Status Update By Keith Wiley My opening essay on the EcoSociety Radio Show on Kootenay Coop Radio today. It’s been nearly two weeks since the jet fuel tanker spill in Lemon Creek in the Slocan Valley. This disaster gravely affected Slocan valley residents and people on Kootenay River. They are still under an official Do Not Use order from Interior Health keeping them from drinking, irrigating or washing with their water. This has been a tragic disaster for the families and animals in the valley, and for the Slocan River, which is our much loved swimming, and recreational gem. Far from the oil patch and pipelines it seems that an oil product spill can catch us by surprise, almost anywhere. Like all refined hydrocarbons, jet fuel – which is similar to kerosene with a whole brew of extra chemicals – is toxic to life. The reassuring messages we have been getting from authorities that it will evaporate in the atmosphere and dilute in the rivers is certainly true. This is good news for the Slocan Valley, fortunately. But the jet fuel is not gone. It’s just been spread around. We all now get to share the load. The thin life layer around our planet is absorbing yet another dose of human concocted chemicals and carcinogens. This Lemon Creek spill is a shock to us, too close to home. Here in our beautiful wilderness, as a community we generally try to reduce our environment impact as much as we can, with organic farming and a low chemical lifestyle. Then this. A petrochemical disaster certainly shocked the good citizens of Lac Megantic in Quebec as well. Not only did the centre of their town explode, but now it’s being revealed that hundreds of thousands of litres of oil ended up in the river there too. And a few years ago, the Gulf of Mexico. The Kalamazoo River in Michigan. And so many more spills and dumps. Greenpeace recently published statistics from Alberta showing an average of two spills a day over several decades. Currently, near Cold Lake in Alberta, there is a burbling spring of heavy oil, pushed up by in situ mining. For in situ mining, oil companies pump hot high pressure water, steam, and chemicals into the ground. Three leaks have surfaced and are spreading over a wide area. Spills do NOT clean up. Apparently recovering 18% of an oil spill is considered a success. The rest is, as I said, spread around. It’s a growing part of our whole biosphere, a toxic burden we leave as a legacy for our children, and all the life around us. For just over a century now, we have enjoyed a booming high energy life style, fueled by refined oil. Just this past weekend, I saw a local scene that was the perfect picture postcard for the oil age. A blonde teen age girl was racing across Kootenay Lake on a screaming seadoo. Living the fast life now. Our oil age is just a tiny blip on the earth’s geological calendar. But in such a short time, we have managed to have a tremendous impact. Now we have to do a major reckoning with how we handle hydrocarbons, how we use them, how we transport them. This concentrated energy we have built our lives around comes with serious implications. It’s time now to wake up and pay attention. The legacy of the Lemon Creek spill demands this of us.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 02:09:50 +0000