Oozing oil bogs dumped by Iraq threaten a region

[Robbien]

By JAMES GLANZ
New York Times

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - 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 mountain valleys and leaky reservoirs near to the Tigris River and set it on fire.

The resulting huge black bogs — in the heartland of Iraq's northern Sunni-led insurgency — are threatening the river and groundwater in the region, which is dotted with villages and crisscrossed by itinerant sheepherders. The region also contains Iraq's great northern refinery complex at Baiji. The suffocating plumes of smoke are carried as far as 40 miles downwind to Tikrit, the provincial capital that formed Saddam Hussein's power base.

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As much as 40 percent of the petroleum processed at Iraq's damaged and outdated refineries is discarded as black oil. The byproduct used to be extensively exported for further refining at more modern foreign facilities. But the insurgency has stalled exports by taking control of roadways and repeatedly sabotaging pipelines in the area, Iraqi and U.S. officials have said.

So the accumulating Iraqi black oil has been sent along a short pipeline from Baiji and dumped in a mountainous area called Makhul.

A series of complaints up the Iraqi government chain were conveyed to oil industry officials, and as of last weekend, the fires had been allowed to burn out. But black oil was still being poured into the valleys, according to Younis, who works in the province's Department of Environment and Health Safety.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3981552.html

[The_Warmth]

1. .

We sure are helping this country.

[Moderator]

2. DUplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2344608