“Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions Of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater.” DeSmogBlog. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
In October of last year, there was a problem with California’s underground injection program reported. It is now said that the issue is much worse than what was reported back in October. Last July, 11 wastewater injection wells were shut down. This happened because there were concerns that the wastewater may have been contaminate aquifers. This is a big issue because these aquifers are used for farm irrigation and drinking water. It has been stated that 9 of those sites were dumping wastewater. About 3 billion gallons of wastewater were injected illegally into central California aquifers. Some of the sites had high levels of chemicals like arsenic, which can weaken the immune system. There are about another 19 injection wells that may have been contaminated. Many say that Governor Jerry Brown needs to do something to stop this.
I was not aware of this issue that we had in California. This has been an ongoing issue for a while now. The fact that it is worse than what was stated I think shows how much attention is given. I do not think it would be as bad as it is if we paid much more attention. We really need to watch our aquifers. Since they do provide us with drinking water, it is important that wastewater is not dumped here. 3 billion gallons is a lot of wastewater. We do not need more wastewater than we already have. The last thing needed is for people to get sick from this a start spreading diseases.
In light of the drought, contaminating our aquifers would be a catastrophic mistake. Are there any ways to clean aquifers that have become polluted?
With the drought being such a big topic of discussion, how has this not been given more attention? I agree with Ryan when he says it would be a catastrophic mistake contaminating our aquifers. Why is the waste water being dumped in the aquifers, of all places?
I had that same question. We shouldn’t wait for it to get worse to resolve this issue.