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Mon, 2013-04-08 17:45Carol Linnitt
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PHOTOS: Mayflower, Arkansas Residents Launch Class Action Lawsuit After Exxon Tar Sands Disaster

Residents of Mayflower, Arkansas, are suing ExxonMobil for damages in a class action lawsuit that is seeking more than $5 million in compensation for property damage.

"This Arkansas class action lawsuit involves the worst crude oil and tar sands spill in Arkansas history," the lawsuit reads. The filed claim indicates more than 19,000 barrels of oil were spilled.

Both the Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and the US Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) have indicated investigations into the pipeline rupture are ongoing.

Between 2010 and 2012, pipeline incidents incurred more than $662 million in property damages annually. More than 20 years of PHMSA records indicate levels of pipeline related accidents are consistent - around 250 occur each year - while the cost of those accidents is steadily increasing.

These recently released images show the scope of the damage has grown far beyond the nearby residential street:

Read more: PHOTOS: Mayflower, Arkansas Residents Launch Class Action Lawsuit After Exxon Tar Sands Disaster
Mon, 2013-02-18 15:49Carol Linnitt
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Tar Sands Tailings Contaminate Alberta Groundwater

The massive tailings ponds holding billions of litres of tar sands waste are leaking into Alberta's groundwater, according to internal documents obtained by Postmedia's Mike De Souza.

An internal memorandum prepared for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and obtained through Access to Information legislation says evidence confirms groundwater toxins related to bitumen mining and upgrading are migrating from tailings ponds and are not naturally occurring as government and industry have previously stated.

"The studies have, for the first time, detected potentially harmful, mining-related organic acid contaminants in groundwater outside a long-established out-of-pit tailings pond," the memo reads. "This finding is consistent with publicly available technical reports of seepage (both projected in theory, and detected in practice)."

This newly released document shows the federal government has been aware of the problem since June 2012 without publicly addressing the information. The study, made available online by Natural Resources Canada in December 2012, was still "pending release" at the time Minister Oliver was briefed of its contents in June.

Read more: Tar Sands Tailings Contaminate Alberta Groundwater
Wed, 2013-02-06 11:31Carol Linnitt
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Is TransCanada Laying Defective Keystone XL Pipe in Texas?

TransCanada, the company currently constructing the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, claims to use "top quality steel and welding techniques" throughout its pipeline network. 

Last week, however, activists fighting the construction of the pipeline released images of what they claim are improperly welded pipeline seams. The photos were released by Keystone XL blockader Ramsey Sprague at the Pipe Tech Americas 2013 conference in Texas and were taken by blockader Isabel Brooks.

Brooks took the photographs from inside a pipe segment on December 3, 2012 to document what they say was daylight pouring through weld seams between segments. "All of us looked at it," Brooks told DeSmog, speaking of the defective seam, "and it was clear light was coming in from the outside...It was definitely clear what it was."

An hour after the protesters were extracted from the pipe segment, says Brooks, it was in the ground. "[Other protestors] told me that it was in the ground that day and buried. So they didn't test it again," she said. "I know exactly the piece of pipe that it's at, so if we were to dig it up I know it would be right there and as clear as that day."

These two images from inside the pipe were released by Sprague last week:

Read more: Is TransCanada Laying Defective Keystone XL Pipe in Texas?
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