THIRD WORLD USA 

NAVAJO NATION COVID-19 PANDEMIC 
RESERVATION IN NEED OF CUBAN DOCTORS

Navajo Nation Suffers Third-Highest COVID-19 Infection Rate ...

https://www.democracynow.org › navajo_nation_coronavirus_pandemic

May 5, 2020 - We get an update from two doctors treating patients with the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country, which has been ...

The Navajo Nation's COVID-19 Death Toll Is Higher Than That ...

https://mandipao.com › navajo-nations-covid-19-death-173000233

Apr 24, 2020 - As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, Native American populations are being disproportionately affected.

Outbreak on edge of Navajo Nation overwhelms rural hospital ...

https://wben.radio.com › articles › ap-news › outbreak-on-edge-of-navajo-...

3 days ago - GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — On the eve of New Mexico's shutdown of bars and restaurants to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the city of Gallup ...

The COVID-19 Crisis in the Episcopal Church in Navajoland ...

https://upepiscopal.org › the-covid-19-crisis-in-the-episcopal-church-in-na...

Navajo Nation is the largest indigenous nation in the United States and is the hardest hit by the outbreak. Just this week, there were 121 new cases reported, ...

During Coronvrius: Cuba to the rescue, but don't ... - MR Online

https://mronline.org › Newswire

Apr 28, 2020 - Anti-Cuba zealots in the Trump administration have been enticing Cuban doctors working overseas to defect, paying journalists to write ...

The Red Nation on Twitter: ""Cuban doctors and the Cuban ...

https://twitter.com › The_Red_Nation › status

Apr 24, 2020 - "Cuban doctors and the Cuban health service would bring a lot of value to our planning. We are moving quickly to have Cuban doctors and ...

Cuba under media attack for sending doctors, not bombs, to ...

https://www.nationofchange.org › 2020/04/15 › cuba-under-media-attack-...

Apr 15, 2020 - As coronavirus ravages the world, Cuba has exhibited disproportionate heroism, deploying medical personnel to at least 14 countries thus far ...

Virus-hit Brazil lets Cuban doctors resume work - Yahoo! Sports

https://sports.yahoo.com › virus-hit-brazil-lets-cuban-doctors-resume-0515...

4 days ago - Brasília (AFP) - Brazil re-enlisted more than 150 Cuban doctors Monday to help fight a surge in coronavirus cases, a year and a half after ...

As COVID-19 Magnifies Racial Disparities, Street Medics Look ...

https://shadowproof.com › 2020/05/12 › street-medics-see-cuba-as-a-mode...

May 12, 2020 - Street medics like Dr. Armen Henderson see Cuba as model for responding to COVID-19, as U.S. government fails to provide health care to ...

THE RESERVATION ALREADY IS RECEIVING SUPPORT FROM MSF DOCTORS WITHOUT FRONTIERS AND UC SF BUT ITS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM CANNOT HANDLE THIS AND FEDERAL FUNDS HAVE NOT YET ARRIVED

Doctors Without Borders Stand With New Mexico Tribes ...

cubanreporter.net › doctors-without-borders-stand-with-new-mexico-tribes...

May 11, 2020 - “We will need additional health care professionals here on the Navajo Nation,” Nez said. “We don't know if this is going to be a virus that is ...

MSF's activities on coronavirus COVID-19 | MSF

https://www.msf.org › covid-19-depth

May 14, 2020 - MSF response to coronavirus disease COVID-19. It is clear that healthcare workers need support and patients need care. Given the size of this ...

UCSF Health Care Workers to Serve in Navajo Nation | UC ...

https://www.ucsf.edu › news › 2020/04 › ucsf-health-care-workers-serve-n...

Apr 22, 2020 - A team of UC San Francisco health care workers – seven physicians and 14 nurses – is traveling to Arizona and New Mexico on Wednesday, ...

Missing: CUBAN ‎| Must include: CUBAN

HEALTHCARE IN NAVAJO NATION

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Proposed Navajo Managed Care Organization - New Mexico ...

https://www.hsd.state.nm.us › uploads › files › Navajo Nation Submission t...

Sep 1, 2019 - The. Navajo Nation will accept the financial risk for this delivery system, through Naat'aanii. Development Corporation (NDC), an economic ...

Doctor recounts lessons learned among Navajo people | The ...

https://www.taosnews.com › first-navajo-nursing-school-recounted,57127

May 17, 2019 - Yá'át'ééh sha' ałchíní. Shí éí Erica Elliott yinishyé. Nisha? Haash yinilyé? The words mean, 'Hello my children. My name is Erica Elliott.

Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life Among the ...

https://www.amazon.com › Medicine-Miracles-High-Desert-Navajo

Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life Among the Navajo People [Erica M Elliott M D, Joan Borysenko PhD PH.D.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping ...

Injustice in Healthcare: A Navajo Case Study - Archive Home

https://repository.wlu.edu › handle › RG38_LeMasters_Poverty_2015

by KHK LeMasters - ‎2015 - ‎Related articles

Significant health inequalities exist between the Navajo tribe and the US population as a whole and are worsening over time. I argue that while these health ...

Treasury to begin distributing virus relief money to tribes | WPEC

https://cbs12.com › news › coronavirus › treasury-to-begin-distributing-viru...

May 5, 2020 - FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U. S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that it will begin doling out billions to help tribes respond and recover ...

New Mexico's Veterans Affairs healthcare system assists the ...

https://prensa-fifi.com › new-mexicos-veterans-affairs-healthcare-system-as...

May 11, 2020 - Patients from the Navajo Nation are battling COVID-19 inside the VA hospital in Albuquerque. “Our fourth mission for us has been to help the ...

Indian Health Service Doctor Details Heavy COVID-19 Impact ...

https://www.npr.org › 2020/04/20 › indian-health-service-doctor-details-hea...

Apr 20, 2020 - NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Dr. Loretta Christensen, Navajo Area chief medical officer at the Indian Health Service about the ...

Missing: CUBAN ‎| Must include: CUBAN

THE RESERVATION HAS HAD GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUBA INCLUDING ITS CURRENT PRESIDENT  

Vice President Nez visits Cuba, observes health care system ...

https://www.nhonews.com › news › mar › vice-president-nez-visits-cuba-o...

Mar 9, 2016 - Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez pauses during a cultural exchange trip to Havana, Cuba. Submitted photo. Navajo-Hopi Observer.

Navajo Nation visits Cuba with MEDICC, observes healthcare ...

medicc.org › navajo-nation-visits-cuba-with-medicc-observes-healthcare-s...

Mar 22, 2016 - Leaders from the Navajo Nation visited Cuba last month with MEDICC's Community Partnerships for Health Equity (CPHE) program to engage ...

The Panama Papers and the Navajo Cuban Food Deal

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com › 2016/06 › the-panama-papers-and-navajo-...

Jun 15, 2016 - The Panama Papers leak of offshore tax havens has for the first time exposed a link to Indian country. It is to Cuba's Alimport, Cuba's import ...

NOT JUST NAVAJO NATION BUT FIRST NATIONS IN CANADA TOO HAVE VISITED CUBA TO LEARN ABOUT THEIR MEDICAL SYSTEM 

First Nations leaders from Manitoba were in Havana, Cuba ...

https://www.reddit.com › IndianCountry › comments › ffhct4 › first_natio...

r/IndianCountry: Native American news, happenings, culture, politics, arts, community, and thought. Give us your local, give us your Pan-Indian …

The lower mantle can be oxidized in the presence of water

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: THE SCHEMATIC ARTWORK SHOWS A BOUNDARY WITHIN THE LOWER MANTLE AT THE DEPTH OF 1900 KM. BELOW 1900 KM, THE INTERACTION BETWEEN WATER AND MANTLE IS TRIGGERED. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

If we took a journey from Earth's surface to the center, the midway point locates roughly at 1900 km depth in the lower mantle. The lower mantle ranges from 660 to 2900 km depth and occupies 55% of our planet by volume. The chemical composition of the lower mantle is rather simple. It has long been pictured as being made up of 2 major minerals (~95%), namely bridgmanite and ferropericlase. Until recently, this model is directly challenged by a set of discoveries in the lower mantle.

"One of the major lower mantle compositions, ferropericlase (Mg,Fe)O, turns into a pyrite-type structure upon meeting water. This intriguing chemical reaction only occurs at Earth's deep lower mantle which is defined in depths between 1900 and 2900 km" said Qingyang Hu from HPSTAR. "The reaction produces so-called oxygen excessive phases, or simply superoxides. The lower mantle is oxidized in the presence of water." Generally, when all the oxygen atoms in a compound are bonded with metal atoms, they are called oxides. However, if a compound has paired oxygen atoms, like oxygen-oxygen bonding, it becomes a superoxide. Although superoxide is rarely found in nature, it might be common in Earth's deep lower mantle.

"We also found that olivine and its high-pressure phase wadsleyite, the dominating minerals in the upper mantle, decompose to generate superoxides when subducting down into the deep mantle with water." added by Jin Liu from at HPSTAR. Few approaches are available for scientists to probe into the lower mantle mineralogy given its depth. "Our experiments are very challenging. We input appropriate parameters like pressure, temperature, and starting minerals. Then we investigated the outputs including chemical reactions, new mineral assemblages, and their density profiles. Those parameters allow us to better constrain the nature of the lower mantle and its oxidation state." Contrary to the paradigm that the lower mantle is highly reduced, our results indicate that the deep lower mantle is at least locally oxidized wherever water is present.

The team members proceeded with minerals existing on Earth's surface, by squeezing them between two pieces of diamond anvils to generate about 100,000,000 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level, heating them up using infrared laser, before analyzing the samples using a battery of x-ray and electron probes. The experiments have mimicked the extreme pressure-temperatures conditions found in Earth's deep lower mantle.

Previous experiments explored a dry mineral assembly in the absence of water. Those experiments reported that bridgmanite (and/or post-bridgmanite) and ferropericlase are the most abundant and stable minerals throughout the lower mantle. However, when water is introduced, ferropericlase would be partially oxidized to superoxide under the deep lower mantle conditions. The superoxide is verified to stay in harmony with bridgmanite and post-bridgmanite.

This new water-mantle chemistry can be closely linked to the water cycling in the solid Earth. Every year, billions of tons of ocean water falls into the deep Earth at tectonic plate boundaries. While some water returns via underwater volcanoes and hot vents, others goes deep into the Earth's interiors. "Our experiments indicate the deep water is an essential part of mantle chemistry. The water cycling can extend to the deep lower mantle where water has extraordinary oxidation power, producing highly oxidized superoxide and releasing hydrogen." suggested by Dr. Ho-kwang Mao from HPSTAR. "The lower mantle can be oxidized and reduced at the same time."

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See the article:

Hu Q, Liu J, Chen J, Yan B, Meng Y, Prakapenka VB, Mao, WL, Mao, H-K, 2020. Mineralogy of the deep lower mantle in the presence of H2O. National Science Review, doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa098
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa098

Mysterious glowing coral reefs are fighting to recover

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

IMAGE: ACROPORA CORALS. COLOURFUL BLEACHING IN NEW CALEDONIA. view more 

CREDIT: THE OCEAN AGENCY/XL CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY

A new study by the University of Southampton has revealed why some corals exhibit a dazzling colourful display, instead of turning white, when they suffer 'coral bleaching' - a condition which can devastate reefs and is caused by ocean warming. The scientists behind the research think this phenomenon is a sign that corals are fighting to survive.

Many coral animals live in a fragile, mutually beneficial relationship, a 'symbiosis' with tiny algae embedded in their cells. The algae gain shelter, carbon dioxide and nutrients, while the corals receive photosynthetic products to fulfil their energy needs. If temperatures rise just 1?C above the usual summer maximum, this symbiosis breaks down; the algae are lost, the coral's white limestone skeleton shines through its transparent tissue and a damaging process known as 'coral bleaching' occurs.

This condition can be fatal to the coral. Once its live tissue is gone, the skeleton is exposed to the eroding forces of the environment. Within a few years, an entire coral reef can break down and much of the biodiversity that depends on its complex structure is lost - a scenario which currently threatens the future of reefs around the world.

However, some bleaching corals undergo an, until now, mysterious transformation - emitting a range of different bright neon colours. Why this happens has now been explained by a team of scientists from the University of Southampton's Coral Reef Laboratory, who have published their detailed insights in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers conducted a series of controlled laboratory experiments at the coral aquarium facility of the University of Southampton. They found that during colourful bleaching events, corals produce what is effectively a sunscreen layer of their own, showing itself as a colourful display. Furthermore, it's thought this process encourages the coral symbionts to return.

Acropora corals with colourful bleaching in New Caledonia.

CREDIT The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey

Professor Jörg Wiedenmann, head of the University of Southampton's Coral Reef Laboratory explains: "Our research shows colourful bleaching involves a self-regulating mechanism, a so-called optical feedback loop, which involves both partners of the symbiosis. In healthy corals, much of the sunlight is taken up by the photosynthetic pigments of the algal symbionts. When corals lose their symbionts, the excess light travels back and forth inside the animal tissue -reflected by the white coral skeleton. This increased internal light level is very stressful for the symbionts and may delay or even prevent their return after conditions return to normal.

"However, if the coral cells can still carry out at least some of their normal functions, despite the environmental stress that caused bleaching, the increased internal light levels will boost the production of colourful, photoprotective pigments. The resulting sunscreen layer will subsequently promote the return of the symbionts. As the recovering algal population starts taking up the light for their photosynthesis again, the light levels inside the coral will drop and the coral cells will lower the production of the colourful pigments to their normal level."

Coral Reef Aquarium Facility at the University of Southampton Waterfront Campus.

CREDIT Wiedenmann/D'Angelo

The researchers believe corals which undergo this process are likely to have experienced episodes of mild or brief ocean-warming or disturbances in their nutrient environment - rather than extreme events.

Dr. Cecilia D'Angelo, Lecturer of Molecular Coral Biology at Southampton, comments: "Bleaching is not always a death sentence for corals, the coral animal can still be alive. If the stress event is mild enough, corals can re-establish the symbiosis with their algal partner. Unfortunately, recent episodes of global bleaching caused by unusually warm water have resulted in high coral mortality, leaving the world's coral reefs struggling for survival."

Dr. Elena Bollati, Researcher at the National University Singapore, who studied this subject during her PhD training at the University of Southampton, adds: "We reconstructed the temperature history of known colourful bleaching events around the globe using satellite imagery. These data are in excellent agreement with the conclusions of our controlled laboratory experiments, suggesting that colourful bleaching occurs in association with brief or mild episodes of heat stress."

The scientists are encouraged by recent reports suggesting colourful bleaching has occurred in some areas of the Great Barrier Reef during the most recent mass bleaching there in March-April 2020. They think this raises the hope that at least some patches of the world's largest reef system may have better recovery prospects than others, but emphasise that only a significant reduction of greenhouse gases at a global scale and sustained improvement in water quality at a regional level can save coral reefs beyond the 21st century.

###

Reference:

Optical Feedback Loop Involving Dinoflagellate Symbiont and Scleractinian Host Drives Colorful Coral Bleaching is published in the journal Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.055 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30571-6

Tropical forests can handle the heat, up to a point

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

 

IMAGE: A VIEW FROM THE CANOPY AT GUNUNG MULU'S HEATH FOREST, DOMINATED BY SHOREA ALBIDA. SARAWAK, BORNEO. view more 

CREDIT: DR LINDSAY F. BANIN

l forests face an uncertain future under climate change, but new research published in Science suggests they can continue to store large amounts of carbon in a warmer world, if countries limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The world's tropical forests store a quarter-century worth of fossil fuel emissions in their trees alone. There are fears that global heating can reduce this store if tree growth reduces or tree death increases, accelerating climate change.

An international research team measured over half a million trees in 813 forests across the tropics to assess how much carbon is stored by forests growing under different climatic conditions today.

The team reveal that tropical forests continue to store high levels of carbon under high temperatures, showing that in the long run these forests can handle heat up to an estimated threshold of 32 degrees Celsius in daytime temperature.

Yet this positive finding is only possible if forests have time to adapt, they remain intact, and if global heating is strictly limited to avoid pushing global temperatures into conditions beyond the critical threshold.

Lead author Dr Martin Sullivan, from the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University, said: "Our analysis reveals that up to a certain point of heating tropical forests are surprisingly resistant to small temperature differences. If we limit climate change they can continue to store a large amount of carbon in a warmer world.

"The 32 degree threshold highlights the critical importance of urgently cutting our emissions to avoid pushing too many forests beyond the safety zone.

"For example, if we limit global average temperatures to a 2°C increase above pre-industrial levels this pushes nearly three-quarters of tropical forests above the heat threshold we identified. Any further increases in temperature will lead to rapid losses of forest carbon.

Collecting tree species for identification, Andean cloud forest in Peru 2011

CREDIT Jake Bryant

Forests release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when the amount of carbon gained by tree growth is less than that lost through tree mortality and decay.

The study is the first to analyse long-term climate sensitivity based on direct observation of whole forests across the topics. The research suggests that over the long-term, temperature has the greatest effect on forest carbon stocks by reducing growth, with drought killing trees the second key factor.

The researchers conclude that tropical forests have long-term capacity to adapt to some climate change, in part because of their high biodiversity as tree species better able to tolerate new climatic conditions grow well and replace less well-adapted species over the long-term.

But maximizing this potential climate resilience depends on keeping forests intact.

Colombia, measuring giant Ceiba in the Choco rainforest.

CREDIT Pauline Kindler

Co-author Professor Beatriz Marimon from the State University of Mato Grosso in Brazil studies some of the world's hottest tropical forests in central Brazil. She noted: "Our results suggest that intact forests are able to withstand some climate change. Yet these heat-tolerant trees also face immediate threats from fire and fragmentation.

"Achieving climate adaptation means first of all protecting and connecting the forests that remain."

Professor Marimon notes the clear limits to adaptation. "The study indicates a heat threshold of 32 degrees Celsius in daytime temperature. Above this point tropical forest carbon declines more quickly with higher temperatures, regardless of which species are present.

"Each degree increase above this 32 degree threshold releases four-times as much carbon dioxide as would have been released below the threshold."

The insights into how the world's tropical forests respond to climate were only possible with decades of careful fieldwork, often in remote locations. The global team of 225 researchers combined forests observations across South America (RAINFOR), Africa (AfriTRON) and Asia (T-FORCES). In each monitoring plot the diameter of each tree and its height was used to calculate how much carbon they stored. Plots were revisited every few years to see how much carbon was being taken in, and how long it was stored before trees died.

To calculate changes in carbon storage required identifying nearly 10,000 tree species and over two million measurements of tree diameter, across 24 tropical countries. According to Professor Simon Lewis of the University of Leeds and University College London: "The amount of carbon absorbed and stored by forests is a crucial element in how the Earth responds to climate change."

"The study underlines why long-term research collaboration is essential for understanding the effects of environmental change. Scientists need to work together more than ever, as monitoring the health of our planet's great tropical forests is vital for all of us."

Cutting carbon emissions enough to keep forests within the safety zone will be very challenging. Study author Professor Oliver Phillips of the University of Leeds said: "Keeping our planet and ourselves healthy has never been more important. Right now, humanity has a unique opportunity to make the transition toward a stable climate.

"By not simply returning to 'business as usual' after the current crisis we can ensure tropical forests remain huge stores of carbon. Protecting them from climate change, deforestation and wildlife exploitation needs to be front and centre of our global push for biosecurity.

"Imagine if we take this chance to reset how we treat our Earth. We can keep our home cool enough to protect these magnificent forests - and keep all of us safer."

###

Further information:

The paper Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests is published in Science 22 May 2020 (Embargo 21 May 19:00 BST/ 14:00 ET) (DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw7578)

Link to images/video (captions and credits included) : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZJLFfqJfJWyfQRjD1iknLnZTrbk7Nr9u

For additional information or to arrange interviews please contact University of Leeds press officer Anna Harrison at a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk

Press release translations in Spanish, Portuguese and French available.

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes.

We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2020.

The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk

Hearts that drum together beat together

Group drumming stimulates behavioral and physiological synchronization that contribute to the formation of social bonds and a consequent ability to cooperate, Bar-Ilan University study finds

THE WELCOMING DRUMMING OF PAGAN CIRCLES

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

 

Group work and cooperation are crucial in everyday life. As such, it is important to explore the avenues by which synchrony within a group may enhance cohesion and influence performance.

What role can music play in this effort? In an interdisciplinary study published today in the journal Scientific Reports researchers report their discovery that while drumming together, aspects of group members' heart function - specifically the time interval between individual beats (IBI) -- synchronized.

This physiological synchronization was recorded during a novel musical drumming task that was especially developed for the study in a collaboration between social-neuroscientists and scholars from the Music Department at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

The drumming involved 51 three-participant groups in which IBI data were continuously collected. Participants were asked to match their drumming -- on individual drumming pads within an electronic drum set shared by the group -- to a tempo that was presented to the group through speakers. For half of the groups, the tempo was steady and predictable, and thus, the resulting drumming and its output were intended to be synchronous. For the other half, the tempo changed constantly and was practically impossible to follow, so that the resulting drumming and musical output would be asynchronous. The task enabled the researchers to manipulate the level of behavioral synchronization in drumming between group members and assess the dynamics of changes in IBI for each participant throughout the experiment.

Following this structured drumming task, participants were asked to improvise drumming freely together. The groups with high physiological synchrony in the structured task showed more coordination in drumming in the free improvisation session.

Analysis of the data demonstrated that the drumming task elicited an emergence of physiological synchronization in groups beyond what could be expected randomly. Further, behavioral synchronization and enhanced physiological synchronization while drumming each uniquely predicts a heightened experience of group cohesion. Finally, the researchers showed that higher physiological synchrony also predicts enhanced group performance later on in a different group task.

"Our results present a multi-modal behavioral and physiological account of how synchronization contributes to the formation of the group bond and its consequent ability to cooperate," says Dr. Ilanit Gordon, head of the Social Neuroscience Lab at Bar-Ilan University's Department of Psychology and a senior researcher at the University's Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, who led the study together with Prof. Avi Gilboa and Dr. Shai Cohen, of the Department of Music. "A manipulation in behavioral synchrony and emerging physiological coordination in IBI between group members predicts an enhanced sense of cohesion among group members."

"We believe that joint music making constitutes a promising experimental platform for implementing ecological and fully interactive scenarios that capture the richness and complexity of human social interaction," says Prof. Gilboa, of the Department of Music, who co-authored the study. "These results are particularly significant due to the crucial importance of groups to action, identity and social change in our world."

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This study was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.

Can oilfield water safely be reused for irrigation in California?

It depends on the location, concludes a study of one California water district

DUKE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MANY FARM FIELDS IN THE CAWELO WATER DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN IRRIGATED WITH REUSED OILFIELD WATER MIXED WITH SURFACE WATER FOR 25 YEARS. A NEW DUKE-LED STUDY FINDS THE... view more 

CREDIT: AVNER VENGOSH, DUKE UNIVERSITY

DURHAM, N.C. - A new study by researchers at Duke University and RTI International finds that reusing oilfield water that's been mixed with surface water to irrigate farms in the Cawelo Water District of California's Kern County does not pose major health risks, as some opponents of the practice have feared.

"We did not find any major water quality issues, nor metals and radioactivity accumulation in soil and crops, that might cause health concerns," said Avner Vengosh, professor of water quality and geochemistry at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, whose lab led the new study.

Faced with increasing droughts and water shortages, some farmers in the Cawelo district have used diluted oilfield produced water (OPW) for irrigation for their fields for more than 25 years, as permitted under California Water Board policy.

While the oilfield-mixed water contains slightly elevated levels of salts and boron relative to the local groundwater, those levels are still below the standards set by the state for safe drinking water and irrigation in the Cawelo district, Vengosh said.

Boron and salts from the OPW have however, accumulated over time in the irrigated soil. The district's farmers will need to plant boron-tolerant crops and keep mixing the OPW with fresh water to avoid boron toxicity and salinity buildup in their fields, and also to remain within state guidelines. "But all things considered, this is good news," Vengosh said.

The researchers published their peer-reviewed findings May 18 in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The new study should help allay fears that contaminants in the Cawelo OPW, which is produced as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction at sites adjacent to many farm fields in the district, could impact water and soil quality, harm crop health or pose risks to human health, the researchers said.

"Those concerns assumed that the OPW generated by oil and gas wells in the Cawelo district contains similar mixtures of salts, metals and naturally occurring radioactivity as OPW generated in oil fields in other regions. But our study shows that's not the case," said Andrew Kondash, a research environmental scientist at RTI International, who led the study as part of his 2019 doctoral dissertation at Duke.

"The OPW produced in Kern County is much more diluted and low-saline than common OPW from other parts of the country, so it can be used for irrigation if it is mixed with surface water," Kondash said.

Determining whether it is safe to use OPW for irrigation in other locations would require a similar suite of water and soil testing, Kondash said. "You can't assume that the results in this study could be applied to OPW from other oilfields, where the salinity is typically much higher."

To conduct the new study, the researchers collected and analyzed soil samples, irrigation water samples, OPW samples and groundwater samples from sites across the Cawelo Water District from December 2017 to September 2018 and analyzed them for a wide range of contaminants including, salts, metals and radioactive elements.

###

The study was part of a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (grant #2017-68007-26308) and included a policy analysis section led by Erika Weinthal of Duke's Nicholas School.

Other authors were: Jennifer Hoponick Redmon and Elisabetta Lambertini of RTI International, Laura Feinstein of the Pacific Institute, and Luis Cabrales of California State University at Bakersfield.

In addition to earning his PhD in Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke's Nicholas School, Kondash also earned a Master of Environmental Management degree in Energy and Environment at Duke in 2013.

CiTATION: "The Impact of Using Low-Saline Oilfield Produced Water for Irrigation on Water and Soil Quality in California," Andrew Kondash, Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, Elisabetta Lambertini, Laura Feinstein, Erika Weinthal, Luis Cabrales, and Avner Vengosh; May 18, 2020, Science of the Total Environment. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139392