Madre de Dios, the name of a region in southeastern Peru bordering Brazil and Bolivia, is a very common designation for the Virgin Mary, meaning Mother of God in Spanish. In real life, however, Mother of God, used as an oath and not a name, expresses what intense and unregulated gold exploration and extraction are doing to this up-to-now privileged area in Peru.
Madre de Dios is a region rich in cotton, coffee, sugarcane, cacao, Brazil nuts, and palm oil. However, plentiful gold has attracted tens of thousands of illegal miners whose activities are having a deleterious effect not only on precious species in the environment but also on the health and quality of life of both native and new populations in the region.
Alluvial gold mining in Peru’s Amazon rainforest has rapidly spread in recent years, driven by the high price of gold. Although many jungle-mining concessions have been granted by the energy and mines ministry, the informal sector has grown out of control.
It is estimated that almost a quarter of the gold produced in Peru, the world’s sixth largest producer, is illegal. The majority of this illegal gold comes from the Madre de Dios region. Local nongovernmental organizations believe that there are up to 30,000 miners in the area.
Gold deposits are mined by both large-scale operators and small-scale miners who use hydraulic mining techniques and heavy machinery to expose potential gold-yielding gravel deposits. Gold is extracted by a sluice box, a piece of gold prospecting equipment that has been in continuous use for over a hundred years. The sluice box is used to separate heavier sediment and mercury is also used for amalgamating the precious metal.Several studies have shown that small-scale miners are less efficient in their use of mercury than industrial miners. As a result, 2.91 pounds of mercury are released into waterways for every 2.2 pounds of gold produced. It is estimated that more than 40 tons of mercury have been absorbed into the rivers of Madre de Dios, poisoning the food chain.
Mercury not only contaminates waterways and becomes a serious threat to human health but is also a dangerous toxin to fish. Fish in the area contain three times more mercury than the safe levels permitted by the World Health Organization.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, “After fossil fuel burning, small-scale gold mining is the world’s second largest source of mercury pollution, contributing around one-third of the world’s mercury pollution.”
Mercury contamination is not the only drawback of small-scale mining, however. Another significant problem is the significant amount of deforestation it produces while clearing forests for the construction of roads to open remote areas to transient settlers and land speculators.
In addition, deforestation is the result of cutting trees to obtain building material and fuel wood.
The enormity of the damage has been documented in a study by American, French, and Peruvian researchers published in the peer-reviewed magazine PLoS ONE. According to the study, Using satellite imagery from NASA, researchers were able to assess the loss of 7,000 hectares (15,200 acres) of forest due to artisanal gold mining in Peru between 2003 and 2009. This is an area larger than Bermuda.
Jennifer Swenson, the lead author of the study, says that such enormous deforestation is “plainly visible from space,” and suggests that Peru should limit the importation of mercury.
In addition to these problems, illegal gold mining has significantly increased the number of 12-to-17-year-old girls and young women drafted by prostitution rings. These young women are brought from all over the country to brothels that have sprung up in mining camps. Many of the women that fall into these prostitution rings eventually disappear, and are never seen again. Miners also bring diseases to local indigenous populations.
While Peruvian authorities have sent almost 1,000 security forces to destroy river dredgers used by illegal gold miners in the Madre de Dios region even more drastic measures are needed, such as stricter vigilance and regulation. At stake is the survival of what has been recognized as one of the most biologically rich areas in the world.
2011年11月30日星期三
2011年9月13日星期二
Fire wins Battle of Badges blood drive
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the McPherson County City
Continued from 1
mission and Heart 2 Heart Child Advocacy Center. The agreement offers Heart 2 Heart about 700 square feet of space in the McPherson Municipal Building at a monthly rate of $700, with utilities included. A similar offer has also been offered by the McPherson County Commission for space in the Bank of America building, although Mayor Tom Brown said the offer of his board was meant as an alternative and should not be viewed as competitive. Heart 2 Heart recently lost its existing lease and has been looking for options that would allow it to continue providing advocacy services to children in McPherson.
•In response to ongoing Environmental Code violations, the commission issued a 60-day notice to the owner of property at 501 E. Hancock. A previous notice to secure broken and otherwise open windows and doors on the property was not responded to, forcing the city to board up the openings themselves. Further notices are being or have previously been issued in reference to roof problems, dangerously low electrical lines, broken siding, an open and unsecured garage door, rotting sill plates, fallen privacy fencing, peeling paint, loose garbage and a dead tree trunk in need of removal. Should concerns not be tended to within 60 days, the property, which already has $9,000 due in penalties and back taxes, will be required to pay the city for repairs. The property has been recommended for condemnation by City Building Inspector John Puchosic and is in a deteriorated condition some 8 to 10 times worse than neighboring properties.
•The vacation of 350 feet of city property at the end of Maple Street was approved. Zoning Administrator Tom Stinemetze said “legally speaking, that piece of street has never actually existed,” referencing the Planning Department’s assertion it had never intended that area to be considered in the City of McPherson. But the city considers the property in its right-of-way. The vacation will be effective 30 days after its passing, unless a protest be submitted, requiring the issue be considered in a public hearing.
•The McPherson Board of Public Utilities is considering replacing a stretch of water line running along First Street. The section, located between Grimes Street and McPherson High School, has suffered two breaks already this year, both within 50 feet of one another and each inflicting significant damage to road surfaces in the area. BPU will attempt to synchronize any such construction with road repairs to the street.
•A letter of engagement was issued by the commission with Standard and Poor’s. The letter allows the credit ratings agency to evaluate the merits of the utility’s credit standing. This will allow BPU to move forward in refinancing approximately $7 million in bonds.
•The commission issued a funding approval to the McPherson Fire Department for the purchase of new hydraulic hoses for its Jaws of Life device. The unit, purchased in 1994, was identified as having leaks in its hose during routine testing, and attempts to patch the leaks were unsuccessful. Up to $1,500 was approved for replacement hosing materials.
•An ordinance was approved designating proceeds from effluent water income to be initially deposited in the city’s general fund. Such income will later be transferred to the bonds and interest fund for payments on capital improvement projects, such as the $1 million drainage project of earlier this year.
•The appointment of Brent Christiansen to the McPherson Public Library’s Board of Directors was approved. Christiansen will fill the vacancy left by sitting board member David Harger, who is leaving the board during an unexpired term.
•Stinemetze informed the commission a public hearing will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 to consider the adoption of new subdivision regulations. The new regulations have been under development for almost three years.
•The State of Kansas has given the city permission to continue with floodplain modifications, providing a list of 15 specific restrictions which must be taken into consideration in the process. This will allow McPherson to proceed with modifications, which have been at a standstill pending permission to proceed from the state.
•In his weekly report, City Administrator Nick Gregory received approval for two bonds.
Continued from 1
mission and Heart 2 Heart Child Advocacy Center. The agreement offers Heart 2 Heart about 700 square feet of space in the McPherson Municipal Building at a monthly rate of $700, with utilities included. A similar offer has also been offered by the McPherson County Commission for space in the Bank of America building, although Mayor Tom Brown said the offer of his board was meant as an alternative and should not be viewed as competitive. Heart 2 Heart recently lost its existing lease and has been looking for options that would allow it to continue providing advocacy services to children in McPherson.
•In response to ongoing Environmental Code violations, the commission issued a 60-day notice to the owner of property at 501 E. Hancock. A previous notice to secure broken and otherwise open windows and doors on the property was not responded to, forcing the city to board up the openings themselves. Further notices are being or have previously been issued in reference to roof problems, dangerously low electrical lines, broken siding, an open and unsecured garage door, rotting sill plates, fallen privacy fencing, peeling paint, loose garbage and a dead tree trunk in need of removal. Should concerns not be tended to within 60 days, the property, which already has $9,000 due in penalties and back taxes, will be required to pay the city for repairs. The property has been recommended for condemnation by City Building Inspector John Puchosic and is in a deteriorated condition some 8 to 10 times worse than neighboring properties.
•The vacation of 350 feet of city property at the end of Maple Street was approved. Zoning Administrator Tom Stinemetze said “legally speaking, that piece of street has never actually existed,” referencing the Planning Department’s assertion it had never intended that area to be considered in the City of McPherson. But the city considers the property in its right-of-way. The vacation will be effective 30 days after its passing, unless a protest be submitted, requiring the issue be considered in a public hearing.
•The McPherson Board of Public Utilities is considering replacing a stretch of water line running along First Street. The section, located between Grimes Street and McPherson High School, has suffered two breaks already this year, both within 50 feet of one another and each inflicting significant damage to road surfaces in the area. BPU will attempt to synchronize any such construction with road repairs to the street.
•A letter of engagement was issued by the commission with Standard and Poor’s. The letter allows the credit ratings agency to evaluate the merits of the utility’s credit standing. This will allow BPU to move forward in refinancing approximately $7 million in bonds.
•The commission issued a funding approval to the McPherson Fire Department for the purchase of new hydraulic hoses for its Jaws of Life device. The unit, purchased in 1994, was identified as having leaks in its hose during routine testing, and attempts to patch the leaks were unsuccessful. Up to $1,500 was approved for replacement hosing materials.
•An ordinance was approved designating proceeds from effluent water income to be initially deposited in the city’s general fund. Such income will later be transferred to the bonds and interest fund for payments on capital improvement projects, such as the $1 million drainage project of earlier this year.
•The appointment of Brent Christiansen to the McPherson Public Library’s Board of Directors was approved. Christiansen will fill the vacancy left by sitting board member David Harger, who is leaving the board during an unexpired term.
•Stinemetze informed the commission a public hearing will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 to consider the adoption of new subdivision regulations. The new regulations have been under development for almost three years.
•The State of Kansas has given the city permission to continue with floodplain modifications, providing a list of 15 specific restrictions which must be taken into consideration in the process. This will allow McPherson to proceed with modifications, which have been at a standstill pending permission to proceed from the state.
•In his weekly report, City Administrator Nick Gregory received approval for two bonds.
2011年6月12日星期日
Forcing the issue
A legal but controversial tool of oil and gas drillers across the nation is getting as severe a test as Gary Williams can give it.
Williams has single-handedly stalled a proposed 80-acre crude oil drilling project by one of the state's largest operators. Williams refuses to sign papers to allow drilling underneath or near his potentially oil-rich property.
Evansville-based CountryMark Energy Resources LLC, which proposes to sell the oil to the company's refinery in Mount Vernon, Ind. has responded by invoking a 64-year-old statute embodying what critics call eminent domain for drillers.
The technique, called "forced pooling," would allow CountryMark to send a remote access horizontal drill underneath or close to Williams' 0.83-acre property.
Thirty of his neighbors, in a 32-parcel drilling area, have already leased their acreage to the company. The other holdout did not sign a lease but is not resisting forced pooling.
Mostly, Williams makes a property rights case.
"It's our land, whether they're on top of it or below it," he said inside the Cape Cod house he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children in a rural enclave just off Middle Mount Vernon Road. "I couldn't just come up around your property and start — let's say I wanted to dig a cave to the other neighbors, I wanted a cool tunnel. I like tunnels.
"What would you say if I just started digging a tunnel underneath your property?" he asked.
Williams is appealing an Oct. 28 order from Indiana's Department of Natural Resources that "force pools" his property into the group of property owners who have signed off on the drilling. A hearing was held Friday before an administrative law judge in Jasonville, Ind. The judge hasn't made a ruling.
Williams, a 36-year-old chemist for a paint company, hopes a successful appeal establishes useful case law for other property owners inclined to fight oil exploration and production companies over their land.
"I'm thinking of all the other people this could happen to," he said.
Advocates say forced pooling — some form of which is legal in most states — allows companies to harvest valuable resources when a majority of property owners have agreed to participate.
Herschel McDivitt, director of Indiana's state Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas, said forced pooling serves the greater good by preventing one property owner from blocking the efficient harvesting of oil and gas on contiguous leased parcels.
"There's oil and gas conservation waste if you're drilling too many vertical wells when one horizontal well alone would be sufficient to drain the productive section of a (rock) formation," said McDivitt, who issued the order allowing forced pooling of Williams' property.
Indiana's forced pooling statute, adopted in 1947, states unwilling property owners "shall" be integrated into a drilling unit — provided there is equitable financial compensation — "for the prevention of waste or to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells."
McDivitt said without forced pooling there would be "five times the surface disturbance," since the operation would require multiple horizontal wells.
But Williams has several other objections, including what he calls CountryMark's inadequate offer of royalties and signing bonus. He says CountryMark's guarantee falls short of protecting his well water from contamination. He also doubts the company's assertion that it would not use a controversial drilling technique in the cypress sandstone rock formation under his property.
Compensation size
Oil exploration and production has been big business in Southwestern Indiana for decades, with millions spent every year.
CountryMark estimates the Midway Acres subdivision project will cost the company $750,000.
"The majority of oil production is in the southwestern part of the state. That's just the way God made things," McDivitt said with a chuckle.
CountryMark President Charlie Smith has called the Illinois Basin, a 53,000-square-mile depression underneath Southwestern Indiana, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, one of the best sources of domestic crude oil in the Midwest.
"Approximately 40,000 barrels of crude oil are produced daily from this region," Smith said in statement issued in 2008. "This is an extremely dependable, secure supply of energy for Indiana and surrounding states."
Indiana crude oil production has hovered at just under or over 2 million barrels annually since 2000. In 2010, the average price of oil per barrel was $73.46, higher than in all other years in the decade save 2008.
A Midway Acres resident who agrees to let CountryMark drill underneath his property can make some of the money for himself — a few thousand dollars — without bearing any of the financial risk.
Core Minerals Operating Co., the project operator before it sold part of its assets to CountryMark, told property owners in the subdivision that a well averaging 80 barrels of oil per day with oil priced at $65 per barrel could pay $5,931 in one year.
CountryMark has offered Williams the same $100 lease signing bonus that his neighbors got, plus the standard one-eighth of the total value of oil produced. That amount is proportionately divided among parcel owners according to the percentage of a drilling unit occupied by their properties.
The other seven-eighths goes to the operator, who in most cases assumes all of the costs and risks of the drilling. An unwilling property owner receives the same bonus plus royalties as his neighbors.
The state's forced pooling statute does not define the required "reasonable terms that give the owner of each tract an equitable share of oil and natural gas in the unit or pool."
The statute's seemingly definitive language appears to leave an unwilling property owner little room to negotiate in return for his cooperation.
"If the owners of separate tracts of land do not agree to integrate their interests, the commission shall, for the prevention of waste or to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells, require the owners to integrate their interests and to develop the land as a drilling unit," it states.
Leslie Avakian, a leading activist against pending legislation to allow forced pooling in Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale, says that robs property owners of their negotiating power.
"If they're saying, 'Look, we're going to take your asset in court,' where's your negotiating power?" said Avakian, founder of ProtectMyRightsPA.org.
McDivitt says the statutory requirement to compensate an unwilling landowner after a forced pooling makes the procedure fair, given that oil would still be drained from underneath his property if the well path only traversed close to it.
"One of the fundamental principles in fairness with forced pooling is to make sure that somebody doesn't drill a well and unduly drain oil from somebody else's property and they don't get to share in it," he said.
But McDivitt acknowledged that the unwilling landowner's oil would not be flowing into a well in the first place unless someone were taking it.
"It's kind of like pulling the plug in the bathtub. Until you pull that plug and create that, we'll call a pressure sink, the water stays in your tub," he said. "But once you pull it, every drop of water that's in that tub, if the drain is constructed properly, is going to eventually drain."
'Quasi-DNR employee'
Indiana property owners who wish to contest being force pooled are subject to a procedure before McDivitt's division. The Division of Oil and Gas's informal hearing schedule shows 15 forced pooling cases since August 2008, with Williams' case being the only one unresolved.
None of the other 14 cases were successful in preventing a forced pooling.
McDivitt acknowledged that while his agency regulates the drilling, operation and abandonment of oil and gas production wells in Indiana, it is also an advocate for development.
"We're not just strictly a regulatory, permitting, environmental protection agency," he said. "We still look at that resource.
"In fact, our mission statement is to encourage responsible development of oil and gas, but in a manner that's protective of landowners' rights, human health and safety, doesn't waste the resource and certainly does not adversely affect the environment."
Operators pay a 1 percent severance tax on the value of all oil and gas that is produced. The money — more than $1.3 million in 2010 — is used to support operating expenses of the Division of Oil and Gas.
"We have no financial benefit or incentive, or I don't see how you can make that connection," McDivitt said. "We're just doing our job."
Hearing officer Sandra Jensen, who heard Williams' appeal of McDivitt's Oct. 28 order, is "a quasi-DNR employee," McDivitt said. "Well, officially she is a representative of the Natural Resources Commission."
McDivitt acknowledged that Williams or CountryMark can litigate Jensen's ruling in state court.
Williams has single-handedly stalled a proposed 80-acre crude oil drilling project by one of the state's largest operators. Williams refuses to sign papers to allow drilling underneath or near his potentially oil-rich property.
Evansville-based CountryMark Energy Resources LLC, which proposes to sell the oil to the company's refinery in Mount Vernon, Ind. has responded by invoking a 64-year-old statute embodying what critics call eminent domain for drillers.
The technique, called "forced pooling," would allow CountryMark to send a remote access horizontal drill underneath or close to Williams' 0.83-acre property.
Thirty of his neighbors, in a 32-parcel drilling area, have already leased their acreage to the company. The other holdout did not sign a lease but is not resisting forced pooling.
Mostly, Williams makes a property rights case.
"It's our land, whether they're on top of it or below it," he said inside the Cape Cod house he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children in a rural enclave just off Middle Mount Vernon Road. "I couldn't just come up around your property and start — let's say I wanted to dig a cave to the other neighbors, I wanted a cool tunnel. I like tunnels.
"What would you say if I just started digging a tunnel underneath your property?" he asked.
Williams is appealing an Oct. 28 order from Indiana's Department of Natural Resources that "force pools" his property into the group of property owners who have signed off on the drilling. A hearing was held Friday before an administrative law judge in Jasonville, Ind. The judge hasn't made a ruling.
Williams, a 36-year-old chemist for a paint company, hopes a successful appeal establishes useful case law for other property owners inclined to fight oil exploration and production companies over their land.
"I'm thinking of all the other people this could happen to," he said.
Advocates say forced pooling — some form of which is legal in most states — allows companies to harvest valuable resources when a majority of property owners have agreed to participate.
Herschel McDivitt, director of Indiana's state Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas, said forced pooling serves the greater good by preventing one property owner from blocking the efficient harvesting of oil and gas on contiguous leased parcels.
"There's oil and gas conservation waste if you're drilling too many vertical wells when one horizontal well alone would be sufficient to drain the productive section of a (rock) formation," said McDivitt, who issued the order allowing forced pooling of Williams' property.
Indiana's forced pooling statute, adopted in 1947, states unwilling property owners "shall" be integrated into a drilling unit — provided there is equitable financial compensation — "for the prevention of waste or to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells."
McDivitt said without forced pooling there would be "five times the surface disturbance," since the operation would require multiple horizontal wells.
But Williams has several other objections, including what he calls CountryMark's inadequate offer of royalties and signing bonus. He says CountryMark's guarantee falls short of protecting his well water from contamination. He also doubts the company's assertion that it would not use a controversial drilling technique in the cypress sandstone rock formation under his property.
Compensation size
Oil exploration and production has been big business in Southwestern Indiana for decades, with millions spent every year.
CountryMark estimates the Midway Acres subdivision project will cost the company $750,000.
"The majority of oil production is in the southwestern part of the state. That's just the way God made things," McDivitt said with a chuckle.
CountryMark President Charlie Smith has called the Illinois Basin, a 53,000-square-mile depression underneath Southwestern Indiana, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, one of the best sources of domestic crude oil in the Midwest.
"Approximately 40,000 barrels of crude oil are produced daily from this region," Smith said in statement issued in 2008. "This is an extremely dependable, secure supply of energy for Indiana and surrounding states."
Indiana crude oil production has hovered at just under or over 2 million barrels annually since 2000. In 2010, the average price of oil per barrel was $73.46, higher than in all other years in the decade save 2008.
A Midway Acres resident who agrees to let CountryMark drill underneath his property can make some of the money for himself — a few thousand dollars — without bearing any of the financial risk.
Core Minerals Operating Co., the project operator before it sold part of its assets to CountryMark, told property owners in the subdivision that a well averaging 80 barrels of oil per day with oil priced at $65 per barrel could pay $5,931 in one year.
CountryMark has offered Williams the same $100 lease signing bonus that his neighbors got, plus the standard one-eighth of the total value of oil produced. That amount is proportionately divided among parcel owners according to the percentage of a drilling unit occupied by their properties.
The other seven-eighths goes to the operator, who in most cases assumes all of the costs and risks of the drilling. An unwilling property owner receives the same bonus plus royalties as his neighbors.
The state's forced pooling statute does not define the required "reasonable terms that give the owner of each tract an equitable share of oil and natural gas in the unit or pool."
The statute's seemingly definitive language appears to leave an unwilling property owner little room to negotiate in return for his cooperation.
"If the owners of separate tracts of land do not agree to integrate their interests, the commission shall, for the prevention of waste or to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells, require the owners to integrate their interests and to develop the land as a drilling unit," it states.
Leslie Avakian, a leading activist against pending legislation to allow forced pooling in Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale, says that robs property owners of their negotiating power.
"If they're saying, 'Look, we're going to take your asset in court,' where's your negotiating power?" said Avakian, founder of ProtectMyRightsPA.org.
McDivitt says the statutory requirement to compensate an unwilling landowner after a forced pooling makes the procedure fair, given that oil would still be drained from underneath his property if the well path only traversed close to it.
"One of the fundamental principles in fairness with forced pooling is to make sure that somebody doesn't drill a well and unduly drain oil from somebody else's property and they don't get to share in it," he said.
But McDivitt acknowledged that the unwilling landowner's oil would not be flowing into a well in the first place unless someone were taking it.
"It's kind of like pulling the plug in the bathtub. Until you pull that plug and create that, we'll call a pressure sink, the water stays in your tub," he said. "But once you pull it, every drop of water that's in that tub, if the drain is constructed properly, is going to eventually drain."
'Quasi-DNR employee'
Indiana property owners who wish to contest being force pooled are subject to a procedure before McDivitt's division. The Division of Oil and Gas's informal hearing schedule shows 15 forced pooling cases since August 2008, with Williams' case being the only one unresolved.
None of the other 14 cases were successful in preventing a forced pooling.
McDivitt acknowledged that while his agency regulates the drilling, operation and abandonment of oil and gas production wells in Indiana, it is also an advocate for development.
"We're not just strictly a regulatory, permitting, environmental protection agency," he said. "We still look at that resource.
"In fact, our mission statement is to encourage responsible development of oil and gas, but in a manner that's protective of landowners' rights, human health and safety, doesn't waste the resource and certainly does not adversely affect the environment."
Operators pay a 1 percent severance tax on the value of all oil and gas that is produced. The money — more than $1.3 million in 2010 — is used to support operating expenses of the Division of Oil and Gas.
"We have no financial benefit or incentive, or I don't see how you can make that connection," McDivitt said. "We're just doing our job."
Hearing officer Sandra Jensen, who heard Williams' appeal of McDivitt's Oct. 28 order, is "a quasi-DNR employee," McDivitt said. "Well, officially she is a representative of the Natural Resources Commission."
McDivitt acknowledged that Williams or CountryMark can litigate Jensen's ruling in state court.
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