The Environment Chronicle

On 30 December 2014, severals cars in huge crude oil freight train exploded near the eastern North Dakota town of Casselton, after a collision with another train. The incident came just weeks after North Dakota's top oil regulator estimated that 90 percent of the state's oil would be carried by train in 2014, up from 60 percent in 2013. The oil train spilled 400,000 gallons of crude, U.S. investigators said on 13 January 2014, in a preliminary report on the accident.

On November 8, Typhoon Haiyan—known as Yolanda in the Philippines—made landfall in the central Philippines, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that have resulted in flooding, landslides, and widespread damage.

On 4 September 2013, Japan's nuclear regulation authority said radiation readings near water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have increased to a new high, with emissions above the ground near one group of tanks were as high as 2,200 millisieverts per hour. On 31 August 2013, the plant's operator, Tepco, said workers had measured radiation at 1,800 mSv an hour near a storage tank.

On 4 September 2013, the coastal tanker Nordvik collided with ice floe in Matisen Strait, Arctic Ocean off the Russian coast. Tanker got a hole with resulting water ingress. A report by the Northern Sea Route Administration says that the Nordvik was sailing from Ob Bay to Khatanga with 4,944 tons of diesel fuel when it ran into ice in the Matisen Strait. The Nordvik sustained damage to one her ballast tanks and was taking on water, but the ingress was stopped after crews plugged the hole. The Barents Observer, citing information from the NSR Administration, reported that the vessel had permission to sail in the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea in light ice conditions and only under escort by an icebreaker.

On 21 August 2013, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority upgraded a radioactive water leak at the crippled Fukushima plant to a level three "serious incident", its highest warning in two years, as the operator scrambles to contain the impact on the environment.

On 16 August 2013, MV St. Thomas Aquinas a Philippine-registered passenger ferry collided with a cargo ship named MV Sulpicio Express Siete near the central city of Cebu, Philippines. The ferry was carrying 120,000 litres of bunker fuel, 20,000 litres of diesel fuel, and 20,000 litres of lube oil. The collision resulted to oil sillage which affected the Municipality of Cordova and Cities of Lapu-Lapa and Talisay, all in the Province of Cebu.

Roughly 50,000 litres of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Thailand on 27 july 2013, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast of the eastern province of Rayong, operator PTT Global Chemical said.

On 23 July 2013 the Hercules 265 offshore natural gas drilling rig caught fire.

On 16 Juli 2013, a tanker spilled more than 100 tonnes of fuel oil near the coastline in northern Cyprus. The spillage was the result of refuelling accident. Oil was being offloaded from an oil tanker to the electricity generating plant Kalecik when pressure built up in a pipe which subsequently burst. The oil spill covered a radius of seven kilometres on the southern side of the Karpas peninsula.

On the 6th July 2013 a freight train comprised of 5 locomotives and 72 tank wagons carrying crude oil from North Dakota, USA to the Saint John Refinery in New Brunswick, Canada derailed in the town centre of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Following the tragedy, some of the crude oil cargo leaked into the sewer system towards Lake Mégantic and the Chaudière River. The Environment Minister who was on site for the first days after the accident, declared that the environmental disaster was of an unprecedented magnitude. The Ministry estimated that 100,000 to 120,000 litres of crude oil had been released into the Chaudière River and had spread over 120 km.

"Starting on 31 May 2013, the development of a large-scale flood event began in Central Europe, which primarily affected Germany, but also its neighboring countries Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. The meteorological cause which ultimately triggered the floods was a stable general weather pattern in Central Europe. A cut-off upper low pressure system over the European continent that was slowly shifting eastwards continuously supplied moist, unstable air of subtropical origin in a widesweep over northern to central Europe on its eastern side, which precipitated in long periods of heavy rain, especially in areas of orographic uplift in the Alps and the Central Uplands. The extent of the floods was aggravated by the extreme and widespread saturation of the soil in the affected catchment areas, which resulted from a strong precipitation anomaly during the month of May. The key areas affected were along the Danube and Elbe and their larger tributaries. (...) In terms of extent and overall magnitude, this event exceeded the August 2002 floods and the previous record event: the summer floods in July 1954. (...) In the Danube catchment area, the Danube, Lech, Regen and Inn-Salzach region were especially affected. At the confluence of the Danube and the Inn in Passau, a historical floodwater level of 12.75 m was recorded (03 Jun). In addition to Passau, the district of Deggendorf was particularly affected, where from 5th June onwards the levees were no longer able to hold back the high water levels."

On 21 April 2013 the Chinese factory fishing ship went down near Bransfield Strait at the Antarctic peninsula. The vessel Kai Xin caught fire and its 97 crew members were rescued by a Norwegian ship. Then it began to drift in unmanned and in flames, zigzagging dangerously close to glaciers.

On April 17, 2013, an ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas, while emergency services personnel were responding to a fire at the facility. At least 14 people were killed, more than 200 were injured and many buildings were damaged or destroyed.

On 29 March 2013, the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline, which brings Canadian crude oil from Illinois to Texas, ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, about 25 miles northwest of Little Rock. Approximately 5,000 barrels of oil spilled into the town of Mayflower.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on 18 March 2013, a problem with electric power has occurred at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, leading to the suspension of the system to cool spent fuel pools of the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 units. According to the NRA, Tepco reported to regulators that electricity went out at the plant’s accident response center at about 6:57 p.m. Monday.

On 6 March 2013, the vessel Nikolay Bauman sank in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta between Romania and Ukraine coastlines. The vessel carrying 2,700 tons of plaster was covering a route from Turkey to the Ukrainian city of Kherson when water began entering the ship through a hole in the bow and almost immediately flooded its front compartments. As reported, a large oil spill was discovered near the coastline in Ukraine’s Odesa region. The area of the oil spill is about 5.3 square kilometers.

Six underground storage tanks at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state are leaking radioactive waste, but there is no immediate risk to human health, officials said on 22 February 2013.

On 12 February 2013, a 600-square-meter section of the roof over the turbine hall at the fourth power block collapsed at Chernobyl nuclear plant. The collapse was caused by heavy snowfall, emergency authorities said. Chernobyl plant spokeswoman Maya Rudenko said the affected area is about 50 meters away from the reactor.

On 17 January 2013, a US Navy minesweeper Guardian run aground on a UNESCO protected coral reef off the Philippines. The ship hit the coral reef in the Tubbataha National Marine Park. Tubbataha Reef is about 80 nautical miles east-southeast of Palawan island.