Iraq's disastrous 'black oil' swamps

[Barrett808]

Iraq's disastrous 'black oil' swamps
By James Glanz The New York Times
MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2006

BAGHDAD An environmental disaster is brewing in the heartland of Iraq's northern Sunni-led insurgency, where Iraqi officials say that in a desperate move to dispose of millions of barrels of an oil refinery byproduct called "black oil," the government pumped it into open mountain valleys and leaky reservoirs next to the Tigris River and set it on fire.

The resulting huge black bogs are threatening the river and the precious groundwater in the area. The suffocating plumes of smoke are carried as far as 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, downwind to Tikrit, the provincial capital that formed Saddam Hussein's base of power.

An Iraqi environmental engineer who has visited the area described it as a kind of black swampland consisting of oil-saturated terrain and large standing pools of oil stretching across several mountain valleys. The clouds of smoke, said the engineer, Ayad Younis, "were so heavy that they obstructed breathing and visibility in the area and represent a serious environmental danger."

At Iraq's damaged and outdated refineries, as much as 40 percent of what is produced pours forth as this heavy, viscous substance, which used to be extensively exported to more efficient foreign operations for further refining. But the insurgency has stalled government- controlled exports from the area containing Iraq's major northern refinery complex at Bayji, the officials say.

So the backed-up black oil - known to the rest of the world as the lower grades of fuel oil - was sent along a short pipeline from Bayji and dumped in a mountainous area, called Makhool.

(more)

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2006/06/18/news/environ.php

[Jacobin]

1. That would be the heating oil we used to use

I'm so glad Cheney's got Iraqi oil all fixed up for us.

[DBoon]

11. ANd what does that heating oil cost a typical family?

For the benefit of someone from a desert climate?

[UpInArms]

2. Look at that "progress"!

:sarcasm:

[Igel]

3. Ouch.

That's going to take a lot of soil remediation.

It sounds a lot like parts of E. Siberia were (and probably still are, to be honest), but there pipeline decay and corrosion was the primary culprit, neglect, more than anything.

Here, it sounds like the result of a Hobson's choice.

[pokercat999]

6. Hey it's not all bad.....more

work for Haliburton, hooha.....:sarcasm:

[Igel]

9. Indeed.

Halliburton actually does that kind of stuff, IIRC.

But remediation's a really sucky thing. You essentially chew up the ground and clean the dirt; sometimes it's profitable all by itself, since you get the oil out of it. In this case, it would be the higher fractions, not where the money is.

Then again, remediation's better than just scraping it up and putting it what amounts to a trash-dump for dirt to avoid further contamination.

My first real tech translation gig was working for an Russian import/export company tracking down remediation equipment and services.

[Amonester]

4. If only burning that poison could "remove" all Depleted-Uranium...

particules from contaminating Iraq's population for the next 4.5 billion years... (no solution). :(

[ecoalex]

5. it's called bunker oil

[Massacure]

8. BOO!!!

:eyes:

[Amonester]

14. I wuz just being cynically sarcastic for not crying all night long.

Thought the :sarcasm: icon wasn't necessary in these horrible cases. Sorry.

[SpiralHawk]

7. "Mission Accomplished" - George AWOL Bush & Corrupt Cronies

You got to hand it to the Republicons, they sure know how to make an ungodly mess.

I am quite sure BushCo & the Repub Oil Cronies have found a way to PROFIT OBSCENELY from this.

[Rex]

10. Sonofa

dayum... I guess people will have to stop drinking from the Tigris. :( No electricity, no potable water, no water period.

[cap]

12. Plus we arent trying like mad to get ships down

there so that perhaps the world could have more oil and maybe the price would go down.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. This is inland - the problem is transporting it to the coast and/or Turkey

without the trucks getting ambushed. From the article:

The American official who discussed Bayji's level of oil production said the black oil could be taken out by truck and that one of the state-owned marketing companies had undertaken to do so.

But Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who served two stints as oil minister between September 2003 and January 2006, said that plan probably had not been fully worked through. The roads in the Sunni badlands of the north are dangerous and sometimes impassable. And about 150 large tankers would have to leave Bayji fully loaded every day to remove the current production of black oil. Simply finding that number of working vehicles and loading them in a timely fashion would be challenging under the best of circumstances, Uloum said.

[flyarm]

13. what a crying disgrace..we have so destoryed that nation and her people

i just wonder how little lord fucking pissy pants sleeps at night ..as well as the fucking idiot freepers...how do they honestly sleep at night??

what filthy pigs our nation has become..i have utter disgust in my fellow americans that have supported this shit!

shaking head..and feeling sick..

fly

[Amonester]

15. Me too. What have they ever done wrong to the Divided States

of America to be so brutally destroyed and persecuted? Born in a region full of premium quality light crude oil?

I'm feeling sick 2.


Edit: ...to the point I can't spell.

[Halliburton]

17. BUT ZARQAWI IS DEAD

WE'RE MAKING REAL PROGRESS...AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THE MEDIA TOLD ME!