{"id":948,"date":"2012-02-14T14:18:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T19:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=948"},"modified":"2012-02-14T14:18:06","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T19:18:06","slug":"purple-squirrels-and-two-headed-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2012\/02\/14\/purple-squirrels-and-two-headed-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple squirrels and two-headed fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s in our water? Maybe more than we bargained for …
\nFirst, the squirrel
\nhttps:\/\/grist.org\/list\/did-fracking-turn-this-squirrel-purple\/
\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n

Did fracking turn this squirrel\u00a0purple?<\/h1>\n

1<\/a><\/div>\n

\n
\nBY\u00a0JESS\u00a0ZIMMERMAN<\/a>
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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\nOne of the explanations being floated for the\u00a0purple squirrel recently captured in Pennsylvania<\/a>: An organobromide overdose caused by fracking. Yeah, it sounds a little far-fetched, but doesn\u2019t it sound more interesting than \u201cit fell in a port-a-potty\u201d?
\nAccuWeather\u00a0quotes Krish Pillai<\/a>, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, postulating that a bromine compound caused the unusual color:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Man, I used to work\u00a0really hard<\/em>\u00a0to get my hair this color. Are you telling me I could have just been ingesting organobromides all this time?
\nTyrian purple dye is an organobromide compound, that much is true \u2014 but having a dye-related compound in your system doesn\u2019t necessarily make you turn that color. And NPR\u00a0points out<\/a>\u00a0that Pillai isn\u2019t a biology professor or anything; he\u2019s a computer engineer. Still, it\u2019s interesting! Fracking could have introduced bromide into the groundwater, and the groundwater could have introduced bromide into the squirrel.
\nApparently this isn\u2019t the first purple squirrel, though \u2014 the earlier specimen was\u00a0found in 2008<\/a>\u00a0in southern England (in an area that does have some\u00a0extraction operations<\/a>, and I can\u2019t believe how much research I just bothered to do to determine that). At least, that\u2019s true if you believe the\u00a0Daily Mail.<\/em>\u00a0Personally, the very fact that a purple squirrel appeared in the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u00a0four years ago makes me think this one is a hoax; that\u2019s how far the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u2018s halo of unbelievability extends.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jess Zimmerman is the editor of Grist List.<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

===
\nAnd now for the two-headed trout:
\nhttps:\/\/www.jhnewsandguide.com\/article.php?art_id=8225<\/p>\n

\n
After denial, photos show 2-headed trout<\/div>\n
Deformed fish are common near phosphate mine draining into Snake.<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
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This photograph of a two-headed trout comes from a report commissioned by Idaho-based J.R. Simplot in an attempt by the phosphate mining company to justify more selenium pollution in eastern Idaho watersheds. Last week, Simplot officials denied any knowledge of the photograph.<\/em><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyo.<\/em><\/div>\n
February 8, 2012<\/em><\/div>\n

Less than a week after J.R. Simplot Company officials denied knowledge of two-headed trout pictures taken near their Smoky Canyon Mine in eastern Idaho, a report confirmed the deformities.
\nA 694-page draft report, prepared for Simplot by Formation Environmental, of Boulder, Colo., and HabiTech,\u00a0 of Laramie, contains pictures of the trout. The August 2010 report is titled \u201cInterpretive Findings for Field and Laboratory Studies and Literature Review in Support of a Site-Specific Selenium Criterion, Smoky Canyon Mine.\u201d
\nThe Smoky Canyon Mine is located in Idaho on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest about 10 miles west of Afton. Creeks polluted by the mine drain into the Salt River,\u00a0 which drains into Palisades Reservoir on the Snake River.
\nLast week, Simplot spokesman David Cuoio said his company didn\u2019t know about pictures of two-headed fish resulting from pollution from the phosphate mine
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not aware of any two-headed fish near our facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure who took those pictures or where they were taken.\u201d
\nDespite the report bearing his company\u2019s name, Cuoio did not retract the statement Monday. He said the company was using an \u201copen, transparent and scientifically based approach to protect the environment.\u201d
\nSimplot officials are using the report in an attempt to justify an increased level of selenium pollution near the mine. On Jan. 30, Simplot submitted a proposal to the state of Idaho to ease water-quality standards in Sage and Crow creeks, where the deformed fish were found.
\n\u201cWe have been working with the state of Idaho and other state and federal agencies, including EPA, to conduct studies that may lead to science-based, site-specific water-quality standards regarding selenium for the locations around Sage Creek and Crow Creek adjacent to our Smoky Canyon Mine, as provided by the Clean Water Act,\u201d Cuoio said in a statement Monday. \u201cOur proposal for such a standard, along with all relevant supporting technical information, was submitted to the state of Idaho on Jan. 30, 2012.\u201d
\nThe request comes despite a scathing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service critique that found some portions of the Simplot research \u201chighly questionable\u201d and riddled with \u201cconfounded data.\u201d
\nThe critique, authored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Joseph Skorupa, found that the Simplot report underestimated how many fish would suffer deformities in waters adjacent to the Smoky Canyon Mine. Three independent peer reviewers subsequently agreed with more than 94 percent of Skorupa\u2019s conclusions, according to the critique.
\nIn the Simplot report, researchers attempted to prove that a selenium level of 22 parts per million in the eggs of trout in Sage Creek and Crow Creek would result in a marginal impact on the fish population.
\n\u201cIn the expert opinion of our biologist, the proposed site-specific selenium concentrations would result in serious harm to fish and wildlife, if implemented,\u201d U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Chris Tollefson said Tuesday. \u201cOur review found significant flaws in the scientific justifications presented in the Smoky Canyon Mine document and concluded that those justifications were inadequate to support the site-specific selenium water-quality criterion being proposed.\u201d
\nSkorupa was asked to review the document in a strictly advisory capacity, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not play a role in the decision on whether to relax selenium pollution standards around the mine Tollefson said.
\nSkorupa\u2019s critique found that Sage Creek exceeded even Simplot\u2019s proposed standard of 22 parts per million most of the time. Of seven samples taken from the creek, five exceeded 22 parts per million, ranging from 26.8 to 40.3 parts per million. Of those, the number of fish expected to survive for 15 days after hatching was zero.
\nAside from two-headed fish, the Simplot report contains photographs of numerous fish deformities from the creeks around the mine, including those of the eye, jaw, fin and spine. In one case, a photo shows a spinal deformity so severe the fish was bent back on itself.
\nSkorupa also calls foul on reported fish populations in the contaminated creeks. Researchers did not account for fish that might migrate into the polluted creeks to occupy the habitat left empty by fish that failed to reproduce, he found.
\n\u201cLow-quality polluted habitats that poison fish and birds can, nonetheless, be highly attractive,\u201d Skorupa wrote.
\nFish, like other species, will try to occupy all available habitat, said Marv Hoyt, Idaho director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
\n\u201cAs these fish fail to reproduce at the level that they should be, so fish in-migrate from Crow Creek at the Salt River,\u201d Hoyt said. \u201cIt\u2019s a population sink.\u201d
\nThe element selenium is a by-product of phosphate mining. The element is an essential human nutrient in small doses but is a known toxin at higher doses.
\nSelenium has been blamed for a number of livestock die-offs near phosphate mines in southeast Idaho, including 600 sheep and 18 head of cattle, Hoyt said.
\nThe Smoky Canyon Mine is a Superfund site, and Simplot hoped the report would help the company avoid paying the \u201ctens of millions of dollars to clean it up,\u201d Hoyt said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n

 
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What’s in our water? Maybe more than we bargained for … First, the squirrel https:\/\/grist.org\/list\/did-fracking-turn-this-squirrel-purple\/   Did fracking turn this squirrel\u00a0purple? 1 BY\u00a0JESS\u00a0ZIMMERMAN 14 FEB 2012 10:50 AM One of the explanations being floated for the\u00a0purple squirrel recently captured in Pennsylvania: An organobromide overdose caused by fracking. 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