Dirty Gold

Anna Boiko-Weyrauch has created another fabulous radio report on extractive industries and the environment of Africa. This one is about gold mining impacts along the Subri river in Ghana. She posted it on December 18th, and I think that I may have heard it on public radio here in the United States.

Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast and today it's the second largest producer of gold in Africa. Most of the gold comes out of a number of large surface mines. They are all owned by companies from abroad such as Newmont, which stores water and waste from its gold mine behind the Subri River dam. In her report for the Common Language Project, Ms. Boiiko-Weyrauch speaks with Adusah Yakubu from a local advocacy group about health consequences of local environmental deterioration. She also mentions the Responsible Jewellery Council, which certifies gold miners who do a better job than Newmont has done here in Ghana.

Atlanta loses Lake Lanier

Last Friday, July 17th, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been improperly tapping Lake Lanier as a municipal water source for Atlanta. I have yet to read the entire decision, but according to newspaper accounts it hinged on the idea that current use of the reservoir deviates from the initial purpose of impounding federally protected waters of the Chattahoochee River.

The Lake Lanier case involved the state governments of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It was tried before a judge from the federal district of Minnesota, presumably to insure impartiality. Judge Magnuson's decision has implications for many other localities where lakes originally constructed for flood control or irrigation have been converted to municipal water supplies or some other purpose than that for which the waters were originally impounded.

Many environmentalists are already applauding this decision, particularly in Alabama and Florida. However, it is likely that Georgia will now instead move forward on new dam construction. New dams, particularly if built within the "ACF" (Appalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint) system, could have even more deleterious impacts on both local Georgia environments and downstream fisheries and hydrology.

Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia

We presented our research on the geoarcheology of stratified alluvium of the Susquehanna River on Saturday in Atlanta. The spot where we put the poster up was a bit dark, but we did have quite a lot of visitors. My colleagues standing to the right are Michael Aiuvalasit and Joseph Schuldenrein of Geoarcheology Research Associates. We had a fourth co-author, Suanna Selby-Crowley, who wrote a dissertation based upon the archaeological sites which we investigated.

COAL SLUDGE CONTAMINATION IN TENNESSEE

Appalachian State University environmental scientists report on their measurement of heavy metal concentrations in the vicinity of the Kingston Fossil Plant along the Emory River in Tennessee. Sludge ponds at the plant spilled into the river when a dam broke. Contaminants are now getting into the river water which is used as a drinking water source downstream. Natural springs and groundwater aquifers may also become contaminated.

Niger River Ecological Problems

The Niger River is a source of water and food for five African nations: Guinea, Mali, Niger, Benin, and Nigeria. Another five African nations have land that is part of the Niger Basin, totalling 2.3 million km² and including the area drained by one very large tributary, the Benue River. While the Niger's headwaters are in Guinea not far from the Atlantic Coast, the headwaters of the Benue River are east of Nigeria in Chad.

With a total length of about 4100 km, the Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, but it follows an arcuate path to reach the Atlantic Ocean a mere 1,700 kilometers from it’s source. Deforestation and farming of fragile soils, particularly in the upper and middle river reaches, are resulting in siltation that is changing the river's hydrology and drastically reducing discharge in the lower reaches. Although international cooperation is not perfect, several nations and the nation of Niger in particular do have strong programs aimed at solving the ecological problems.

Drawing upon more than $2 million from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Niger's "Programme to Protect the Banks of the Niger" focuses on building sand banks that will retain rain water and prevent it from carrying solid matter towards the river bed. Mahaman Laminou Attaou, national director for the environment in Niger's Ministry of Water Affairs, Environment and the Fight Against Desertification, reports that more than 6,000 of the 100,000 hectares of land that need to be restored have been dealt with over the past four years. Attaou estimates that a further 7,500 hectares will be restored this year.

I tip my hat to Brian of Black Star Journal for the initial link to a story on ecological problems faced by the Niger River.

Barge Container Accident in Rhine River

A barge transporting containers down the Rhine river failed to navigate a riverbend near Cologne (Köln) on Sunday. Some 31 containers slid into the river, closing it to shipping until Friday at the earliest. At least three of the containers were full of hazardous waste, although there is no sign as yet that the contents have leaked into the river.

I tip my hat to Sabine for first alerting me to this story. The photograph is taken from the website of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Rock Snot!

A freshwater alga, Didymosphenia geminata, is spreading rapidly in streams worldwide. "Didymo" or "rock snot" as it is now commonly called, seems to thrive in upland headwaters where fish go to spawn and it also tolerates nutrient-poor waters in urban and industrial settings. Making its way to New Zealand in 2004, scenic rivers were rapidly covered with rock snot mats the likes of which scientists had seen nowhere else¹.

I think that I have often seen didymo myself here in the United States without knowing exactly what I was looking at. The didymo alga organism is a diatom with a microscopic skeleton of silica. In fact, didymo is one of the largest known diatoms and it also produces a long stalk which accounts for most of the "rock snot" mass².

Fishermen and recreational boaters have recently become aware that they may be vectors responsible for spreading didymo. According to an EPA leaflet distributed in Montana, boat hulls, lifejackets, and fishing gear (particularly waders) should all be inspected at the end of a day on the river. Because didymo can remain viable for several days if kept moist, even microscopic traces remaining on our equipment can transfer it to new waterways. This is probably how it first got to New Zealand, for example.

The recommended procedure for removing all didymo traces is to soak gear for at least one minute in a 2% solution of household bleach, or a 5% solution of dishwashing detergent or salt. A recent posting on "The Wild Life" blog of the Roanoke Times shows that at least one trout fisherman here in the United States has gotten the message and is using the bleach procedure.

¹ Velasquez-Manoff, Moises, 2007, "Mysterious alga threatens rivers," Christian Science Monitor, March 1.
²Kilroy, Cathy, 2004, A new alien diatom, Didymosphenia geminata (Lyngbye) Schmidt: its biology, distribution, effects and potential risks for New Zealand fresh waters. Christchurch: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Ltd.