Replies to post #2414 on Mother Nature (WRATH)

[arizona1]

Oil companies in California have been selling their wastewater to local irrigation districts where farmers get the water to grow food sold all over the United States!

California Governor Jerry Brown has refused to stop oil-water irrigation, saying that people like us opposed to fracking “don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Central Valley's growing concern: Crops raised with oil field water

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.

Oil field water: In the May 3 Section A, an article about the use of recycled oil field water in California agriculture said that samples contained acetone and methylene chloride after treatment. Acetone was found in testing in 2014, but not in a March 2015 test. An accompanying graphic cited the levels of three chemicals found in untreated oil field water: oil, 240,000-480,000 parts per million; acetone, 440-530 parts per billion; and methylene chloride, 82-89 parts per billion. However, the graphic omitted the levels found in tests of treated water: oil, 130-1,300 parts per million; acetone, 57-79 parts per billion; and methylene chloride, 26-56 parts per billion. Also, the source of the untreated water was misidentified. The samples were from the Poso Creek Oil Field, not an oil field owned by Chevron. And Blake Sanden was identified as an agriculture extension agent for UC Davis. Sanden works for the statewide UC Agriculture and Natural Resources program. —

"We need to make sure we fully understand what goes into the wastewater," said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board.

One environmental group has tested the irrigation water for oil field chemicals. Over the last two years, Scott Smith, chief scientist for the advocacy group Water Defense, collected samples of the treated irrigation water that the Cawelo Water District buys from Chevron. Laboratory analysis of those samples found compounds that are toxic to humans, including acetone and methylene chloride — powerful industrial solvents — along with oil.

Water Defense, founded by actor Mark Ruffalo in 2010, works to promote access to clean water by testing local supplies and documenting contamination.

Sarah Oktay, a water testing expert and director of the Nantucket field station of the University of Massachusetts Boston, reviewed Smith's methods and the laboratory analysis of the water he sampled.

"I wouldn't necessarily panic, but I would certainly think I would rather not have that," she said, referring to the chemicals identified in the water samples. "My next step would be most likely to look and make sure the crop is healthy."
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-drought-oil-water-20150503-story.html

[Mariner*]

Governor Moonbeam? I guess he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
I heard they were doing waste injections right into the san andreas fault, not a good idea.
They already have a water problem and now they are throwing tons of it right down the crapper.
Ingenious.