Story on CNN re Birds and oil fields in the US.
Wildlife officials probe bird deaths
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- Federal wildlife inspectors have found hundreds of
dead birds in a piece of equipment used by the oil drilling industry, and
authorities said they hadn't realized until now that it was a danger to
migratory birds.
The birds were found in cylindrical tanks -- typically 20 feet (6 meters)
tall and 5 feet (1 1/2 meters) around, topped with a half-foot-wide (15
centimeter-wide) chimney -- called heater treaters.
The tanks are routinely used in oil fields to separate gas, oil and
saltwater pumped from the ground.
"I don't think anybody really realized how big a problem this could be,"
said John Brooks of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday.
Federal wildlife officials in Kansas are in the early stages of getting the
information disseminated nationwide, Brooks said.
The problem came to light after agency received a complaint from a resident.
After an initial investigation, Brooks assembled federal wildlife inspectors
and agents from the Kansas Department of Parks and Wildlife to search heater
treaters in state oil fields for violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act.
In two days, they inspected 150 heater treaters, finding the remains of
between 350 and 400 birds in about half of them, he said. The birds included
meadowlarks, flickers, starlings and blackbirds.
Wildlife officials have given Kansas oil producers until of the end of this
year to fix the problem, said Jon Callen, president of the Kansas
Independent Oil and Gas Association.
He estimated it would cost between $100 (euro83) and $150 (euro125) to
retrofit each heater treater. But because thousands of state oil producers
use the devices, the industry's cost will likely be more than $1 million
(euro830,000) and could reach as high as $10 million (euro8.33 million) in
Kansas alone, he said.
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