News

Water-Related Comments from Biden Presidential Platform

The article below includes water-specific excerpts from the Biden presidential platform, particularly as related to wastewater disposal environmental issues. These references likely foreshadow various “sticks” and “carrots” that will be deployed by the new administration. ECOVAP maintains political neutrality, and the basis of our disruptive technology is to greatly reduce... Read more »

2nd Largest Metals Mine in World Vetoed Due to Clean Water Act

Alaska's Pebble Mine project was vetoed under section 404(c) of the federal Clean Water Act. Construction of the mine would have cost $4.7 billion. Reserve estimates place Pebble as the largest undeveloped copper mine in the world, and also including very large gold and molybdenum deposits. The ruling was a... Read more »

Stringent New Standards for Tailing Pond Wastewater

A joint report (August 2020) by the United Nations Environment Program and the International Council on Mining and Metals calls for much higher safety standards and regulations for managing mining tailings ponds. To date, much of the tailing pond "regulation" has been done via increasing multi-billion dollar environmental lawsuits ex-post... Read more »

Development of One of the World’s Largest Gold Mines Halted Due to Wastewater Disposal Risks

Environmental approval for the biggest open-pit mining project in Latin America is being continually delayed due to environmental concerns about the difficulty of wastewater disposal and tailings dam safety.  These concerns are heightened due to multiple dam-breaks and flooding events in nearby Amazonian mines, including BHP’s 2019 Brumandinho failure which... Read more »

BHP Brazil Tailings Pond Lawsuit at $6.3bn, Nearing Court Date

The total claim for the 2015 BHP/Vale tailings pond collapse has risen to $6.3bn and is nearing a court date pending several jurisdictional disputes. As a result of heavy rains in the Amazon basin, the Fundao tailings dam collapsed in 2015, with 10.6 trillion gallons of toxic sludge flowing into... Read more »

Tallgrass Enhances Portfolio With Novel Evaporation Technology

Monthly newsletter for the water business in the oil & gas industry 31 July 2020 | Issue 20 The long-term deal is among only a handful that have been announced in the US produced water space this year. _____________________ Earlier this month Tallgrass Energy’s water division entered into a 10-... Read more »

Tallgrass Energy Announces Exclusive Partnership in Oil and Gas Space with ECOVAP, a Pioneer in Wastewater Management Technology

July 08, 2020 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time LEAWOOD, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tallgrass Energy, LP, through its Tallgrass Water division, today announced it has entered into a multi-year agreement with ECOVAP, Inc., a leader in wastewater elimination that gives Tallgrass Water exclusive rights within the oil and gas industry to use the... Read more »

Tailing Pond Failures Increase

Predictably, as many mining operations age, the number of tailing pond failures has increased significantly over the past century. The causes of these failures fairly evenly distributed: Seepage (21.6%); Overtopping (20.6%) Foundation Failure (17.3%); Earthquake (17.0%) and Other (23.5%). In addition, due to the recent pandemic economic downturn, it is... Read more »

The US Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration

The US Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration and DoJ views that groundwater disposal should be exempted from certain requirements of the Clean Water Act. The ruling negates a prior loophole that underground injection wells would not be liable for potential environmental damages from potential “indirect” contamination of freshwaters... Read more »

Court Mandates Power Plants to Strengthen Wastewater Disposal Technology, Reduce Toxic Emissions

A U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to strengthen limits on toxic wastewater from power plants, mandating that thermoelectric (i.e., nuclear, coal, natural gas) power plants reevaluate "modern wastewater treatment technology to greatly reduce the amount of toxic pollution" that ends up contaminating soils/aquifers, rivers and lakes. ECOVAP has... Read more »