We Are Eating Fracking & Drilling Waste
Unconventional drilling creates a huge amount of waste, some of which is being sprayed onto farmer’s fields. A 2005 report from New Zealand stated cows grazing on “dump farms” have elevated levels of hydrocarbons. “Cows are allowed to graze on land with high levels of hydrocarbons without any punishment and their food products are allowed to go to market without government testing,” a Green Party MP said last year. It is happening in Canada too. The field above is northwest of Calgary. Former energy consultant Jessica Ernst said, “We are eating the waste from drilling & fracking.”
“About 1.2 barrels of solid waste are created with each foot drilled, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Simply to reach the approximate 8,000-foot depth of a Barnett Shale gas well, drilling creates more than 9,600 barrels, or 403,200 gallons, of solid waste. That does not take into account any horizontal drilling performed after reaching that depth. For the 14,000 Barnett Shale wells drilled so far, the waste would cover the entire city of Fort Worth in more than an inch of drill cuttings, slurry, heavy metals and other toxic compounds.” – Denton Record-Chronicle
When she was a consultant, in the conventional oil sector, Ernst observed drilling waste being spread on the leases and access roads in northeast BC.
“This waste is spread onto the muskeg, so eventually it all gets into the water,” said Ernst.
When I worked on the coalbed methane by Encana, in southeast British Columbia, the waste was so expensive to deal with. They did tests. Their waste was killing the fish, and yet they still dumped the waste directly into the waterway there. That’s a prime fishing area, so again people are drinking and eating the waste.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/07/eating-fracking-drilling-waste/