terra central

Unversity of Texas Oil Production and Land Degradation

Image: Texon Oilfield west of Big Lake, TX. NAIP air photo, 2005.

There’s more to extracting oil than drilling a neat hole in the ground.

An Austin American-Statesman article by Ralph Haurwitz, makes clear the tremendous wealth the University of Texas has aquired from oil extracted from its property, as well as the substantial land cost of that business.

Since drilling began in 1921, 2.1 million acres of University of Texas land in West Texas have produced $4.4 billion in royalties and other mineral income in support of UT and Texas A&M. Along with that, about 11-square miles (7,000 acres) has been severely damaged by saltwater contamination.

Saltwater, or oifield brine, comes up with the oil and the relative amounts of brine and oil at any given time during production is called the oil to brine ratio (OBR). The OBR tends to decrease as oil wells play out, with older wells producing more brine than oil, as illustrated by this graph of southern Florida oil production data.

Graph source: USGS

The UT Texon oil field has been denuded for years but some species such as salt cedar (Tamarix spp.) have a competitive advantage over plants with less tolerance to salt toxicity. In the oil patch, more damage is usually caused by brine than oil spills. Sodium is especially troublesome to plant roots and soil structure.

Brine management has improved somewhat and usually involves underground disposal through injection wells. Brine is also spread on roads for deicing and dust control. With desalinization, the brine can become a water supply. However, the long history of careless brine management has taken a toll on the landscape and undoubtedly continues throughout oil patches worldwide.

The value of the oil is high compared to the short-term productivity of the soil. Still, the damage to soil, plants, and water needs to be accounted for in the overall cost of oil.

A Tragic Ignorance of Mineral Weathering

Rainwater harvesting offers a safe alternative to arsenic-tainted groundwater.

Following up on a report from the British journal Lancet, global news agency AFP reports:

“Up to 77 million Bangladeshis have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic from contaminated drinking water, and even low-level exposure to the poison is not risk-free, The Lancet medical journal reported.

By some estimates, between 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water as a result of a catastrophically misguided campaign in the 1970s.”

The “misguided campaign” had the good intention of providing safe water to millions of people living on the vast, low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta. The delta receives drainage and sediment from the Himalayan mountains and, due to the wet tropical climate and relative solubility of arsenic-containing soil minerals, the groundwater is contaminated.

Rainwater harvesting is an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to using tainted groundwater for drinking. Expanded use of rainwater harvesting with simple technological enhancements to improve on an ancient practice is showing good results. The problem seems to be difficulty expanding the program fast enough.

Bangladesh, squeezed between the mountains and the sea, and most of which is less than 40-feet above sea level, has the coastal problem of saltwater intrusion into surface freshwater sources. Here is an interesting video on that topic and efforts to build more rainwater harvesting systems.

Further information on Rainwater Harvesting

Luna Pier Beach Ordered Closed

UPDATE
As of June 25, 2010 at 4:30 pm, the Total Body Direct Contact Advisory for Luna Pier has been lifted. There is no longer an advisory against using the waters at City of Luna Pier beach.

Qi Gong class on the beach at Luna Pier, Michigan. Source: Mayor Mary Liske.

High coliform bacteria (Escherichia coli) counts close Lake Erie beach.

According to the Monroe County Health Department, fecal coliform bacteria levels found in water samples collected at Luna Pier Beach exceeded the limit for full body contact. From the County’s website:

“Streams and creeks, connected to county and private drain systems, have carried the heavy burden of draining the landscape to allow us to develop the land that predominately was a low-lying marsh landscape. The rivers shuttle vast amounts of water from the inland landscape and form an entire river “water shed”. The River Raisin Watershed encompasses over 100 square miles. Rivers are community resources because contamination or unhealthy alteration above stream can dramatically alter the waterside experience of those downstream.”

There was a time, back in the day, when folks rode a street car up the shore from downtown Toledo, north to a boardwalk and bandstand, and good summer times, and Luna Pier was “considered the best spot for dancing under the stars.” The more adventurous and uninhibited might still find that (bring your own music), but they’d best stay out of the water.

Coast of Alaska: Accelerated Erosion 2002-2007

Alaskan coastal erosion (USGS).

A five-year study in Alaska led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that shoreline erosion along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea has been accelerating from about 20-feet per year fifty years ago, to 45-feet per year by 2007. The research makes obvious the importance of considering the specific properties of the earthen materials exposed to erosive forces. In this case, the land contains permafrost, a consituent of the soil order called Gelisol.

An excerpt:

The authors proposed that these recent shifts in the rate and pattern of land loss along this coastline segment are potentially a result of changing arctic conditions, including declining sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level, and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action.

“Taken together, these factors may be leading to a new era in ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline,” wrote (Benjamin) Jones and his colleagues. “And any increases in the current rates of coastal retreat will have further ramifications on Arctic landscapes – including losses in freshwater and terrestrial wildlife habitats, and in disappearing cultural sites, as well as adversely impacting coastal villages and towns. In addition, oil test wells are threatened.”

Alaskan permafrost erosion (USGS)

For most of us who live on the relative “terra firma” of the mid-latitude continents, global warming may seem like a fairly benign process, one that might result in better weather to play golf. The Arctic and Antarctic environments, by contrast, are very different, very fragile worlds. The authors are careful with their words, using the standard qualifiers, but it’s pretty clear they think climate change is a factor as the waves pound that coast.

Research Paper:
Jones, B.M., Arp, C.D., Jorgenson, M.T., Hinkel, K.M., Schmutz, J.A., and Flint, P.L. Increase in the rate and uniformity of coastline erosion in arctic Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters, February 14, 2009. http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0903/2008GL036205/.

Photos source: USGS

A Look at Rivers from Space

The above photo is a false-color image taken from the Landsat 7 satellite in 2000. The Lena River Delta is frozen most of the year but, during the summer, thaws into an enormous wetland complex of about 11,000 square miles. It’s a wildlife refuge.

The Lena River flows into the Laptev Sea, on the north coast of Russia.

Here’s a view of the Lena River Delta taken near the ground.

Photo source: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Wired Science has a gallery of other rivers observed from satellites and the International Space Station. Just click on the thumbnails or some impressive views.

Tip: Ike Union and his grandpa.

Red River Crests and Falls

They’re getting really good at it, fighting floods, that is. The National Weather Service predicted a crest of 38 feet and that’s the wall height the dike crews built. The River crested at 37-feet.

The dike building crews, thousands of them, mostly high school and college kids, did it for free, or for coffee and donuts, a ham and cheese sandwich, something like that. Where’s their bailout? I say give it to them.

And a pound of ground beef for the dog, too.

Northern Plains Prepare for Another Flood

Residents in the Missouri River basin are getting ready for another spring flood. Heavy snow and cold temperatures in the Northern Plains are setting up for potential ice jams on major rivers. Here, a crop duster spreads coal dust on the Platte River near Ashland, Nebraska. The black dust absorbs solar radiation and converts it to heat, which helps melt the ice.

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District