Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – No Fricking Fracking

Study: A 20-Foot Sea Wall? Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change.

New York Times: A 20-Foot Sea Wall? Miami Faces the Hard Choices of Climate Change. A proposal to construct barriers for storm surge protection has forced South Floridians to reckon with the many environmental challenges they face.

Three years ago, not long after Hurricane Irma left parts of Miami underwater, the federal government embarked on a study to find a way to protect the vulnerable South Florida coast from deadly and destructive storm surge.

Already, no one likes the answer.

Build a wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in its first draft of the study, now under review. Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods — except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district.

DeSmogBlog, May 8, 2021

Articles include: Oregon Utility Using Greenwashing and ‘Renewable Natural Gas’ To Push Back on Potential Gas Bans; New Government Report Highlights Federal Failures to Oversee Offshore Drilling [report is here]; New Lawsuit Challenges ‘Fast-Track’ Permits Used for Oil and Gas Pipelines Nationwide; Over a Half-million Americans Live Near Oil Refineries With High Levels of a Cancer-causing Air Pollutant, Report Finds [report is here]; Ugandan Farmers Whose Land Will Soon Become a Crude Oil Pipeline Pathway Lose Years of Livelihood; Climate Disinformation Database: Energy4US

Study: As the world’s deltas sink, rising seas are far from the only culprit.

Yale Environment 360: As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit. Although climate change is often blamed for coastal inundation in places like the Bay of Bengal, other factors such as dam building and urbanization play an important role. Scientists say that more sustainable development policies can help blunt the

No change has been more important than sediment supply. Often described as the world’s largest sediment dispersal system, the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta saw sediment load halved from 1960 to 2008, from 1 billion to 500 million tons annually, according to a 2018 study. The decline is projected to continue, falling to 79 million to 92 million tons a year by 2100, the study said. This steep reduction in sediment further opens the way for rising seas. A study last year, analyzing satellite imaging data, found that the Sundarbans lost 137 square kilometers — 53 square miles — of mangrove forest from 1984 to 2018, much of it on the southernmost edge. There was some accretion, as well — 62 square kilometers (24 miles), although some of this was transient or seasonal. impacts of rising seas.

In Another Big Blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline, Virginia DEQ Says MVP Cannot Use a Nationwide Permit to Cross Hundreds of Water Bodies in Virginia

Blue Virginia discusses In Another Big Blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline, Virginia DEQ Says MVP Cannot Use a Nationwide Permit to Cross Hundreds of Water Bodies in Virginia. On December 21, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers containing a list of certifications under the Clean Water Act. Buried at page 30 of the letter, which was just released today and published here (see below) for the first time, Virginia DEQ appears to rule that Nationwide Permit 12, a one size fits all general permit, cannot be used by pipelines greater than 36 inches (MVP is 42 inches) to cross hundreds of waterways in Virginia. Instead, MVP will now have to do what advocates have been saying for years – apply for stream by stream reviews and permits for each of the water crossings. DEQ ruled as follows:

In Another Big Blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline, Virginia DEQ Says MVP Cannot Use a Nationwide Permit to Cross Hundreds of Water Bodies in Virginia

Blue Virginia discusses In Another Big Blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline, Virginia DEQ Says MVP Cannot Use a Nationwide Permit to Cross Hundreds of Water Bodies in Virginia.

On December 21, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers containing a list of certifications under the Clean Water Act. Buried at page 30 of the letter, which was just released today and published here (see below) for the first time, Virginia DEQ appears to rule that Nationwide Permit 12, a one size fits all general permit, cannot be used by pipelines greater than 36 inches (MVP is 42 inches) to cross hundreds of waterways in Virginia. Instead, MVP will now have to do what advocates have been saying for years – apply for stream by stream reviews and permits for each of the water crossings. DEQ ruled as follows:

DeSmogBlog, November 6, 2020

Articles include: Army Corps Reviews Formosa Plastics Permit in Louisiana; Hurricane Zeta Leaves Thousands Without Power; Report – Backers of Anti-Protest Bills Funded by O&G; Environmental Groups Fight Increased Air Pollution Limits for Plastics Factory; Demand Arizona University Stop Taking Koch Money; Court Tosses Youth Climate Lawsuit Against Canada; Trump Approved Shipping Tar Sands by Rail to Alaska; US Out of the Paris Agreement; Climate Disinformation Database: Robert Murray.

Mountain Valley Pipeline regains permit to cross streams, wetlands

The Roanoke Times discusses Mountain Valley Pipeline regains permit to cross streams, wetlands.

A path across nearly 1,000 streams and wetlands was cleared Friday for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued three permits for the natural gas pipeline being built in Virginia and West Virginia, nearly two years after they were invalidated by a federal appeals court.

“Effective immediately, you may resume all activities being done in reliance upon the authorization” first given in January 2018, William Walker, chief of the Army Corps’ regulatory branch in Norfolk, wrote in a letter to Mountain Valley.

Business giant near Okefenokee refuge fights back against planned mining

Savannah Now discusses how a business giant near Okefenokee refuge fights back against planned mining.

You can’t mine on land without the owner’s permission.

This basic property right appears to be a stumbling block for Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, which has proposed plans to mine for titanium and zircon on 898 acres in Charlton County near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Earlier this year the nonprofit American Rivers named the Okefenokee Swamp and the nearby St. Marys River among America’s Most Endangered Rivers for 2020, citing the threat mining would pose to the waterways’ clean water, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

On Tuesday the owner of about a quarter of that property, financial services company TIAA, wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, requesting the withdrawal or amendment of Twin Pines’ permit application.

“Please note that the Mining Application is in error to the extent that it represents that Twin Pines has secured rights to conduct mining operations upon any portion of TIAA Timberlands’ property,” wrote Jeff Nuss, president and CEO of GreenWood Resources, Inc. as manager for TIAA Timberlands I, LLC.

Study: Climate change didn’t cause Hurricane Laura but it did make the storm worse

CNN discusses how climate change didn’t cause Hurricane Laura but it did make the storm worse.

Laura broke multiple records, including the highest water level ever recorded at the Mermentau River gauge at Grand Chenier location. The gauge topped out at 17.14 feet, more than 4 feet above the previous high of 13 feet from Hurricane Audrey in June 1957, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Another notable record was that Laura was the seventh named storm to make landfall in the US so far in 2020, the most to do so before the end of August (four tropical storms and three hurricanes). This begs the question, why are so many more named storms impacting the US?

The planet has warmed significantly over the past several decades, causing changes in the environment in which extreme weather events are occurring.

A study of 40 years of satellite data of global storms by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that the probability of storms reaching major hurricane status — Category 3 or above with sustained winds of 110 mph or higher — has increased decade after decade.

Major pipelines take hit, but oil networks keep growing

Politico discusses how major pipelines have taken a hit, but oil networks keep growing. Despite recent high-profile courtroom losses, the oil and gas industry has succeeded in putting tens of thousands of miles of new steel in the ground.

“One thing for sure is there is a lot going on in the pipeline world outside of the public attention on shiny objects like Keystone XL, DAPL or Atlantic Coast,” said John Stoody, vice president of government and public relations at trade group Association of Oil Pipe Lines, pointing to government records showing about 10,000 miles of oil pipelines were built since 2015. “While the many have been focused on debating the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, we’ve actually built and have newly operating over the last five years the mileage equivalent of over 18 Atlantic Coast Pipelines.”