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We’re finding out what’s in fracking wastewater, and it ain’t pretty
We’re finding out what’s in fracking wastewater, and it ain’t pretty
3/11/15
...In 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a law requiring disclosure of chemicals used in fracking and setting up monitoring for air and water quality near unconventional drilling sites. No other state has adopted as comprehensive a system for finding out what’s actually in fracking wastewater....
...Meanwhile, the really bad news is what’s in the fracking wastewater: a carcinogenic soup full of volatile organic compounds that have been associated elsewhere with an array of unpleasant health effects. We damn well don’t want this stuff anywhere near our drinking water. From the report:
Petroleum chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive elements, plus high levels of dissolved solids, are among the pollutants found in fracking wastewater samples tested under the new disclosure program.
They include benzene, chromium-6, lead and arsenic — all listed under California’s Proposition 65 as causes of cancer or reproductive harm.
Nearly every one of the 293 samples tested contained benzene at levels ranging from twice to more than 7,000 times the state drinking water standard.
The wastewater also carried, on average, thousands of times more radioactive radium than the state’s public health goals consider safe, as well as elevated levels of potentially harmful ions such as nitrate and chloride.
In addition to the universal presence of benzene, the neurotoxin toluene was detected in 83 percent of samples....
http://grist.org/climate-energy/thanks-to-californias-disclosure-law-were-finding-out-whats-in-fracking-wastewater-and-it-aint-pretty/
3/11/15
...In 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a law requiring disclosure of chemicals used in fracking and setting up monitoring for air and water quality near unconventional drilling sites. No other state has adopted as comprehensive a system for finding out what’s actually in fracking wastewater....
...Meanwhile, the really bad news is what’s in the fracking wastewater: a carcinogenic soup full of volatile organic compounds that have been associated elsewhere with an array of unpleasant health effects. We damn well don’t want this stuff anywhere near our drinking water. From the report:
Petroleum chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive elements, plus high levels of dissolved solids, are among the pollutants found in fracking wastewater samples tested under the new disclosure program.
They include benzene, chromium-6, lead and arsenic — all listed under California’s Proposition 65 as causes of cancer or reproductive harm.
Nearly every one of the 293 samples tested contained benzene at levels ranging from twice to more than 7,000 times the state drinking water standard.
The wastewater also carried, on average, thousands of times more radioactive radium than the state’s public health goals consider safe, as well as elevated levels of potentially harmful ions such as nitrate and chloride.
In addition to the universal presence of benzene, the neurotoxin toluene was detected in 83 percent of samples....
http://grist.org/climate-energy/thanks-to-californias-disclosure-law-were-finding-out-whats-in-fracking-wastewater-and-it-aint-pretty/
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
What if the chromium 6 (remember Hinkley Erin Brockovich?) isn't at all helpful to the process but you have these barrels of it over at some other site and you need them gone?
Seriously, all the shit that goes on underground, out of sight, is frightening.
One scheme to create "clean" hydrogen from coal 
relies on Carbon Capture and Sequestration, in which they claim to get the carbon and pump it underground, where it will never, ever, hurt us.
Seriously.
