"Opacity Events" - When Ash (Or Other Toxins) Falls Onto An Unsuspecting Colorado Town - For The 75th Time

Josh Fox from Gasland II, and fracking in Colorado where more and more "opacity events" are being reported, with citizens, kids having to shelter in place.  

Suncor refinery in May this year.

When the ash began falling in Commerce  City on December 11th, no one who saw it covering their cars and the ground had a clue what it was.  But very soon, residents related to each other how it was like trying to breathe in air laced with grit.  This was not surprising given that, subsequently,  car wash attendants, e.g. Vidal Rodriguez, reported having to clean windshields "caked in yellowish white scum".  Well, imagine trying to breath in that crap before it caked?

As reported by Denver news stations on the evening of Dec. 11 there was trouble at the Suncor Energy oil refinery north of Denver.  The Wednesday morning incident triggered a “vapor release alarm,” prompting operators to place one of their units into “safe mode” and announce they’ll launch a full investigation as soon as possible.

Suncor officials called it “an opacity event” in a statement emailed to local officials and posted on the company’s Facebook page. They said the company’s tests showed air quality in surrounding neighborhoods “is within acceptable levels.”

Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, South Adams County Fire Department got a call to investigate a strange odor at Adams City Middle School. People were also reporting they were seeing ash falling from the sky.  The kids at the middle school were told to shelter in place and not come outside.  Meanwhile, photos were being shared by residents all over Commerce City of cars covered by ash, e.g.

Finally, late in the afternoon Suncor Energy admitted the ash was coming from their facility.   What the hell was it? Suncor's PR release - from its Facebook page- is shown below:


One is entitled to ask what this bejabber really means and at least one Denver TV station went to the Colorado Dept. of Public Health (CDPH) to learn more.  The questions and answers  (from CDPH) are given below from the 9 News web page:

We wanted to better explain to people what an operational upset is? 

"Operational upset" is a term used by Suncor - companies usually define it to mean that equipment failed to operate in a normal and expected manner. We do know there was unusual activity, and that's why we are investigating the incident and will be reviewing the activity logs. We will also require Suncor to give us any data they have."

What was in the ash that fell on people's car?

"Suncor has stated that the material is catalyst from one of the units at the refinery. We are conducting an investigation to confirm the details and verify Suncor's statements, but based on the information we have now, it was likely clay-like particulate matter.  We control emissions of particulates like these to protect health and visibility. Excess emission are not acceptable."

Was that dangerous for them to be near? 

"Particulate matter is a pollutant, and it can cause health problems at high levels. Based on the state's best air monitoring data in that area, the particulate matter was not at levels that exceeded the national ambient air quality standards, which are set to protect public health."

Is Suncor working with the state to remedy the problem? 

"The state has ordered Suncor to provide information and data as part of the investigation. So far, Suncor is complying and has been providing updates on the status of the refinery. Right now, the company is keeping the state informed of their activities around this event. Suncor will be held accountable if it violated any laws or regulations. We are requiring a full accounting of what occurred and will pursue appropriate action."

Has this happened before? 

"There have been other incidents and violations at the Commerce City facility, and the Air Pollution Control has fined Suncor before. We are already in he midst of our investigation and enforcement for prior events and violations.."

Just because a fracking-energy company "complies" - let us note- doesn't mean there aren't scores of repeat violations -  many of which are detrimental to human health.  (In 2019 alone, Suncor’s two operations accrued 75 separate permit “upsets,” according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.)  

The history of the fracking industry thus far is an appalling indictment of local and state governments across the country and how little they care about their citizens' health - even in an era of exploding medical costs.  The main fracking chemicals list alone constitutes an eye-opening list of horrors, e.g.

Benzene: a powerful bone-marrow poison (aplastic anemia) associated with leukemia, breast and uterine cancer

- Styrene, which may cause eye and mucous membrane irritation, neurotoxic effects in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

- Toluene, which may cause muscular incoordination, tremors, hearing loss, dizziness, vertigo, emotional instability and delusions, liver and kidney damage, and anemia.

- Xylene, with cancer-causing (mainly in the kidneys, liver) and neurotoxic effects, as well as reproductive abnormalities.

- Methylene chloride, which may cause cancer, liver and kidney damage, central nervous system disorders and COPD.

It was Prof.Tony  Ingraffea  - in Josh Fox's amazing documentary 'Gasland II' who explained in detail the cement failure phenomenon in frack wells.  He emphasized that such failure is a "very well known and at least as long as we've been drilling wells and casing them".  He also took pains to point out  that amongst the thousands of gas wells (including those offshore), there is a probability of 1 in 20 that a given well will immediately show a failure (opening between the well casing and rock), and that means methane migration. It also means anything else stored in the rock, including salts, heavy metals, other deleterious things now have a pathway for escape.

Voila! Enter the particulates vented in the "opacity event" spawned by Suncor in Commerce City.   It is clear many of these are likely  PM  2,  5   which I described in an earlier post, e.g.

A New Pollutant Category Appears ( PM_2,5) And L...

Denver Post investigations into the decline of front range air quality ties the degradation almost entirely to the enhanced presence of  PM  2,  5    triggered by coal fire plant emissions, and fracking operations (releasing "organic volatiles").  Meanwhile, the national scale of destruction of our water, soil, air and human bodies continues as revealed in the excellent monograph, 'The Real Cost of Fracking', by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald. 


 Among their primary findings (summarized below):


- The irresponsible behavior of the drilling companies and the state environmental regulatory agencies in handling problems occurring after the onset of oil and gas drilling.

-The same human and animal health problems occurred irrespective of the method of drilling, i.e. shallow, or deep vertical drilling with low-volume hydraulic fracturing.)

- Adverse health events had the potential to spread far beyond the immediate drilling-related events. For example, farmers faced with livestock (cattle) losses "felt pressed to send the exposed animals to slaughter".   Thus, the meat, eggs and dairy products produced from such livestock would also be affected, "making it likely these chemicals could appear in food products" made from these animals. 

- For nearly all the cases investigated, "children and animals became like the canaries in the coal mine" - as to revealing toxic effects of the fracking before they befell adults. The reason is that children, being smaller, eat, drink and breathe more air relative to their body weights- so are more affected by any kind of degraded environment. 

And: "While children are sentinels, animals are even more so, for many reasons. When families leave for work the animals are left either in the house, barn or yard, increasing exposure times dramatically."

For many good reasons, then, the "opacity event" that occurred in Commerce City nearly three weeks ago ought to concern us all.

A New Pollutant Category Appears ( PM_2,5) And Lowers Americans' Life Expectancy

Map of age-adjusted incidence of stroke deaths due to air pollution in U.S. (From Eos: Space & Science News, p. 5, April, 2019)
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The blaring WSJ headline ('Heart Disease Roars Back', p. A1, June 22-23)  noted how life expectancy is being adversely affected for middle age Americans, largely because of increased cardiac deaths.  This was traced to pervasive obesity and overweight, noting 40 percent of Americans over 20 are now obese (BMI > 30) and another 32 percent overweight.

But another article  ('Stroke Deaths Rise, Life Expectancy Falls With Polluted Air',  Eos: Space & Science News,)may be telling another less known side of the story.  That is that "people living im regions with a high level of fine-grained air pollutants have shorter life expectancies and increased incidence of stroke."

Among the prime culprits which hasn't received a lot of media attention is a category of fine -scale particulates denoted PM  2,  5   - a main cause of hazy or smog-filled air..  According to the Eos paper, researcher Longjian Liu - an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at Drexel University - found that 51 percent of the counties surveyed (see map)  had annual average PM  2,  5  levels that exceeded the EPA's air quality standard limit (12 micrograms per cubic meter).  The graphic below gives an idea about the scale of these particles:


And the genesis of these particles?

"Fine particles (PM_2.5) are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, and can only be seen with an electron microscope. Fine particles are produced from all types of combustion, including motor vehicles, power plants, residential wood burning, forest fires, agricultural burning, and some industrial processes"

Liu's team gathered county data on reported stroke occurrence, overall life expectancy, poverty rate, rural population percentage as well as the number of primary care physicians per 1,000 residents from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  When the researchers compared  PM  2,  5   levels with health and demographic data they found that higher annual levels  of PM  2,  5   were significantly correlated with both stroke mortality rate and life expectancy in men and women.

In other words, those populations that breathe polluted air experience higher rates of death from stroke and have shorter life expectancies. Interestingly, the devastating effects of poor air quaity hit hardest in counties with a higher percentage of people living below the poverty line - and with fewer physicians per capita.

When the team mapped out which regions experienced the strongest effects, it found those living in southern states had the highest rates of stroke deaths and the lowest life expectancies due to  high  PM  2,  5  levels, followed by those living in the midwest.

Following on the heels of the Liu team findings in Eos, The Denver Post highlighted the broader picture of how air quality is eroding  (again through an increase in PM  2,  5) throughout the nation ('Air Quality Slipping In The U.S.', June 20, p. 21 A), noting:

"Over the last two years, the nation had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows....There were 15 percent more days with unhealthy air in America both last year and the year before than there were on average from 2013 through 2016, when the fewest number of days were recorded since 1980."

In other words, since the advent of the Trump infestation and its attendant swamp creatures, i.e. in the EPA, air pollution has significantly increased, as health has deteriorated. Also no surprise that the Liar-in Chief claimed the opposite, as the article goes on to note. When Trump - in the UK earlier this month bragged: "We have the cleanest air in the world in the United States and it's gotten better since I'm president."

Well, yeah, and if you believe that you will also believe Trump is the greatest president since George Washington, as opposed to the most derelict maggot ever to foul the White House.  Not to mention who lies like he breathes.  And we can thank the contributors to the Post's AP article for skewering his malarkey (ibid.):

"There were noticeably more polluted air days each year in Trump's first two years in office than any of the four years before "

Adding:

"Five hundred and thirty -two American metro areas reported a total of 4, 134 days in 2018 when the official air quality index passed 100, which means it became unhealthy for people with heart and lung disease, the elderly and the very young.....the worst of the bad air days jumped even more. On average in 2017 and 2018 there were nearly 140 times when a city's air pollution reached the worst two categories: 'very unhealthy' and 'hazardous'"

So Trump's occupation of the seat of power has not only poisoned our mental health but our physical health as well.

The aggregate fouling of our atmosphere  - thanks to the Trumpkins lowering standards and regulations - has spawned a blight not seen for decades. Not only novel pollutants like  PM  2,  5   but  SO 2  and mercury from coal -fired plants - and more to come after Trump's EPA rolling back rules governing emissions (e.g. ('EPA Rescinds Obama Power Plant Rules', WSJ, June 20, p. A4).   

EPA inspections alone have plunged from 21, 300 per yr. at the height of  Obama's tenure, to only 10, 600 last year- owing to staffing cuts. (WSJ, 'Trump Pulls Back Rules Enforcement', p. A4, today).  As one soon-to-be downsized EPA scientist (Felicia Clarke) was quoted in the piece: "We're giving a green light to bad actors."

 For those seriously considering putting Trump back into office again for 4 more years, think of whether your lung - or heart - will be able to tolerate this imp's deregulation, even if you want no part of "socialism". And what about your kids' lungs, and health?  Is it really worth a marginal 401(k) gain to enable the Trump retinue of rats to have a 4-yr. replay?

The tally of our poisoned air says 'no' even as our poisoned minds may no longer be able to discern the full spectrum of Trump's toxins.