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发帖数: 38600 | 1 Waste Water from Oil Fracking Injected into Clean Aquifers
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-F
"They lie, cheat, and steal without rest."
State officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion
gallons of waste water into underground aquifers that could have been used
for drinking water or irrigation.
Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity,
protected by the EPA.
“It’s inexcusable,” said Hollin Kretzmann, at the Center for Biological
Diversity in San Francisco. “At (a) time when California is experiencing
one of the worst droughts in history, we’re allowing oil companies to
contaminate what could otherwise be very useful ground water resources for
irrigation and for drinking. It’s possible these aquifers are now
contaminated irreparably.”
California’s Department of Conservation’s Chief Deputy Director, Jason
Marshall, told NBC Bay Area, “In multiple different places of the
permitting process an error could have been made.”
“There have been past issues where permits were issued to operators that
they shouldn’t be injecting into those zones and so we’re fixing that,”
Marshall added.
In “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing operations, oil and gas companies
use massive amounts of water to force the release of underground fossil
fuels. The practice produces large amounts of waste water that must then be
disposed of.
Marshall said that often times, oil and gas companies simply re-inject that
waste water back deep underground where the oil extraction took place. But
other times, Marshall said, the waste water is re-injected into aquifers
closer to the surface. Those injections are supposed to go into aquifers
that the EPA calls “exempt”—in other words, not clean enough for humans
to drink or use.
Read EPA's letter to state regulators
But in the State’s letter to the EPA, officials admit that in at least nine
waste water injection wells, the waste water was injected into “non-exempt
” or clean aquifers containing high quality water.
For the EPA, “non-exempt” aquifers are underground bodies of water that
are “containing high quality water” that can be used by humans to drink,
water animals or irrigate crops.
Are Regulators Ignoring California's New Fracking Law?
If the waste water re-injection well “went into a non-exempt aquifer. It
should not have been permitted,” said Marshall.
The department ended up shutting down 11 wells: the nine that were known to
be injecting into non-exempt aquifers, and another two in an abundance of
caution.
In its reply letter to the EPA, California’s Water Resources Control Board
said its “staff identified 108 water supply wells located within a one-mile
radius of seven…injection wells” and that The Central Valley Water Board
conducted sampling of “eight water supply wells in the vicinity of some of
these… wells.”
“This is something that is going to slowly contaminate everything we know
around here,” said fourth- generation Kern County almond grower Tom Frantz,
who lives down the road from several of the injection wells in question.
According to state records, as many as 40 water supply wells, including
domestic drinking wells, are located within one mile of a single well that’
s been injecting into non-exempt aquifers.
That well is located in an area with several homes nearby, right in the
middle of a citrus grove southeast of Bakersfield.
This well is one of nine that were known to be injecting waste water into "
non-exempt" aquifers. It's located just east of Bakersfield.
State records show waste water from several sources, including from the oil
and gas industry, has gone into the aquifer below where 60 different water
supply wells are located within a one mile radius.
“That’s a huge concern and communities who rely on water supply wells near
these injection wells have a lot of reason to be concerned that they’re
finding high levels of arsenic and thallium and other chemicals nearby where
these injection wells have been allowed to operate,” said Kretzmann.
“It is a clear worry,” said Juan Flores, a Kern County community organizer
for the Center on Race, Poverty and The Environment. “We’re in a drought.
The worst drought we’ve seen in decades. Probably the worst in the history
of agriculture in California.”
“No one from this community will drink from the water from out of their
well,” said Flores. “The people are worried. They’re scared.”
The trade association that represents many of California’s oil and gas
companies says the water-injection is a “paperwork issue.” In a statement
issued to NBC Bay Area, Western States Petroleum Association spokesman
Tupper Hull said “there has never been a bona vide claim or evidence
presented that the paperwork confusion resulted in any contamination of
drinking supplies near the disputed injection wells.”
Read Western States Petroleum's Full Statement
However, state officials tested 8 water supply wells within a one-mile
radius of some of those wells.
Four water samples came back with higher than allowable levels of nitrate,
arsenic, and thallium.
Those same chemicals are used by the oil and gas industry in the hydraulic
fracturing process and can be found in oil recovery waste-water.
“We are still comparing the testing of what was the injection water to what
is the tested water that came out of these wells to find out if they were
background levels or whether that’s the result of oil and gas operation,
but so far it’s looking like it’s background,” said James Marshall from
the California Department of Conservation.
Marshall acknowledged that those chemicals could have come from oil
extraction, and not necessarily wastewater disposal.
“But when those (further) test results come back, we’ll know for sure,”
Marshall said.
When asked how this could happen in the first place, Marshall said that the
long history of these wells makes it difficult to know exactly what the
thinking was.
“When you’re talking about wells that were permitted in 1985 to 1992, we’
ve tried to go back and talk to some of the permitting engineers,” said
Marshall. “And it’s unfortunate but in some cases they (the permitting
engineers) are deceased.”
Kern County’s Water Board referred the Investigative Unit to the state for
comment.
California State officials assured the EPA in its letter that the owners of
the wells where chemicals were found have been warned and could ask for
further testing of their drinking wells. | a******9
发帖数: 20431 | 2 体制天灭!!
三十亿加仑
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: Waste Water from Oil Fracking Injected into Clean Aquifers
: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Waste-Water-from-Oil-F
: "They lie, cheat, and steal without rest."
: State officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion
: gallons of waste water into underground aquifers that could have been used
: for drinking water or irrigation.
: Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity,
: protected by the EPA.
: “It’s inexcusable,” said Hollin Kretzmann, at the Center for Biological
: Diversity in San Francisco. “At (a) time when California is experiencing
| b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 3 谢谢。 是30亿.
【在 a******9 的大作中提到】
: 体制天灭!!
: 三十亿加仑
| o**********s
发帖数: 2972 | 4 共匪污染水资源，你们不磕头谢恩还敢揭发，想学美国么？ |
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