"The Great Lakes have survived many a foe – severe pollution, oil spills, discharge from refineries, zebra mussels, and attempts to steal our water, just to name a few," Upton said.
The release can occur through spills, discharge, leakage, seepage, among others.
However, new drilling and fracturing technologies used for shale gas production have raised environmental concerns related to air and water quality, including methane migration, contaminant transport, water use, wastewater discharge, and surface spills (Vidic et al. 2013).
These technologies are not free from environmental risks, however, especially those related to regional water quality, such as gas migration, contaminant transport through induced and natural fractures, wastewater discharge, and accidental spills.
Third, given the lack of data for effluent discharge and petroleum spills, emissions into water may be underestimated.
For simplicity, PAH loadings included only emissions to air and discharges to water (including petroleum spills, effluent discharges, and urban runoff).
Contaminated soils, especially when pollutant concentrations are high, pose potentially serious threats to surface and groundwater quality, when there are spills, discharges, or leaking storage tanks.
Most of these contaminants are of anthropogenic origin and derived from industrial effluent discharges, point contaminant spills, and diffuse agricultural sources (Ritter et al. 2002; Schwarzenbach et al. 2010).
Ms. Pirro established an environmental-crimes bureau soon after she took office in 1994, she said, and began prosecuting deep-pocketed corporations as well as willfully negligent individuals for illegal discharges, illegal dumping, oil spills and septic overflows.
Losses during transportation--including both tanker spills and discharges from ballast and tank washings--accounted for 22% of total losses.
