Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum10% Of Kern County, CA Acres Use Fracking Wastewater; Tests Show Acetone, Methelyne Chlorine
Here in California's thirsty farm belt, where pumpjacks nod amid neat rows of crops, it's a proposition that seems to make sense: using treated oil field wastewater to irrigate crops. Oil giant Chevron recycles 21 million gallons of that water each day and sells it to farmers who use it on about 45,000 acres of crops, about 10% of Kern County's farmland. State and local officials praise the 2-decade-old program as a national model for coping with the region's water shortages. As California's four-year drought lingers and authorities scramble to conserve every drop, agricultural officials have said that more companies are seeking permits to begin similar programs. The heightened interest in recycling oil field wastewater has raised concern over the adequacy of safety measures in place to prevent contamination from toxic oil production chemicals.
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The samples Smith collected contained acetone and methylene chloride, solvents used to degrease equipment or soften thick crude oil, at concentrations higher than he said he had seen at oil spill disaster sites. The water also contained C20 and C34, hydrocarbons found in oil, according to ALS Environmental, the lab that analyzed Smith's samples. Methylene chloride and acetone are used as solvents in many industrial settings. Methylene chloride is classified as a potential carcinogen.
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One sample of the recycled Cawelo irrigation water, for example, registered methylene chloride as high as 56 parts per billion. Smith said that was nearly four times the amount of methylene chloride registered when he tested oil-fouled river at the 2013 ExxonMobil tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower, Ark. That spill was declared a federal disaster, spurred evacuations and resulted in a $2.7-million fine for the company.
"As long as they're treating the water to the point where it's allowed by whatever agency governs the quality of water, I think it would be OK," said Glenn Fankhauser, assistant director of the Kern County Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards. Blake Sanden, an agriculture extension agent and irrigation water expert with UC Davis, said "everyone smells the petrochemicals in the irrigation water" in the Cawelo district. But he said local farmers trust that organisms in the soil remove toxins or impurities in water. "When I talk to growers, and they smell the oil field crap in that water, they assume the soil is taking care of this," Sanden said.
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http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-drought-oil-water-20150503-story.html#page=1
procon
(15,805 posts)So how do consumers know they aren't picking up parts of those chemical toxins right along with all the nutrients theyget from the soil?
Champion Jack
(5,378 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)Corrupt, stupid and criminally negligent.
The US doesn't want to walk back the "Country of origin label" legislation: it needs to
intensify it so that people can choose not to buy and consume toxic crap from the areas
that think that poisoning people for profit should be praised as a "national model".
"Buy USA! Die USA! It's The Patriotic Thing To Do!"