Fracking runoff often leaves wastewater too toxic to be reused for drinking… so it’s being dumped on our farmland instead
by: Isabelle Z.
NaturalNews.com
Thursday, May 12, 2016
The runoff from fracking results in wastewater that is considered too toxic for anyone to drink, so why is it being dumped on farmland instead?
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, entails injecting water, sand and various chemicals underneath the ground to stimulate the flow of gas so that it can be extracted and sold. The injected water subsequently rises back up to the surface, only this time it brings with it a few unwelcome souvenirs from its time under the ground – namely radioactive isotopates and heavy metals. No one is lining up to drink water laced with any of these chemicals, so the wastewater is normally pumped into underground “wastewater wells” for storage.
In 2014 alone, fracking created 15 billion gallons of wastewater, which is typically laden with benzene, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. Re-injecting it back into the ground doesn’t exactly solve the problem, however, as it can and does seep out into drinking water sources.
A study out of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of the Pacific raised serious concerns about a number of the components used in the fracking process. According to the report, “very little is known” about the effects of the chemicals used in the process, which number somewhere around 200. Lead researcher William Stringfellow, Ph.D., said that eight of these chemicals are known to be toxic to mammals, while almost nothing is known about as many as a third of the compounds.
While the industry has claimed that fracking drills at levels that are a lot deeper than groundwater used for drinking, another study showed that some energy companies are fracking at dangerously shallow depths that sometimes go right through underground drinking water sources. If you are concerned about the heavy metals in your tap water, you can send a sample to EPAWatch.org for free testing.
If it’s so toxic, why is it being used on farmland?
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