Un Petit Pois

• PollutionWatch’s 2007 report found that Suncor was the 6th worst greenhouse gas producer in Canada at about 7.6 M tonnes
• along with some of its contractors, it faces charges of illegally dumping waste water into the Athabasca river in 2008.
• Alberta regulators had previously instructed it to cap production at one site due to the high emission of hydrogen sulphide in 2007.

March 23, 2009, 11:02pm

Toxic Emissions Fell in 2007, E.P.A. Says

“The volume of toxic chemicals that were released into the environment or sent for disposal in 2007 dropped 5 percent compared with 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. But concealed within the overall numbers was good and bad news.

For example, the volume of released or disposed “persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals,” substances like lead, dioxin, mercury and PCBs, was up slightly, the agency said. Most of those releases were not to air or water, the agency said, meaning that the material was mostly buried in landfills, injected into deep wells or held in impoundments.

The material released or disposed of in 2007 came to almost 4.1 billion pounds. More than 20 billion pounds, about five times as much material, was recycled, treated to render it nontoxic or burned for energy, the agency said.”

March 23, 2009, 10:30pm