Danube

The very first dead fish have been discovered in the Danube, the second largest river in Europe, after an environmental mishap left toxic mud flowing from Hungary. A regional chief for the disaster relief services made the following comment to the AFP this past Thursday:

“I can confirm that we have seen sporadic losses of fish in the main branch of the Danube,” Tibor Dobson commented.

“The fish have been sighted at the confluence of the Raba with the Danube,” where water samples had shown a pH value of 9.1, he continued..

“Fish cannot survive at pH 9.1,” he added.

The alkalinity of the water is a measure of just how contaminated a body of water is. The values go from one to fourteen, pH levels of between one and six are considered acid, a reading of six to eight is neutral, and anything from eight to fourteen are alkaline.
“In order to save the river’s ecosystem, the pH level must be brought down to below 8,” Dobson explained.

When the toxic spill first happened this past Monday afternoon, the reading taken in the Torna river nearby were thirteen point five, in other words catastrophic.

The small Torna stream flows to the Marcal, which is a tributary of the Raba, and this then flows to the Danube.

The pH levels ascertained from the Torna this past Thursday showed about 10, so while it is not good yet, it appears that, given the time, mother nature will straighten itself out. However, in the mean time, the local ecosystem will take a huge hit.

Bolivia

If you think you don’t like the cold, think of the fish! Somewhere in the neighborhood of six million fish have perished in three different rivers of Bolivia due to intense cold. This cold snap has been passing through the country for the last couple of weeks.

The situation is so dire in fact, that the authorities in the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz have issued an alert. This alert came after fish had died in Grande, Pirai, and Ichilo rivers that run through the tropical region.

This is a real “environmental calamity” which was caused by the absolute lowest temperatures seen in Santa Cruz over the past 50 years, Governor Ruben Costas informed journalists.

Costas went on to say that experts in the field have discovered that the rivers are incredibly polluted by the carcasses of dead fish, and he has warned the locals not to use those waters.

This cold snap, which has had the Southern Cone of South America in it’s death grip for the past month, has caused a substantial decrease in the temperatures in both southern and eastern Bolivia. So drastic a change, that the temperature even dropped below 0 degrees Celsius.

The weather department of Bolivia has predicted that the eastern and southern parts of the country will continue to be out in the cold for the rest of the week.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five percent of the surface water in China is so contaminated that it can’t even be used for industrial purposes. The sad thing about that figure is, while twenty-five percent is that contaminated, less than half of the total supply available is fit for human consumption. This data came from an environment watchdog this past Monday.

Inspectors in China have been painstakingly testing water samples from the major rivers and lakes for the first half of this year, and have proclaimed that just 49.3 percent of the water would be safe for human consumption. This number is actually up from the 48 percent of last year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection declared in a public notice from their website.

China has six grades they use for classifying their water supplies, with the first three grades being considered safe for human use, such as drinking and bathing.

Another 24.6 percent of the water supply was said to have fallen in categories four and five, which is only good for industrial or agricultural use. This leaves a total of 24.3 percent in category six, which is not suitable for any use at all.

This is an absolute appalling state of affairs, and despite tougher regulations being implemented over the past 10 years, the ministry is still struggling to keep tabs on thousands of paper mills, cement factories, and chemical plants which are pumping their industrial waste right into the water supplies of the country.

This is a serious problem, but it seems like it will be quite some time before they get a handle on it.

Straddling the heavily populated border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lake Kivu contains huge amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide and highly combustible methane gas.

Scientists believe the overall danger across the lake as a whole is small, but a pocket of gas in the comparatively shallow Gulf of Kabuno in the north-western corner of the lake may prove more problematic. Just 12 meters below the surface, an estimated three cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide is present, right atop a tectonic faultline. Scientists fear a major earthquake or a large lava flow from a nearby volcano could lead to a giant release of gas from the gulf.

Congo’s environment minister warned on Tuesday that this gas could explode any day, threatening the lives of tens of thousands.

“The risk of explosion is imminent,” environment minister Jose Endundo told Reuters in an interview. “It’s like a bottle of Coca-Cola or champagne. If there is too much pressure inside the bottle, it will explode. It’s the same phenomenon.”

In 1986, about 1,700 people were killed in Cameroon as 1,2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide trapped under Lake Nyos was released into the air.

“The risk is that this gas escapes and asphyxiates thousands of people. There is an urgent need to evacuate gas from the Gulf of Kabuno, which now holds 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide that Lake Nyos contained,” Endundo said.

“Anything is possible, if this cloud is pushed by the wind,” says Michel Halbwachs, a volcanologist and Lake Kivu expert with France’s Universite de Savoie. “We could have a very light scenario or we could have a very heavy scenario. (…) Entire neighbourhoods could be hit.“

The shores of the Gulf of Kabuno are home to several large villages, and roughly 20 km to the east is the city of Goma with a resident population of roughly 1 million.

The World Bank has set aside $3 million to fund a project to remove gas from the gulf, but this isn’t enough to complete the project and Congo is therefore currently looking for other sources of finance. Earlier this year, Congo and Rwanda agreed to a joint project to produce 200 megawatts of power from Lake Kivu’s methane reserves. Pumping out the carbon dioxide together with the methane reserves could help alleviate the risk of a disaster. Rwanda is already extracting small amounts of methane from the lake using a demonstration rig. By the end of last year, the rig was producing 2 megawatts of power.

Nearly 40 miles (60 km) of beaches along the Australian east coast has been declared a disaster zone due to the massive amounts of oil and chemicals that leaked out from a Hong-Kong registered cargo ship on Wednesday.

According to Queensland state official, the beaches along the Moreton Island[1], Bribie Island[2], and the southern area of the Sunshine Coast[3] have taken the hardest hit and the oil spill is the worst to affect Queensland in decades. You can see an animation showing the sequence of events here: http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/resources/file/eb697a008fb8b4f/Pacific_animation.wmv

The Hong-Kong registered ship, a 185 metre container ship named Pacific Adventurer, was enroute from Newcastle to Indonesia via Brisbane when it got caught in Cyclone Hamish and lost over 30 shipping containers in the heavy seas about seven nautical miles east of Cape Moreton. The falling containers damaged the ship which resulted in heavy fuel oil getting into the water.

As of now, the Environmental Protection Agency, Emergency Services, and local government are working together in an effort to limit the consequences of the spill. Massive cleaning up efforts has been launched and affected animals are being treated by trained wildlife carers. According to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the clean-up effort could end up costing millions of dollars.

Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh says that Swire Shipping, the company owning the ship, could end up paying for the clean-up. “We are investigating the entire incident and if there is any basis for a prosecution, we will not hesitate to take that action – the total cost of the clean-up will rest with this company.” If found guilty of environmental breaches, Swire Shipping may also be facing fines of up to AUS $1,500,000 (US$ 977,000).

Initially, reports of the accident contained the number 20-30 tonnes of leaked oil, but the true number has now turned out be ten times this figure – a shocking 230 tonnes of oil. Oil is not only dangerous to wildlife in the short run; it is carcinogenic and can cause long-term effects.

The oil is however not the only problem; the shipping containers from the Pacific Adventurer where filled with ammonium nitrate fertiliser and environmental experts now fear that the nutrients will cause algal blooms and oxygen scarcity in the region. Radar-equipped aircrafts are therefore currently searching for the missing 620 tonnes of chemical fertilizer, in hope of finding as many containers as possible intact.

In a statement from Swire Shipping the company ensures that it and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities.

“The company very much regrets the environmental impact caused as a consequence of the vessel being caught in Cyclone Hamish. The company and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities. It has chartered a helicopter to survey the extent of the oil slick and to try to locate the containers. The company is in contact with Queensland government officials and has offered to provide any information that will help the clean up campaign to be targeted efficiently to minimise beach pollution and environmental impact. The companys oil pollution expert is arriving from the Middle East tonight to assist local authorities and technical experts with the clean up.”

You can find more information about the disaster on Maritime Safety Queensland, a government agency of Queensland Transport:
http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/Home/About_us/Msq_headlines/Headlines_pacific_adventurer

For information about volunteering or reporting sick or injured wildlife, contact the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au

Statements and information from Swire Shipping can be found here:
http://www.swireshipping.com/web/news.jsp?fid=368