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British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission has confirmed that the earthquake that was felt in Fort St. John and Fort Nelson in August of 2014 was triggered by fluid injection during hydraulic fracturing. Canada’s Green party is calling for more investment in sustainable energy following the confirmation that fracking triggered the 4.4 magnitude earthquake.
The Green party leader Elizabeth May issued a statement saying that “this earthquake confirms that fracking is dangerous and an environmentally irresponsible practice”. May said an earthquake of this magnitude could “have devastating implications” for the environment and the Halfway River First Nations community.
May said in a statement: “The link between earthquakes and fracking has been proven, so why does (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper continue to allow fracking, while providing subsidies to big oil companies? The Green party is against subsidies and supports to the oil, coal, gas and coal bed methane industries in Canada. These industries are not sustainable and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions”.
Over the years the Developer has been introducing game onto the Estate and we now have healthy numbers of Springbok (including white, black, common and copper), bontebok and Steenbok. The successful introduction of game requires both game management and other management decisions. Population growth must be managed to prevent over grazing as well as mortalities due to poor quality grazing and veld conditions. Fortunately Langebaan Country Estate (LCE), with its golf course, does provide a suitable habitat with good quality grazing, however, this needs to be managed to prevent damage to the golf course and greens.
The Developer is in the process of formalising a Game Management Programme that will form part of the overall Environmental Management System for the Estate. This programme will describe management, monitoring and decisions to be taken to achieve successful management of game at LCE. The Estate, together with interested residents, should implement a biodiversity (game, plants, avifauna, etc.) monitoring system for the Estate.
The endangered bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus pygarus) and springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) have been successfully introduced on the Estate by the Developer. They have settled in and established their territories and family groups.
Wildlife management is a form of adaptive management. This means that management actions, as implemented, are based both on past and prevailing veld conditions as well as the wildlife population condition. Thus, in order to make informed decisions, and to adapt to changes, monitoring systems must be implemented as basis for decision-making. These records will help to interpret the integrated functioning of the natural and alien systems and be a very useful basis for the various management activities as well as providing interpretative data for inhabitants and visitors.
Home owners and staff can play an important role in the collection of biological information. This will further help and encourage participation and learning about the natural characteristics of the area. The simple recording system proposed can be used for all wildlife, not only game species. It can further be used, for example, to record observations of other wildlife and avifauna species on the Estate.
By Nicolaas Hanekom – Eco Impact, published in the Estate Times, Langebaan country Estate. LCE Newsletter – July 2015, Volume 9, Page 3.
Spokesperson for ER24 Russel Meiring has said that a pregnant construction worker is in a critical condition after she had fallen while working on scaffolding at a worksite near Town Bush Road in Chase Valley, Pietermaritzburg. It is understood that she had uncoupled her tether to move to another section when she slipped and fell nearly 12m. It is believed that she hit scaffolding on her way to the ground.
Russel Meiring said “Paramedics arrived on the scene to find the patient lying among the nearby scaffolding,” Meiring added that “Paramedics assessed the patient and found she had sustained a serious injury to her head as well as her back. Treatment as well as advanced life support interventions were performed on the patient to stabilise her vital signs,” “It is understood that the patient lost her footing, causing her to fall the four storeys and collide with the scaffolding.”
It appears that the requirements in the “Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997: Regulations in Terms of Section 87(1)(B) Code of Good Practice on the Protection of Employees During Pregnancy and After the Birth of a Child” have not been complied with.
Eco Impact Legal Consulting can provide in-house training about health and safety issues and risks as well as changes to legislation that would directly affect operation. For more information go to www.ecoimpact.co.za
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) have grounded the Working on Fire’s (trading as FAA Aviation (Pty) Ltd) helicopters and small aircraft, due to the organisation’s alleged failure to comply with the legal requirements thus having their air operating certificates suspended. The SACAA spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu has said in a statement on Thursday 16 July 2015: “Recent surveillance conducted on FFA Aviation yielded various findings, which according to the SACAA, were serious in nature,” she continued saying that: “Following a recent spate of incidents and accidents involving aircraft operated by FFA Aviation, the SACAA had intensified its oversight and audit obligations to determine whether aviation safety was being compromised in any way by this operator and maintenance organisation.”
On the 30 June, fire and rescue services recieved complaints of a “heavy fuel odour” in the Vereeniging CBD, an investigation that followed found that petrol and gas fumes were coming from a main sewer network in the area. Gauteng Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Jacob Mamabolo had said on Wednesday that residents in Vereeniging have been assured that there is no reason to panic. “I want to assure the community that all measures have been taken to ensure the safety of the residents and that contingency plans are in place to avert any possible dangerous scenario,” the MEC said.
The fire and rescue department together with energy and chemical company Sasol conducted tests on Tuesday to ascertain the severity of the pollution. The filing station where the fumes were coming from has underground tanks with a 65 000 litres of petrol capacity, 37 000 litres of diesel and 440 litres of LPG. The filing station had been asked to provide its pressure test certificate to ascertain if that might not be the source of the leak, Mamabolo said. The owner indicated that he would conduct a second pressure test.
“Fire and rescue is currently awaiting the certificate, with the purpose of determining the leakage. Should the findings confirm the leakage, it will be expected for the owner to correct the leakage immediately,” he said. Contingency plans have been put in place. This includes having the Vereeniging fire station on 24-hour standby and making sure there is sufficient fire fighting foam at all three fire stations in the Emfuleni local municipality.
The City of Cape Town operates three marine outfalls that discharge waste water 1,7 kms from the shoreline at a depth of 28 metres, where the effluent is supposedly safely dispersed away from the coast. The City of Cape Town has applied for a permit to comply with an Act that is six years old.
Aerial images showing plumes of effluent floating in the sea near Hout Bay and Camps Bay went viral on social media. Leslie Petrik, associate professor at the University of the Western Cape’s department of chemistry has said: “We’re at a situation where we’ve got 87 000 different chemical compounds that have not been tested for endocrine disruptions,” and “They are (also) potent carcinogens and could cause birth defects and genetic abnormalities.”
The city has called for public comment on its application to the national Department of Environmental Affairs to discharge effluent from its coastal outfalls. The city needs to apply for permits to continue using this method of effluent discharge. Zolile Nqayi, communications director for the Department of Environmental Affairs said: “the city’s plans to continue with this practice would hinge on an assessment of its impact on the environment.” and “Currently, these outfalls are also being assessed for compliance to the previous authorisations. Once such a process has been fully completed, the department will be in a position to disclose its view on the environmental impact from these outfalls.”
Nqayi said: “The department is currently reviewing all existing discharges which will assist the department’s decision to either prohibit or authorise the discharge with specific conditions.” New regulations were being drafted to deal with the sustainable discharge of effluent into all coastal environments.”
A controversial pipeline directly into the Vaal Dam from a sewerage plant in Deneysville has been stopped in its tracks. This so-called solution was meant to aid the failing processing plant from which significant amounts of raw effluent spew. While children play in sewage-filled trenches and animals drink contaminated water, solutions to solve this health and environmental disaster are few and far between.
Watch as Carte Blanche investigates serious accusations levelled against the Metsimaholo municipality.
The eThekwini Municipality faces a R5 million claim to compensate Rainbow Farms in Hammarsdale after it was forced to dump almost 62 000kg of meat due to water contamination.
The incidents had occurred in July of 2007 when the city had engaged contractors to replace old water pipes with new steel pipes. The contractors who had been employed to conduct the work had fractured the pipe supplying water to Rainbow. Rainbow had to consequently replace pipes, water meters and equipment when muddy water filled with rubble, silt and sand, flowed into the plant on two occasions. The case was argued before the Durban High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay only in June of 2015 due the the refusal of the municipality to concede liability in the matter.
It was evidenced before the judge that Devendaran Moodley (Rainbow’s production manager) had noticed a drastic drop in water pressure, upon investigating the cause he came across a heavy excavator in a muddy pool of water with two city employees in attendance, “trying” to resolve the problem. The judge had said that a civil engineer had testified that it was vital when working next to existing services to locate where they were and to avoid damaging the existing infrastructure. He said that any heavy machinery would damage the existing infrastructure and this was “extremely foreseeable”, and that had a supervisor been on site (which is normal practice) the situation could have been avoided.
Although the city had raised several defences including an indemnity that the city could not be held liable for damages or compensation arising from anything done by it in terms of the by-laws. However, the judge noted, the city’s own witness, head of water in Hammarsdale Mark Backman, had not assisted its cause by testifying that the upgrade (in terms of the by-laws) was to a pipeline 2m to 4m away from the one which supplied water to Rainbow.
Judge Pillay said that while the city also referred to by-laws which stated that it did not have to maintain an uninterrupted supply of a particular pressure or quality “this can hardly be read to imply a licence to act negligently”. “In my opinion, the legal convictions of the community call for the municipality’s conduct to be declared wrongful and unlawful.” She absolved the contractors from any responsibility, saying the city should have supervised their work.
EnviroServ’s regional medical waste incineration facility in Bloemfontein was investigated by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) after complaints from affected community members were lodged against the company. The residents complained that EnviroServ’s incinerator has been billowing out large volumes of smoke for the past two years. The residents argued that as a result the air in the area was polluted and was affecting the health of the residents in the area.
Local resident Mr. Johan De Beer first lodged a complaint to EnviroServ in 2013. EnviroServ informed Mr. De Beer that they have a licence and they were not doing anything wrong. Mr. De Beer then contacted the Municipality, without success. After this he called the Environmental Helpline who assisted him in lodging a complaint with the SAHRC. Mr. De Beer informed the SAHRC that since moving into the area two and a half years ago, he had been suffering from various medical conditions such as sinusitis, swollen glands, nose bleed, dizziness and headaches. Mr. De Beer as well as other community members were hospitilised due to the emissions.
Four people have been injured after a structural collapse on West Street, before Stanger Street in Durban. The incident occurred just after 3pm today.
The rescue paramedics arrived on the scene to find that four people had been injured in the collapse. They had been injured after the top structure of a building site had given way for unknown reasons. The paramedics had treated and stabalised the four injured before the South African Police Service (SAPS) Search and Rescue and the Durban Fire Department set up a rescue system.
A specialised crane was brought in by the fire department and the injured was brought down from the 15 metre structure. Once the injured were brought down to the road, they were transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance.
At this stage it is unclear what caused the structural collapse however the SAPS were on the scene and will be investigating the incident further.
