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Groundwater Contamination

Shell, Chevron Pay Millions To Settle Contamination Claims

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By Jeff Sistrunk

Law360, Los Angeles (October 16, 2013, 4:19 PM ET) — Shell Oil Co. and Chevron Corp. have agreed to pay $4.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively, to settle claims by the Crescenta Valley Water District that their gasoline contaminated the utility’s wells and nearby groundwater, according to court records.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton on…

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Shell jet fuel spill at Germany Refinery creates toxic underground lake

Kerosene is classified as environmentally hazardous. Undiluted kerosene irritates the skin from direct contact. Ingestion causes vomiting and diarrhea, damages the lungs, the nervous system and the kidneys, and in the worst cases, lead to death.  It is toxic to aquatic organisms and causes long-term damage if it drains into a large body of water, such as the Rhine.

By John Donovan: 27 November 2012


On 22 February 2012 a spill of 846 tonnes of jet fuel was reported at the Shell Rheinland Werk Godorf Cologne Refinery.

The refinery consists of two factories in Cologne-Godorf and Wesseling in the south of Cologne, located on the left bank of the Rhine.

The leak occurred in an underground pipeline between the plant and a fuel depot.

Because an alarm system at the Shell refinery failed, it took four weeks for technicians discover the leak.

Kerosene is a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum. Jet fuel is a highly toxic mixture of kerosene and naphtha. It is practically insoluble in water and has a lower density, so that it is deposited as a carpet on a water surface. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s Battle of the River Plate: largest ever oil spill in fresh water

The court will fine Shell 100,000 pesos (US$28,000) for each day it falls behind in the clean-up operation, the paper reported.

Protests about the biggest fresh water oil spill in history

By John Donovan

Printed below is a news report about the largest ever oil spill in fresh water. Shell was responsible for the spill, which occurred in the River Plate on January 15, 1999, polluting drinking water and local wildlife.

The Municipality of Magdalena and some groups of inhabitants of the small town with a population of around 8,000 initiated claims against Shell (owner of the oil and the ship responsible for the spill). All these years later some of the resultant litigation is still in progress. Many inhabitants of Magdalena were under age at the time of the oil spill and are still waiting for justice to decide on their claim. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Village Claims Shell Oil Ruined Its Water

Roxana, a village of 1,550 in Southern Illinois, claims in court that a Shell oil refinery contaminated the village’s water and soil with benzene levels as much as 26,000 times greater than allowed by state law.


By JOE HARRIS: Thursday, March 29, 2012

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (CN) – Roxana, a village of 1,550 in Southern Illinois, claims in court that a Shell oil refinery contaminated the village’s water and soil with benzene levels as much as 26,000 times greater than allowed by state law.

The Village of Roxana sued Shell Oil, Equilon Enterprises dba Shell Oil Products, ConocoPhillips, WRB Refining, Cenovus GPO and affiliates, in Madison County Court.

Roxana says the pollution comes from Shell’s Wood River refinery. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Learning Too Late of the Perils in Gas Well Leases

So Mr. Ely said he was surprised several years later when the drilling company, Cabot Oil and Gas, informed them that rather than draining and hauling away the toxic drilling sludge stored in large waste ponds on the property, it would leave the waste, cover it with dirt and seed the area with grass. He knew that waste pond liners can leak, seeping contaminated waste.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Overuse and waste of invaluable water resources within the oil and gas sector

EXTRACTS FROM THE RepRisk WATER SCARCITY REPORT

RepRisk is the leading provider of dynamic business intelligence on environmental social and governance risks.

In 2010, access to clean water received recognition as a basic human right through a majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly. According to the UN, nearly 900 million people have no access to clean drinkable water, almost 1.8 billion live in areas where water is scarce, and a further 1.6 billion live in countries, which lack the infrastructure to extract water from natural sources. The World Bank calculates that by 2030, water demand will exceed supply by 40 percent, as a growing world population demands more water for agricultural, industrial and personal use. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s toxic legacy in Curacao

From pages 52, 53, 54 & 55 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report was made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)

Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

A toxic legacy in Curacao

Curacao and its oil refinery

Curacao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and has a land area of 444 square kilometres. As of January 2010, its population amounted to around 142,000 people. Prior to 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved, Curacao was administered as the Island Territory of Curacao, one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles.

From 1918 until 1985, Shell owned and operated the Isla oil refinery in Curacao. During this period, the refinery has been one of the most important lifelines of Curacao. For example, in the early fifties it employed more than 12,000 people out of the total island population of 110,000 people. The refinery generated the foreign exchange necessary to finance the imports the island could not produce itself.  In the beginning of the eighties, Shell-companies provided for 33% of the island’s Gross National Product. Apart from the refinery, Shell had a local sales company, an oil storage/transshipment company, and a shipping company on the island. Shell was very important to Curacao, and the government of Curacao treated Shell kindly. In 1980, a former director of Shell declared towards a reporter of the Dutch newspaper NRC: “The Antillean government? We were that government.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell doing its best to make fracking safe, water friendly

October 5 2011 at 05:00am

By Jan Willem Eggink, General Manager Upstream Operations, Shell South Africa

Some of you may have seen this image on television or the internet. A man reaches across and turns on his kitchen tap. He takes a lighter and applies it to the stream of water, it bursts into flame. The flame is attributed to the presence of methane gas.

It is a powerful image. But it is important to be clear about the source of the gas. While critics suggest natural gas drilling as the cause, there is considerable evidence that dissolved methane can occur naturally in ground water. Indeed, according to the Department of Water Affairs, methane gas has been found in shallow water wells in the Karoo. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Nigerian Ogoniland oilspillage cleanup issue

DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Received by email from Okeke Uche and Anasonye Festus (Scientists, University of Helsinki, Finland). Also sent to Jorma Ollia and Peter Voser, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Greetings………

Our attention has been drawn to the most recent report on the oil spillage issue in the Ogoniland, Nigeria. This is a great victory for us and has been long overdue.

We have gathered from many sources that the United Nations is interested in  monitoring the cleaning up of Ogoniland oil spillage which should last for several years.

Most recently, we have also gathered that the Federal Government of Nigeria is considering taking over the responsibility for cleaning up Ogoniland through the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) of Nigeria (“Nigeria: FG to Clean up Ogoniland“, 7/08/2011. This Day Newspaper, Nigeria). read more

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OGONI ACTIVISTS ACCUSE SHELL OF ‘ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM’

Extracts from a Press Statement issued by the National Union of Ogoni Students, USA.

On August 04, 2011 the world had a preview of the report of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) sent to the Nigerian government after 14 months of studying the impact of Shell Oil Company’s operations in Ogoni.

The report was astonishing and confirmed the toxicology of the Ogoni environment as a result of oil exploration, pollution, spillages and negligence. The report also collaborated on genocidal claim by Ogoni people as they experience slow death resulting from oil agents like benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene (BTEX), mercury, PAHs, VOC, polluted reactive gases, and metals. read more

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MOSOP challenges integrity of UNEP Report


Press Statement issued by Dr. Goodluck Diigbo MOSOP President/Spokesman

AUGUST 5, 2011

At a MOSOP Emergency General Meeting in Bori, headquarters of Ogoniland on August 4, 2011, MOSOP welcomes the increased awareness the UNEP report on Ogoniland is likely to create about the continued threat of possible extinction to the Ogoni people arising from oil operations in the past 55 years. However, MOSOP resolves to dispute the integrity of the UNEP Report on Ogoniland, which was paid for with $9.5 million by the polluters, including Royal-Dutch/Shell.

MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo, says MOSOP is challenging the integrity of the report, recalling an earlier confession by UNEP team leader Mike Cowing that the report has been informed by data and information solely supplied by Shell and the government, without actual study on the ground. The purported UNEP meeting with 23,000 Ogonis is only on paper, and there is no evidence to prove who attended, what review was done, agreements reached, if any and Ogonis who signed such agreements as proof of public participation as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, EIAS due process. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Amnesty condemns Shell’s decades of denial

The Irish Times – Friday, August 5, 2011

LORNA SIGGINS

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has described as shocking the scientific findings of a United Nations Environment Programme report which found extensive oil pollution in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta.

The human rights group has called on Royal Dutch Shell, as lead oil company in the area, to focus on the “truth, rather than protecting its corporate image” if the problem is to be addressed.

The UN study published yesterday found carcinogens up to 900 times above World Health Organisation levels in drinking water in one area. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Roxana residents assail Shell over benzene worries

Large crowd asks questions about underground plume

June 08, 2011 9:34 PM
GLORIA LLOYD For The Telegraph

ROXANA — Residents concerned about the ramifications of benzene leaks at the former Shell Refinery in 1986 came to an informational meeting Tuesday night looking for reassurance, but many left with more questions than answers.

A crowd of more than 100 residents packed the Rox-Arena to hear a presentation by Simmons law firm attorney Mike Stewart, who outlined a brief history of the benzene plume under Roxana.

Benzene is a carcinogenic chemical that is linked to blood cancers. Stewart said leukemia is benzene’s “signature illness.”
read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Groundwater decontamination from Valero refinery involving Motiva Enterprises to cost tens of millions

Costs for containing and cleaning up soil and groundwater alone are likely to run into the "tens of millions," Small said. Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture of Shell and Saudi Arabia's national oil company, is responsible for most of the groundwater cleanup.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

McKerrow residents launch multi-million dollar law suit against Shell and other parties

The class action suit names Shell Canada Products...

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell to clean up 83 former gas stations

SEATTLE -- Shell Oil Co. has entered an agreement with the state Department of Ecology to clean up contamination at 83 current and former gas stations in Western Washington.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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