Fracking: In July, the California State Water Resources Board sent the EPA a letter confirming that at least nine of the sites closed down by the state were indeed dumping contaminated water into aquifers protected by the Safe Drinking Water Act and California regulations. The letter reveals that some three billion gallons of toxic wastewater was illegally released when injected into wells and spread into aquifers in the central part of the state. The State Water Resources board also stated that water samples taken from eight water supply resources close to the injection sites have excessive levels of toxins and carcinogens, including thallium, a chemical found in rat poison, and arsenic. For each barrel of oil produced from the tar sands takes from 110 to 350 gallons of water (or 2 to 6 barrels) of water. In 2007, Albertas government approved the withdrawal of 119.5 BILLON gallons of water for tar sands extraction. An estimated 82% of this water comes from the Athabasca River. Toxic wastewater is discharged in holding or tailing ponds that now leak 11 million liters of toxic waste per day into the Athabasca and seep into the ground water. Currently, tar sands operations are licensed to divert 652 million cubic meters of fresh water each year, 80% from the Athabasca River. In comparison, this amounts to approximately 7 times the annual water needs of the city of Edmonton. About 1.8 million cubic metres of this water becomes highly toxic tailings waste each day.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:37:47 +0000
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