Saturday, July 19, 2014

California Halts Injection of Fracking Waste, Warning it May Be Contaminating Aquifers

"California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state's drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.

The state's Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal "poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources." The orders were first reported by the Bakersfield Californian, and the state has confirmed with ProPublica that its investigation is expanding to look at additional wells."


Read the article by Abrahm Lustgarten (ProPublica) here.

My comment (Peacegirl):  First gas wells were being drilled (still are), and we didn't know for sure what harm would done to humans, animals, soil, air, and water (still don't know everything).  Next there were the pipelines and compressor stations, and we didn't know (still don't) what the negative effects would be on our daily lives.  Now we have earthquakes and injection wells, and we really have absolutely no clue about what is (or can) really happen as a result of these practices.  But we have all this frack waste.  We have to put it somewhere.  So I think we are really in a terrible bind.  One thing leads to another, and now we are in over our brilliant little heads.  Some people are getting filthy rich, and the rest of us are wondering what kind of world we will leave to our children and grandchildren, if indeed there will be a liveable planet for them.

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