UPDATE: Oil Pipeline Spill in Grand Staircase-Escalante N.Mon.

Photo Courtesy Fred Defa and High Country News.

You may recall I recently pointed you to a couple of stories in the Salt Lake Tribune regarding an oil pipeline leak in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Dixie National Forest in March. Apparently the BLM and Forest Service haven't done much about the situation other than force the operator, Citation Oil, to stop using that particular pipeline.

Thanks to a tweet from the Sierra Club, I recently found this story in the High Country News giving some updated information and additional background on the situation -- and the writing, by Krista Langlois, is really excellent. I'm really happy this under-reported mess is receiving some additional press.
I would add that High Country News is a wonderful monthly news magazine (also available in print) for those that care about the American West -- go check it out! Just browsing current stories, I see lots of topics I've been considering addressing right here on this blog.

Just Another Oil Leak IN A NATIONAL MONUMENT

Ho-hum. That's all. Just another oil leak. Er, actually two. So, TWO oil leaks ... One in a National Monument, another 3 miles away in a -- oh, don't worry, it's only a National Forest. They're meant to be raped, pillaged, then burned -- right? I'm not making the burning part up, either.

Photo courtesy of Leah Hogston
of the Salt Lake Tribune. Dark
sandy areas are oil/tar.

That's the way Utah -- or at least the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) -- seems to be responding to disastrous news that two leaks were recently discovered in the Dixie National Forest and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). The first leak was found by hikers on Saturday, March 22nd in Little Valley Wash and reported to the BLM, which oversees the Grand Staircase, on Monday the 24th. Little Valley Wash is part of the headwater system of the Escalante River, a stream responsible (along with its tributaries) for carving many of the region's spectacular canyons. The hikers initially identified between three and four miles of affected streambed. The story first appeared in the press in an article for the Salt Like Tribune by reporter Brian Maffly on March 26th, and fortunately the paper appears to be keeping close track of the disaster.

The second leak was discovered by the US Forest Service on March 24th in the Upper Valley Oil Field, which supplies the pipeline responsible for the first leak. The second leak was featured on April 2nd in a Salt Lake Tribune article by Christopher Smart. This oil field is part of the Dixie National Forest, with the second leak straddling the border of the two parks; both sites are leased and operated by Citation Oil Company of Houston, Texas.

Photo courtesy of Leah Hogston of the Salt Lake
Tribune. Scorched areas around pond show where
floating crude oil was burned off the water. 

It is appalling that this has not made any national news. GSENM is supposedly the "crown jewel" of the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System, yet the agency was basically trying to give the oil company a free pass within three days of the story breaking, claiming the spill occurred 40 years ago and was only recently mobilized by flash flooding. The BLM's special informational site regarding the spill, while talking a good talk about environmental experts and remediation plans, provides few details and only four utterly useless photographs. The two Salt Lake Tribune articles mentioned above have much higher-quality photo galleries live, here and here.

Yours truly in Dixie National Forest, moments before
a hummingbird landed on my right knee. 

The Dixie National Forest is both beautiful in its own right, and adjacent to three national parks and two national monuments. The area is famous as part of "The Grand Circle" of national parks and monuments that millions of people visit annually, literally among the United States' most stunning landscapes, including the immediately adjacent Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, and other iconic Utah locales like Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

I personally cut my teeth as a geologist in this area, so I know firsthand how almost preposterously fragile these desert ecosystems are without deadly oil pipeline leaks. Many parks in the area have signs reading "Don't Bust the Crust!," explaining that even stepping off-trail just a few feet can cause years' worth of damage to these delicate soil habitats. Many of the lovely photos you see on this blog were taken very near these leaks.

Those specks of white are my campsite amid the Paunsagunt Cliffs
of Dixie National Forest.

Local residents of Escalante, Utah, touring the Little Valley Wash spill with reporter Brian Maffly called the gruesome scene their "Little Valdez."

One perspective not discussed in any detail so far, though, is water. (For the geo-nerds, "the hydrogeologic ramifications of the mobilized contaminants.") See, the sand and sandstones that so indelibly define this region in the public consciousness are basically enormous sponges. Sandstone makes an excellent aquifer because the spaces between the sand grains, called pore spaces, can make up to 30% of the rock's volume. Unfortunately sandstones don't merely slurp up any water that happens along; they guzzle nearly any fluid that happens by -- including oil. The fact that oil was found along four miles of a stream bed, and is acknowledged by BLM to have a significant underground component at the second leak site (and leaked into a pond there to boot) means that these oil spills have already contaminated local aquifers. Every creature downstream of these leaks that drinks from a stream or pond, or pumps water from their well to their kitchen sink is now in danger of poisoning. While crude alone may not move very quickly through such materials, lighter fractions of the petroleum mixture will constantly dissolve, bit by tiny bit, ensuring a slow, excruciating poisoning of the area.

Lower Calf Creek Falls, one of my favorite spots on the planet,
is only a few  miles from these leaks.

The Forest Service and BLM are talking about removing standing water and some of the soils near the contamination sites on the ground surface, but sadly many contaminants will certainly have already infiltrated the ground and aquifers below. In order to understand how far the contamination has spread, many, many monitoring wells will have to be drilled. Water well drill rigs will have to be driven all over this delicate, parched landscape to figure out the true spatial extent of the damage. While the generally dry conditions will have slowed the capillary seepage of these petrochemicals down, out, and away, the fact that the leaks occurred an indeterminate-yet-not-short time ago means that these two agencies, already chronically underfunded, will be struggling to play catch-up, and may never truly be able to clean up all the oil spilled in this rugged, difficult terrain. Yes, Citation theoretically should be on the hook for the cleanup ... but as the last oil pipeline spill managed to glean a whopping $53,000 out of the behemoth Chevron, only a fool would expect Citation Oil will be held to the many, many millions of dollars this sort of cleanup will cost.

The BLM was quick to point out that with nearly two million acres to watch over in the Grand Staircase (and another two million in Dixie National Forest under the care of the Forest Service), they "can't be on every acre all the time." That may be true, but only a few of those acres have active oil fields -- and as these are not even Citation's first ... er, citations ... it would seem to behoove these agencies to keep vigilant eyes upon these specific locales. This oil field turns fifty this year, and with apparently no major renovations, these incidents are likely to not only continue, but increase in frequency. Local environmental group Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance stated "If BLM and the Forest Service don’t have the resources to protect our public lands, they shouldn’t be leasing them,"and I fully agree. (Quote courtesy of Christopher Smart's Tribune article.)

As profoundly as these lands have affected me, it is not only for the usual "future generations" that Utahns and all of us that love the Southwest must shout and work and cajole these agencies to do what's right -- it is for me, and for you, and your better half, and mine.

The view up the canyons of the Escalante River in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

For the full, very well-reported stories, I highly recommend you read the two pieces by Brian Maffly, and the third by Christopher Smart. Watch the Salt Lake Tribune (@SLTrib) and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance's Facebook page and Twitter feed (@SouthernUTWild) for updates on the situation.

Colorado River Getting (Some of) Its Delta Back

Colorado River near Moab, Utah.

Most Americans are vaguely aware that the Colorado River is ... mighty. Some of us are even aware it is excellent for rafting as it flows through the Grand Canyon, and on down to some very impressive man-made lakes named Powell, Meade, and Havasu.

Lake Powell near Page, Arizona.

But I'm pretty sure most Americans are not aware that we artificially divert the natural course of the river's entire flow so that Mexico doesn't get a drop of it (save during severe floods, as in a couple of El Nino years). Where the Colorado used to empty into the sea, there was a great delta which would remind many of the Mississippi's. Since 1964, though, the Colorado River Delta hasn't received squat. It dried up, turning into a litter-strewn expanse of sand most often used as a dirt road.

US border at Calexico, CA/Mexicali, MX. Image courtesy 

NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS,

 and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

As you might imagine, absolutely all the natural flora and fauna that used to inhabit the delta have died or been forced to migrate elsewhere. The people of Mexico are themselves immeasurably poorer due to the denial of this most basic of resources; the disparity it causes is so vast it's visible from space. The NASA image at the right (snapped by the ASTER instrument over a different, but similarly situated border area) uses infrared light to pick out vegetation; it's completely obvious where the border runs just from the drop in the farmed parcels.

For the first time since Morelos Dam was completed, on Sunday the US purposely released a large "pulse" of water through the dam to Mexico for the purpose of reviving the delta. The 34.3 billion gallon event was designed to simulate natural spring floods, and jump-start the delta's revitalization. It's the result of an agreement, called Minute 319, between the eight US states that share the Colorado's water rights, and the US and Mexican government.

The Nature Conservancy has some very cool footage up on YouTube showing the beginning of the event:


New Scientist has excellent full articles on the whole deal, from the Minute 319 agreement itself, to the specifics of the "pulse." NS always has great reads -- so head on over!

It's #WorldWaterDay!

As you may have noticed 'round the Twitterz, no less on my feed than others, today is World Water Day.

I would wager that only a vanishing fraction of the public knows that's even a thing ... and now I have to 'fess up: I didn't realize it was either. Which is pretty sad, considering how long I've been a hydrogeologist. I'm glad that this year quite a few major players have been relatively vocal for the observance.

Lower Calf Creek Falls near Escalante, Utah, is a perfect example of how even a
small stream can make all the difference to an area.

The Nature Conservancy's interactive web experience, Liquid Courage, is really well done -- it's even fun for non-water-nerds. NASA's Earth Science Division has an excellent video up for the occasion, while World Resources Institute has a totally geo-nerdgasmic tool called Aqueduct Country and River Basin Rankings live on their site (and yes, it's much cooler than that awful name). Not to be outdone, TreeHugger's piece on water scarcity is profoundly frightening. If you aren't already familiar with the work of Water for People, you should be -- and the newish One Drop is also an excellent addition to the arena. NRDC and WWF both have notable nods as well .

I am, however, rather disappointed that NASA seems our only government agency paying attention; EPA, US Geologic Survey, and the Forest Service are all mum about World Water Day, or even the recent Groundwater Awareness Week. Le sigh. I guess these are the sorts of agencies that are closed on Saturdays?

A Tesla Battery Plant in Tucson? Show me the water!

If you saw the recent news about Tesla Motors, you'll know they're considering locations for a new mega-plant for lithium-ion batteries somewhere in the US Southwest. It looks like Tucson, Arizona is a candidate!

This prospect is definitely a mixture of pros and cons. Tucson would obviously benefit economically from the construction and operation of a facility like this one. I also mostly trust Tesla and the quite progressive City of Tucson to approach the project in an environmentally responsible manner.

My main concern is the water. Electronics manufacturing is a notoriously thirsty business, and worse, the water has to be insanely super-pure, with absolutely no trace impurities. At some electronics plants, that means using water otherwise slated for drinking water -- and in the deserts of Arizona, that is a very precious commodity indeed.

This certainly can be done sustainably -- Intel operates a large plant near Phoenix, and returns 60-90% of its water to the aquifer, purified. But it's not cheap. The equipment may run to the hundreds of millions, plus operating costs, so a relatively young company like Tesla may have to think very hard about whether they're capable of committing to protecting Tucson's water resources. Given their raison d'etre, it seems like the sort of thing they would want to do -- but until there are very detailed plans on paper, I hope the City of Tucson proceeds with a reasonable amount of caution.