proactive strategies to limit further destruction, and predicting downstream impacts should mining occur. Equipped with this risk map, SkyTruth can also enlist the help of concerned citizens to document and monitor these threatened landscapes.

In order to create a risk map, the variables that correlate with MTR must be identified. SkyTruth performed a preliminary investigation to determine the drivers of mining occurrence in Wise County, Virginia. Variables such as coal thickness, overburden, land use type, roads, and hydrography were investigated along with our previous historical analysis of mining activity. Results indicate that two geologic criteria – coal thickness and overburden – best correlate with mining. Using these two variables, we generated a mining risk map for the county based on analysis of the main coal deposit in the area, the Pond Creek seam (see above).

In coming months we'll refine this approach, looking at multiple coal seams across the mid-Appalachian basin, and adding information on mining permits that have already been issued.

AP: Hurricane Ike Environmental Toll Apparent

2008-10-08T10:24:00.005-04:00

NOAA photomosaic showing oil slicks at Goat Island, Texas - September 14, 2008

The Associated Press reported "at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas" as a result of storm damage and flooding of coastal facilities by Hurricane Ike. "The Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil production in federal waters offshore, said the storm destroyed at least 52 oil platforms of roughly 3,800 in the Gulf of Mexico. Thirty-two more were severely damaged."

The worst spill identified so far qualifies as a major spill by Coast Guard definition: nearly 266,000 gallons of oil released from a battery of storage tanks on Goat Island, Texas. Here's what that site looked like before Ike; and here's how it looked on NOAA aerial survey photos taken on September 14, 2008. You can see how the tanks got knocked around by the storm surge and wave action.

Where did most of the oil and other substances end up? Out in the Gulf of Mexico. Where we get a lot of fish and shrimp. Mmmmm....

Google LatLong: The aftermath of Hurricane Ike

2008-09-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

To see before-and-after, high-resolution imagery showing the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ike in the Galveston area, go to Google LatLong: The aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Houston Chronicle Photo of Hurricane Ike Oil Slick

2008-09-16T16:36:00.004-04:00

Oil slicks covering Hurricane Ike floodwaters around High Island, Texas.
Photograph by Smiley N. Pool / The Houston Chronicle via MSNBC.

MSNBC is running a small gallery of photos of post-Ike destruction, including a shot by The Houston Chronicle showing oil slicks covering floodwaters around High Island, Texas. This is the same area shown in SkyTruth's mosaic of NOAA aerial photographs, and it was taken on the same day (September 14). It's pretty clear that this is indeed floating oil. You can follow this particular slick back to multiple sources on our mosaic, or by using Google Earth (look at Mosaic 8 in this KMZ file to see the High Island slicks).

Hurricane Ike - NOAA Photo Mosaic

2008-09-15T23:04:00.007-04:00

We've made a mosaic with a few of the NOAA air photos that show some probable oil slicks in the Galveston area in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Here's a larger view. And if you want to download a 30" x 12" version (at 200dpi), click here. These images show an area that is still under a few feet of water -- you can see roads and other features through the greenish murk of the floodwaters.

And now you can explore the NOAA air photos with Google Earth. GE users, here is the KMZ file. This is very useful - you can toggle the NOAA photos on and off, and see from the underlying hi-res Google imagery exactly what facilities seem to be the source of the slicks. Mosaic 8 in the KMZ includes the area shown in the SkyTruth mosaic at the top of this post.

NOAA Air Photos Show Slicks (Oil?) Following Hurricane Ike

2008-09-15T16:41:00.013-04:00

NOAA air photo showing slicks near Galveston

NOAA has just posted aerial photographs taken on September 14-15 in the Galveston area. These photos show what might be oil slicks, some originating at what appear to be large storage tanks. We can't say for sure at this point, and we can't tell how thick the oil is from these photographs -- much of it may be thin "sheen" -- so we don't know how big these possible spills are. So take a look for yourself. Here's our preliminary analysis. We don't have any confirmation so be skeptical. If you can confirm or refute any of this, please provide a comment.

Extensive slicks near possible oil storage facility:

Slicks emanating from storage tanks:

Slick from large storage tank:

Large slick - source unknown:

Hurricane Ike - Initial Reports

2008-09-15T11:13:00.006-04:00

Oily sheen covering flooded residential area in the wake of Hurricane Ike.
Phot0 credit: POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Ike came ashore in Galveston, Texas, early Saturday morning as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Storm surge was about 10 feet, much less than the predicted range of 20 - 25 feet. Even so the storm caused extensive flooding throughout the Galveston - Houston area, and hurricane-force winds were felt well inland for several hours following landfall.

No large oil spills have yet been reported. Early damage reports to oil and gas facilities include 10 offshore oil and gas production platforms damaged or destroyed, along with "some" pipelines; one shallow-water jackup rig damaged; and two mobile drilling rigs adrift in the central Gulf. The US Coast Guard is going out to fetch them.

This last item is a concern. Drifting drill rigs after hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused significant pipeline damage as the rigs dragged their anchors across the seabed. Mooring systems were supposedly beefed up to prevent this from happening again:

One of the key conclusions was the need for stronger mooring systems that anchor rigs to the sea floor, sometimes in thousands of feet of water. That's prompted major rig owners like Transocean Inc. and Noble Drilling Inc. to increase the number of anchor lines from eight or nine to 12 in some cases.

One of Transocean's moored rigs, the Marianas, broke free during Hurricane Rita in September 2005 and drifted 140 miles (225 kilometers). Another, the Deepwater Nautilus, was set adrift a month earlier by Katrina.

Such unscheduled voyages can be costly. Besides lost revenue, Transocean spent $25 million (euro19 million) to fix and upgrade the two rigs, both of which now have 12-point mooring systems.

Katrina and Rita were Cat 5 monsters in the Gulf with sustained winds reaching 175 mph. But another of Transocean's mobile rigs, the Amirante, suffered damage to its mooring system from the relatively weak Hurricane Gustav and was towed back to port for repairs. Ike's winds (110 mph) were weaker than Gustav's (115 mph). It's only a matter of time before the Gulf will experience another major Category 4 or 5 hurricane. Maybe those mooring systems need another serious look. I'll bet the companies that insure those rigs will insist.

Check out the discussion on The Oil Drum blog if you want to learn more.

Hurricane Ike Hitting Gulf Oil and Gas Facilities

2008-09-12T12:46:00.007-04:00

Hurricane Ike moving into Gulf offshore oil fields

Hurricane Ike, still a Category 2 storm but expected to strengthen to Category 3 by landfall, is now moving into the offshore oil and gas platforms and pipelines off the Texas and Louisiana coasts. And the latest forecasts now place it on a beeline for Galveston and Houston, with a possible storm surge of up to 20 feet. This poses a very serious threat to coastal and onshore facilities -- refineries, storage tanks, and onshore pipelines -- in this very low-lying region. The next 24 hours are going to be rough going. Check out The Oil Drum for updated maps and discussion of potential damage for offshore and coastal facilities in Ike's path.

Hurricane Ike - Heading For Galveston?

2008-09-11T12:44:00.005-04:00

3-day forecast track for Hurricane Ike - seafloor oil and gas pipelines in brown

The latest National Weather Service forecast is predicting Hurricane Ike will take a sharper turn to the north, putting Galveston and Houston (and more of the offshore and coastal oil and gas facilities) in the line of fire. Here is the latest 3-day track prediction. As of this morning Ike is a very large Category 2 storm with sustained maximum winds near 100 mph, hurricane-force winds extending for 115 miles, and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 275 miles from Ike's center. Expected to strengthen to at least Category 3 before landfall. For a detailed, interactive tracking map, check out Weather Underground.