pilot dies in Minooka glider crash after impacted the terrain shortly after glider tow release from Chicago Glider Club Gliderport (IL59) in Channahon, Illinois

Tinley Park pilot dies in Minooka glider crash Published: Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016 1:26 p.m. CDT • Updated: Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016 1:31 p.m. CDT

By ANNA SCHIER - aschier@shawmedia.com

MINOOKA – A Tinley Park man died Saturday in Minooka when the glider he was piloting crashed into a field.


The incident occurred about 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chicago Glider Club, located on West Airport Road, according to Will County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Tom Budde.

James M. Patton, 69, was pronounced dead at 5:30 p.m. at the scene, according to the Will County Coroner's Office. The Sheriff's Office, National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the crash occurred shortly after the glider detached from its tow plane. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford stated via email that preliminary information indicates the glider detached not long after takeoff.

Knudson said an NTSB investigator would be on scene Sunday. A preliminary incident report is expected in one to two weeks and it will take six to 12 months to complete the investigation, he said.

Patton's final cause and manner of death is pending autopsy, toxicological and police reports, according to the Coroner's Office. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.


==========

Date:

	06-AUG-2016
Time:	15:30
Type:	Glider
Owner/operator:
Registration:
C/n / msn:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Airplane damage:	Unknown
Location:	Chicago Glider Club Gliderport (IL59), Channahon, IL -   United States of America
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Unknown
Departure airport:	Chicago Glider Club (IL59)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
The aircraft impacted the terrain shortly after glider tow release following a takeoff attempt from Chicago Glider Club Gliderport (IL59) in Channahon, Illinois. The glider sustained unreported damage and the sole pilot onboard received fatal injuries.
Sources:
http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2016/08/fatal-accident-occurred-august-07-2016.html

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4309499,-88.2462437,17z/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en-us

five adults and five children — including a 4-year-old girl who suffered serious eye and facial injuries — were injured in a Miller Place crash

4-year-old seriously hurt in crash, 9 others injured, cops say

Updated August 7, 2016 8:07 PM
By Lisa Irizarry lisa.irizarry@newsday.com



Suffolk County police said five adults and five children — including a 4-year-old girl who suffered serious eye and facial injuries — were injured in a Miller Place crash on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (Credit: Fully Involved Media / Andrew Tetreault)

Five adults and five children — including a 4-year-old girl who suffered serious eye and facial injuries — were hurt in a Miller Place crash, Suffolk County police said Sunday.

The accident occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday when a 2013 Ford van driven by Brian Schember ran into a 2003 Dodge minivan driven by Kevin Denton, 41, of Port Jefferson Station, according to a police report.

Schember, 20, of Miller Place was traveling west on Route 25A with two residents of the Hudson Group Home in Coram as passengers, and was trying to make a left turn onto Miller Place Road when the crash happened, police said.

Denton, another adult and the five children in his minivan were taken to Stony Brook University Hospital. Police said that except for the 4-year-old, the injuries to the passengers in Denton’s vehicle were minor.

Schember did not require medical attention, but the two passengers in his vehicle were taken to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson with minor injuries, police said.


Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks and the investigation into the crash was continuing.

Carlos Becker, an NYPD cop from Hempstead, NY, gets no bail in insurance fraud case because he had been involved in assaulting women in 2013 and 2015

NYPD cop from Hempstead gets no bail in insurance fraud case
because he had been involved in assaulting women in 2013 and 2015
Updated August 5, 2016 6:32 PM
By John Riley john.riley@newsday.com
 


NYPD highway cop Carlos Becker in court in the Bronx Court July 26, 2013 for an inappropriate and possibly corrupt relationship with a woman he arrested for drunk driving. Photo Credit: New York Daily News / Enid Alvarez


HIGHLIGHTS
Department has suspended Carlos Becker
Prosecutors say he’s been involved in assaulting women

An NYPD cop from Hempstead charged with insurance fraud was held without bail on Friday by a federal magistrate in Brooklyn after prosecutors said he was too dangerous to release because he had been involved in assaulting women in 2013 and 2015.

Carlos Becker, 39, a 13-year NYPD veteran, was arrested this week and charged with arson-for-hire on his Range Rover in 2012 to collect on a phony insurance claim. After hearing the new allegations Friday, Magistrate Steven Gold ordered him temporarily detained until Aug. 17, to give his lawyer time to respond.

Prosecutors told Gold that Erica Noonan, a woman Becker arrested on drunken driving charges in 2013, has accused him of taking suggestive videos, pressuring her into a date, taking her home after she got groggy and assaulting her.

They said he was also accused of assault last year by a London woman who was dating him. “He threatened to punch her in the face and put his hands around her neck,” FBI agent Andrew Taff, the only witness, told Gold.

Taff said no assault charges were filed in that case. Becker was tried in the Bronx on official misconduct charges in the Noonan incident and acquitted. A civil suit filed by Noonan against him, pending in Manhattan federal court, says no assault charges were filed. 

Becker’s lawyer, Colleen Brady of Manhattan, told Gold she needed time to gather evidence to respond to the allegations, and declined to comment afterward.


After his arrest on Wednesday, federal prosecutors submitted both a sealed and an unsealed letter to the court seeking detention of Becker.

The unsealed letter noted his status as a police officer, and said that in addition to burning his Range Rover in 2012, he set fire to a BMW in 2015 in a similar scheme after learning the earlier incident was under investigation.

“Setting fire to the BMW on a residential street in Brooklyn after being made aware that law enforcement was investigating his role in the 2012 fire evidences the defendant’s callous and brazen disregard for the safety of the community,” the government said.

Becker has been suspended by the NYPD.

The EPA is warning people who live in central Washington, MO of the possibility of contaminated soil and shallow groundwater.

EPA Order to protect homes in Washington, Mo., from chemical vapors


A local neighborhood is under close watch tonight after the federal government said harmful chemicals could be in the groundwater. 

Eduardo Gonzalez and Jennifer Meckles, KSDK 11:57 PM. CDT August 05, 2016 

 
WASHINGTON, MO. - The EPA is warning people who live in central Washington, MO of the possibility of contaminated soil and shallow groundwater.

The organization said 25 homes could be eligible to have free protective vapor mitigation systems installed. This is part of an order issued to SV Land, LLC, where industrial chemical solvents polluted soil and shallow groundwater.

The EPA said a polluted groundwater plume could have a negative impact in nearby areas, which includes residential properties. The organization went on to say that the contamination came from the solvents the Sporlan Valve Company used.

The EPA contacted the owners of the areas that were potentially affected and assured them that any work that must be done to solve the issue will be at no cost to the homeowners.

The EPA will hold a public meeting to share information and answer questions about plans for the site, including details of the upcoming environmental sampling and VMS installation activities.

The meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 9, at the Washington City Council Chambers, 405 Jefferson Street, in Washington, Mo.

Byron Stolte has lived across from the former plant site for more than 30 years. He said the EPA visited his home a few times.

“They put in a couple of holes in the basement with some testers in them, and I don’t think they ever really found very much though,” he said. Stolte isn’t sure yet if he can make the Tuesday meeting, and isn’t too alarmed by the testing. However, he would like more information about what’s happening beneath his home.

“I would like to know what they found, if anything. If it amounted to anything,” he said.

Just next door, Rebecca Johnson said her family opted out of EPA testing after several neighbors told her their results showed nothing significant. She still got a letter from EPA in recent weeks, explaining the testing and concerns about contamination.

Johnson also has questions, and plans to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

“Is it an issue on our own yards, or in our own house? Is it still a fume issue on our house? We have an 18 year old who spends a lot fo time in the basement, is that a health issue?”

7 people hospitalized after chemical vapors seep into Wausau, Wisconsin VA clinic venitlation system

By John DesRivieres |
Posted: Fri 1:58 PM, Aug 05, 2016 |
Updated: Fri 3:52 PM, Aug 05, 2016



WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW)-- 7 people were hospitalized after fumes from a chemical sealant seeped into the ventilation system at the Wausau Veteran's Affairs outpatient clinic Friday morning, according to VA Public Affairs Officer Matthew Gowan.

All Seven people were employees of the clinic.

Each was treated for minor inhalation issues at a local hospital and later discharged.

Battalion Chief Allan Antolik tells NewsChannel 7 the Wausau Fire Department responded around 11 a.m. and evacuated the building after several people reported having trouble breathing.

Antolik says a work crew was spraying concrete sealer outside of the building and the fumes spread into the ventilation system.

The fire department ventilated the building and used a meter to check for chemical levels.

Around noon, the building was deemed safe and it was turned back over to clinic staff.

Gowan says the clinic continued to take patients Friday afternoon.

The seven employees have been given an authorized absence and have the rest of the day off.

A Newton, Mass. construction worker slipped and fell into a cement mixer, breaking several bones at the Kessler Woods residential development

 Firefighters attend to the construction worker after he was freed from a cement mixer. Newton fire department


Newton construction worker falls into cement mixer

By Dylan McGuinness Globe Correspondent 

August 05, 2016 

A Newton construction worker slipped and fell into a cement mixer Thursday, breaking several bones before a worker heard his screams and shut off the machine, officials said.

When medics arrived at the LaGrange Street site around 4:45 p.m., they put an intravenous line in the 22-year-old worker, partially sedated him, and monitored his vital signs as firefighters embarked on a grueling, two-hour effort to free his leg.

“We had to cut through the outer casing just to get to the auger, which took quite a while, and then cut the auger as well,” said Newton Fire Chief Bruce Proia. Rescuers needed specialized tools because heavier equipment could have caused further injury.

Newton firefighters called for assistance from the Brookline and Boston fire departments, which have the tools, Proia said.

 
Final U/D- LaGrange St. This is the piece of equipment. Crews had to cut away the sides to free the patient. pic.twitter.com/6AguWDy0Tu— Newton Fire (@NewtonFireDept) August 4, 2016

The man’s leg was lodged from the mid-calf down, Proia said.

When he was freed, the worker was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Proia said. He has several broken bones, but Proia said medical officials thought they could save his leg.

The man was working at the Kessler Woods residential development near the Brookline border, Proia said. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration was notified.

“Newton personnel did a great job. So did Boston and Brookline,” Proia said. “It was a true team effort.”

Oil producer's Crescent Point Energy pipeline spill of 27,000 gallons of oil and water this week on a farm northwest of Swift Current in Saskatchewan, Canada

New Saskatchewan pipeline leak spills oil and water mix into farmer's field
Crescent Point Energy leak happened near Swift Current

By Danny Kerslake, CBC News Posted: Aug 05, 2016 12:03 PM CT Last Updated: Aug 05, 2016 2:39 PM CT



Another pipeline leak is being reported in Saskatchewan. This time it is a Crescent Point Energy pipeline near Swift Current. (Reuters)


Saskatchewan's largest oil producer Crescent Point Energy is investigating the cause of a pipeline spill of some 630 barrels of oil and water this week on a farm northwest of Swift Current.
'It was a small confined spill.' - Neil Smith, Crescent Point Energy

The Crescent Point Energy pipeline spill happened Tuesday near the village of Pennant.

"Most of the spill is cleaned up," said the company's chief operating officer Neil Smith.

"A couple of nights ago … we had three inches of rain overnight, so that slowed down some of the recovery operations, but we are pretty well done. It's just the last bit of the cleanup now."


The leak happened on a short section of pipeline (about 1.2 kilometres) running from a collection point to another facility that separates the oil and water.

Crescent Point's monitoring equipment did not detect a change in flow rate or pressure in the line. Instead, the company was alerted to the leak by another crew in the field inspecting its own facilities.

"They responded immediately," said Laurie Pushor, deputy minister of economy. "It is very common for field operators to share information when it is seen."

Smith said the pipeline may have been leaking "a day, two days or less, but that's speculation right now."

This spill by volume, about half the size of the recent Husky Energy pipeline spill into the North Saskatchewan River, is less of a threat to the ecosystem.

"It was a small confined spill to an immediate area," said Smith.

The Crescent Point pipeline leak happened in a farmer's field, and the oil emulsion consisting mainly of water settled in a small low spot where it could be easily contained. The government confirmed that the spill did not come near water that has fish or is used for drinking, and there is no risk to wildlife.

Smith said that Crescent Point is looking into why the pipeline failed and why its automated leak detection systems did not alert the company.

"We take the health and safety of our workers, of our community, of our environment very seriously."

Crescent Point Energy produces more than 120,000 barrels of oil a day in Saskatchewan.



================


Pipeline spills oil and water mix on farm near Swift Current, Sask.
By Alexa Huffman Web Producer Global News



Crescent Point Energy and the Saskatchewan government said a section of pipeline leaked an oil and water mix on Aug 2 near Pennant, Sask. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alex Panetta


The Saskatchewan government and Crescent Point Energy have confirmed that a pipeline containing an oil and water mix spilled into a farmer’s field just north of Swift Current, Sask.

According to Neil Smith, the chief operating officer at Crescent Point Energy, 100 cubic metres of oil (100,000 litres) or just under 700 barrels of oil and water effluent leaked in a farmer’s canola field near Pennant, Sask. on Aug. 2. at around 3 p.m.



Smith said the pipeline was transporting emulsion from one part of the field to a facility that separates the oil and water. The leak happened in one section of about 1.2 kilometres.

“This is not an oil transmission line at all,” Smith said.

The spill was five to 10 per cent produced crude oil and 90 per cent produced water.

On Friday, Laurie Pushor, deputy minister of the economy in Saskatchewan, said the government was notified by Crescent Point Energy immediately after it was told of the leak by a neighbouring company.

“They responded immediately, it is very common for field operators to share information when it is seen,” Pushor said.

Pushor also said the company is conducting an investigation into how the leak occurred.

“One of the questions would be how long it was leaking,” Pushor said.

Smith said the other company noticed a stain on the pipeline while looking at its own equipment then called Crescent Point. Crescent Point’s monitoring equipment did not pick up a change in pressure or flow rate.

“We purposefully inspect but there’s also traffic going by, so it turned out it was another company who was doing one of their routine maintenance checks,” Smith said.

“We immediately went out, we immediately shut the line in, we immediately notified the regulatory government authorities, we immediately let the landowner know and then we started the cleanup.”

According to Smith, the leak affected crops in the immediate area and there was a slough on the edge of the field that the effluent leaked into. However, the leak did not affect any fish, wildlife or drinking water.

“It was contained in about 50 metres by about 15 metres area, and then the slough, it would go there, so that would spread a little bit further on there, but it’s still a contained body of water,” Smith said.

Crescent Point is currently investigating how long the leak lasted for and why that area of the pipeline was breached.

“We will shut in the line, we’ll unearth the line and we’ll not only visually look at it, we may cut that piece out and take it into a lab,” Smith said.

The majority of the cleanup was completed on the first day. There is a small recovery left due to rain earlier in the week slowing down the cleanup.

The spill was about half of the Husky oil spill, which saw 200 to 250 cubic meters (200,000 to 250,000 litres of oil) blended with diluent (a chemical added to heavy oil to make it flow more easily) leak from a pipeline into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone, Sask. That spill was discovered on July 21.


“Spills…do happen, but the main focus is that there’s ongoing vigilance in monitoring,” Smith said.

“There is a huge amount of preventative work to make sure there are not issues, so there have been spills, but we’ve certainly never experienced a spill to the extent that Husky is dealing with right now.”

====================



Crescent Point Sees 31% Recovery Factors: Has it Perfected the Next Big Idea in Horizontal Wells?
 
September 14, 2015 




Beating the Decline Curve with Water Injections via Stage-Fractured Horizontal Wells = a Lower F&D Cost than Saudi Arabia

The shale revolution has propelled North America into a global energy powerhouse. The technology driving this transformation – hydraulic fracturing – has allowed U.S. and Canadian producers to unlock tremendous energy resources, but it presents its own unique challenges compared to traditional methods of production.

Production from hydraulically fractured wells declines rapidly, typically by 60-70% in the first year, before leveling out at lower levels. Because of the rapid initial decline of new wells, companies drilled several new wells to replace the lost production from their aging wells, creating a “Red Queen Syndrome,” which is a reference to the character by the same name in Through the Looking-Glass, who tells Alice, “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

Since the tremendous drop in oil prices since the middle of last year, many companies have cut their drilling programs, deferred completions and put an emphasis on improving efficiencies in order to optimize the production they receive from their wells. Efficiencies derived from enhanced completion techniques and high-grading will lead to initial productivity gains per well of 24% in 2015 and 15% in 2016, leaving U.S. oil production ready for substantial growth come 2017.



While producers in the U.S. have made tremendous gains in combating the Red Queen Syndrome following the collapse of oil prices, a Canadian producer believes it has the next wave of change in the horizontal production.
“Waterflooding is as big as fracture stimulation of horizontal wells” – Neil Smith, COO Crescent Point

Crescent Point Energy (ticker: CPG) is a Canadian E&P company with operations focused in Western Canada. The company’s strategy consists of three parts: develop and exploit through increasing recovery factors, acquire large resource-in-place pools with potential for upside production, and manage risk through maintaining a strong balance sheet.

During the company’s presentation at EnerCom’s The Oil & Gas Conference® 20, Crescent Point COO Neil Smith pointed out that 14 years ago, the company had no reserves and no production. But in that time it has become a company with a market capitalization of $8.4 billion, with a debt-to-market cap of just 48%, compared to a median of 66% for Canadian E&Ps in EnerCom’s E&P Weekly Report. In 2014, the company’s year-end reserves (total proved) were 528.1 MMBOE, while its year-end reserves (total proved plus probable) was 807.4 MMBOE.

While much of the company’s breakout session following its presentation at TOGC20® focused on the potential for future acquisitions, Smith was most energized about Crescent Point’s waterflooding program, which the COO called “as big as fracture stimulating horizontal wells,” when interviewed about Crescent Point’s water flood program by Oil & Gas 360®.
Recovery factors over 30%

“The upside on this is huge,” Smith told OAG360. “Where we’re at (in Canadian Viewfield Bakken), there’s plus-or-minus 6 million barrels of oil in place. At four horizontal wells per section, we’re seeing about a 12% primary recovery [with four hydraulically fractured wells]. Down-spacing to 8 wells, we get 19%. When you look at waterflood, through empirical data, history matching and our simulation studies, we’re seeing a 31% total recovery factor,” Smith said.

The incremental recovery factor Crescent Point has realized through the use of its waterflooding program in the Viewfield has increased recovery factors by 12% from the recovery factor it was seeing with its down-spaced, 8 well program.



The use of waterflooding has shallowed out Crescent Point’s decline curves in all of the plays were the company is using the technology by about 10%, said Smith, meaning the company is realizing upside years down the road. “Waterflooding is a slower catalyst, but the economics are still very robust,” said Smith. “If I shallow my decline, then I need less capital to maintain my production. So either I spend less capital to maintain my production, or the same amount of capital accelerates my growth.”

“If you look in just the Viewfield, we’re probably affecting 15-20 thousand barrels of oil. If you reduce the decline by 10% on 20,000 barrels, that’s 2,000 barrels of production that we’ve recovered by shallowing the decline,” said Smith. “That’s just in one year. The next year it’s 4,000, then 6,000. You’re saving that decline with time.”

The process also has tremendous upside for F&D costs explained Smith. The 12% incremental recovery increase on the approximately 6 million barrels works out to 720,000 barrels; factoring in the $350,000 to conve
rt a producing well into an injection well for four wells is about $1.4 million; that divided by 720,000 barrels works out to a finding and development cost of about $1.94 per barrel.

“Our waterflood economics put us at a lower F&D cost than Saudi Arabia,” said Smith.


Improving reserves, but not overnight

With year-end approaching, OAG360® asked Smith if this technology would help the company maintain its reserves even at a lower price deck. Smith responded that it does help, but it is happening slowly.

“We’re not going to go from 19% to 31% overnight. The independent engineers need to see the injection wells change, they need more response, so it is baby steps that they’ll give you. Maybe 1-2% per year. For now, where we have injectors, they’re recognizing incremental recovery in the offset producers.”
Unique challenges

“The common wisdom has been that you cannot waterflood tight rock because if you had a vertical well, and you wanted to inject water into that vertical well, the rock was so tight that you would have to push so hard that the injection water would fracture the injection well and the water would go straight from the injector to the producer,” said Smith. The company has worked around this by using horizontal, stage-fraced wells as injectors.

“Instead of having one, bull-head push, you have 15-20 injection points on the horizontal wells, which gives the water time to go through the matrix and push the oil towards an offsetting producer well,” Smith explained. Crescent Point uses its sliding-sleeve technology in conjunction with its horizontal injection wells in order to maximize their effect.

Water will follow the path of least resistance said Smith, so if only a handful of the injection points are receiving enough water, CPG can close part of the sleeve to push water elsewhere. “Not only has [sliding-sleeve technology] improved our primary completions, but what we’ll be able to do is open and close the injection ports. So if too much water is running into five ports, we can go and close the sleeve to make sure water is getting into the other ports.”
Trendsetting

This is not the first time Crescent Point has brought an innovative strategy to production though, says Smith. “In 2009, we started doing cemented liners. We started telling the world we were doing cemented liners. Well, about two years ago, there was a story saying ‘here’s the new way, here’s the revolution: cemented liners.’ I took that to our completions department and they said, ‘Yep, that’s what we’ve been doing for four years already.’”

When asked if he thought the story would be the same for waterflooding, Smith said it was likely, but that he understood the hesitation to jump into a waterflooding program. “Companies have growth targets and they don’t want to convert a producing well into an injector, even for long-term value upside. They’re more quarterly driven, but I believe it’s the next wave.”



Near-term costs are likely the biggest factor keeping from more companies from following suit, said Smith. “There has been a very large push in the market for production growth … if I have a well that producing 20-50 barrels per day and decide to turn them into injectors, I’m losing production in the near-term.” A decision which the market is not always happy about, said Smith. The near-term loss is more than recovered over time by the shallowing of decline curves, however, said the COO.

“Will it work in a lot of the reservoirs in the States? They tend to be deeper, they tend to be tighter, but there’s only one way to find out: put some water in the ground. Measure and get data, and see if it works.”
Expanding the program

When asked about Crescent Point’s waterflood program outside the Viewfield, Smith said the company is seeing promising results elsewhere as well. “The Viewfield (in the southeast) is the second-largest oil field ever discovered in Western Canada. If you look to the southwest, we have the third-largest oil pool ever discovered in Western Canada, called the Shaunavon. We own 90% of that.”



“It’s a carbonate, and we are having better results than what we saw in the early days of the Viewfield. We were concerned because the rock is even tighter there, and it’s a thicker sector of pay with 10-12 million barrels of pay per section, [but] we’ve been seeing faster and more immediate response there than we saw in Viewfield.”

Smith also said that the company was looking to use waterfloods in its Uinta acreage in Utah as well.

Small but numerous spills in the Komi Republic threaten fish stocks, pasture land and drinking water

Oil spills in the Komi Republic caused by old pipelines are relatively small and rarely garner widespread attention - but added up they threaten fish stocks and pasture for cattle


Small but numerous spills in the Komi Republic threaten fish stocks, pasture land and drinking water. Photograph: Gleb Paikachev


Alec Luhn in Usinsk

Friday 5 August 2016 01.00 EDT

The Komi Republic in northern Russia is renowned for its many lakes, but sites contaminated by oil are almost just as easy to find in the Usinsk oilfields. From pumps dripping oil and huge ponds of black sludge to dying trees and undergrowth — a likely sign of an underground pipeline leak — these spills are relatively small and rarely garner media attention.

But they add up quickly, threatening fish stocks, pasture land and drinking water. According to the natural resources and environment minister, Sergei Donskoi, 1.5m tonnes of oil are spilled in Russia each year. That’s more than twice the amount released by the record-breaking Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

 A dead bird covered in oil in the Komi Republic. Photograph: Gleb Paikachev

The main problem, according to the natural resources ministry, is that 60% of pipeline infrastructure is deteriorated. And with fines inexpensive and oversight lax, oil companies find it more profitable to patch up holes and pour sand on spills — or do nothing at all — than invest in quality infrastructure and comprehensive cleanups, according to activists.

“The pipelines are very worn out, they’re left over from the USSR,” said Greenpeace research projects coordinator, Vasily Yablokov. “The oil companies have realised they’re losing a lot of oil and are starting to replace them, but it’s laughable. They need to do much more.”

While Russia’s oil and gas production provides more than half the state budget every year, it exacts a huge price on the environment and local residents. A state energy statistics bureau told Greenpeace it had registered 11,709 pipeline breaks in Russia in 2014. In contrast, Canada reported five pipeline accidents (involving human injury) and 133 incidents involving natural gas and oil pipelines in 2014.

The Komi Republic is where Russia’s first oil production facility opened in 1745, and the Soviet Union started developing the country’s modern oil industry here in the 1960s and 70s. Usinsk, a sleepy town of 39,000 people, is the regional oil hub. The Usinsk oil field is licensed largely to Lukoil, which bought its Komi oil drilling assets from Komitek in 1999 and began expanding production.

“More Usinsk oil to the motherland!” giant letters proclaim on top of one prefab flat block. Just south of the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t even set in Usinsk in the summer, and it’s reachable by car only when rivers freeze to make “winter roads”. Russi oilfields map

Komi’s aging oil infrastructure has been prone to accidents. In 1994, a pipeline break in Usinsk gushed up more than 60,000 tonnes of oil (many estimates put that figure at twice as much), one of the biggest spills ever on land. Spills in 2013, 2014 and 2015 released hundreds of tonnes of oil on to the snow and river ice.

Greenpeace says that in 2014, a 10-day “oil patrol” by its volunteers discovered 201 contaminated sites (mostly from pipeline breaks) in the Usinsk oilfield, which is licensed largely to Lukoil, and filed official complaints for each. A trip organised by Greenpeace and the local news site 7x7 in July reported that at least six of these sites were still filled with oil.

At a meeting with journalists and Greenpeace, Lukoil-Komi representatives said the 201 sites had been investigated and no oil spill was found at 67 of them.However, Greenpeace has photographs of violations at every site. Representatives admitted the subcontractor that checked the sites could have mistaken the coordinates of some of them. According to Lukoil spokesman Sergei Makarov, a new programme by the company has liquidated more than 50 pools of leaked oil.

But since satellite imagery has shown likely spills in areas of the Usinsk oilfields that Greenpeace cannot access, the actual number of contaminated sites is likely far higher than 201, Yablokov believes.


“It’s like a train that they’re laying rails under as it goes, it goes further and they lay more rail, and that train is oil extraction in the regions,” Yablokov said.

Besides the six known sites, Greenpeace said the July visit also found three new oil spills along the way, including one near a site that Greenpeace volunteers removed 20 tonnes of oil from in 2014.

At the site of one pipeline break, the Guardian saw that a large amount of oil had been removed by Lukoil workers and the site considered “reclaimed”. But the haphazard canals criss-crossing it were still full of thick, unctuous water with a rainbow film on top, and white paint on the birch tree trunks could not cover the black trace of oil, Greenpeace says.

Locals in the villages around Usinsk complain that the frequent oil spills pollute their drinking water, contaminate the river fish and reindeer they depend on for food and cause chronic health conditions.

Statistics obtained in 2010 by local activists from the hospital in Ust-Usa, a village of 1,300 on the Pechora river that has suffered from many of the large spills, showed rises in almost every kind of illness. Nervous system illnesses in adults, for instance, grew from 26 in 1995 to 70 in 2009. In patients under 18 years of age, they skyrocketed from 72 to 254.

Spokesman Sergei Makarov said Lukoil-Komi was investing 20bn roubles (£230m) in environmental measures and would change 370km of old pipeline in 2016, out of a 7,000km-long pipeline network in the region. The company reported only six oil spills in 2015, although Makarov admitted “some of our employees don’t want to report (spills) because a leak means poor quality work”.

In late May, more than 50 residents of Ust-Usa protested the effects of oil drilling and plans for a new oil well near the village. Lukoil Komi plans to increase its production from 15.8m tonnes of oil in 2014 to 21.5m tonnes in 2019.

“We’re not telling oil companies to leave, we are saying drill in a way so that we can live with clean air and water,” local biology teacher and activist Yekaterina Dyachkova said. “Of course we depend on oil companies because there is no other work.”

  Canals full of oily water created during the cleanup process. Photograph: Gleb Paikachev

The aftermath of oil spills isn’t limited to Komi. Northern rivers such as the Pechora carry 500,000 tonnes of oil into the Arctic Ocean every year, the state hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring service reported in 2011. More than 11,000 people have signed a Greenpeace petition demanding oil companies be required to replace by 2022 all oil pipelines more than 25 years old.

Without stricter enforcement, the situation is unlikely to change. The average return on assets for oil companies in Russia was twice as high as in other countries, according to a recent Greenpeace report. That’s thanks to huge government tax breaks and subsidies, as well as “conditions in which oil companies are able to avoid full financial responsibility for oil spills” and not replace pipelines, it said.

“We need the cost of oil drilling to include protecting nature,” Yablokov said. “It won’t be quite as profitable a business, but we will be able to preserve the environment.”

$300,000 of hay up in smoke after a 3-alarm fire burns a hay barn to the ground in Wood Cross, Utah

3-alarm fire prompts evacuations in Woods Cross
by Jeff McAdam, Updated at 09:59pm, August 5, 2016



WOODS CROSS, Utah -- A hay barn in Woods Cross burned to the ground in a matter of minutes, taking roughly $300,000 worth of hay with it and prompting evacuations in nearby homes.

"That was his life's savings," said Justin Dursteler, a man who was helping the barn's owner load hay.

He said, suddenly, he saw a spark near the tractor ignite a nearby hay pile.

"It was instantaneous," he added. "Words can't say when you watch thousands and thousands of dollars burn up. It's pretty sad."

Making the news ever harder to swallow, Dursteler said he learned his friend didn't have any insurance.

Fire investigators did not confirm the cause of the fire on Friday night. They said it would be a number of days before a report was finalized. Nearby homes were threatened by the flames as well.

"When our units arrived, they could see the roof was starting to catch," said Chief Jeff Bassett, with South Davis Metro Fire.

He said firefighters went into one home that had caught on fire.

"The encountered some children," he said.

All of the children were rescued and are unharmed.

Still, the Chief of Police for Woods Cross expressed concern over a delay that prevented police officers for three or four minutes. Speaking on the phone Friday, he said a number of his officers couldn't get to the fire because of a stationary Union Pacific train that was blocking the road.

He said it took three or four minutes to convince the train conductor to finally move it out of the way.

In a written response to the allegations, Union Pacific stated:


"Currently this incident is under investigation. Union Pacific will conduct a full and complete investigation into this matter and cannot comment further while the investigation is ongoing.

Union Pacific values the strong relationships we have developed with local law enforcement in the Salt Lake City area and across our network."

Suspicious three-alarm fire on Spruce Street in Manchester, NH

Suspicious three-alarm fire on Spruce Street in Manchester, NH
Cause of the fire is suspicious, officials say
UPDATED 7:38 AM EDT Aug 07, 2016


MANCHESTER, N.H. —Manchester firefighters were on the scene of a three-alarm fire on Spruce Street late Friday night.

Crews arrived on scene just after 11:30 p.m. with initial reports of people trapped on the third and fourth floor of the four-story residence, said Al Poulin, Manchester's district fire chief.

Crews searched the entire building, but were unable to locate anyone in trapped inside, officials said.

Officials said the fourth floor was fully involved, with flames coming out of the windows.

Crews initially had issues getting to the building due to downed wires, Poulin said.

At one point, 75 firefighters were on scene.

"We are incredibly lucky that no one, firefighter or resident, was injured or killed tonight," Poulin said. "This was a very difficult, dangerous and hot fire."

Poulin said that the fire was so hot that some firefighters' gear was smoking as crews came out of the residence.

Officials said 19 people were displaced by the fire. Red Cross is assisting some residents; others are staying with family members, Poulin said.

Poulin said the cause of the fire appears to be suspicious.