It’s hard to pick the worst thing about extreme energy extraction but residents in the Eagle Ford Shale are learning that fracking is not the worst thing about fracking. The worst thing may be what to do with the MASSIVE amount of waste!
Texas town fighting to survive waste from Eagle Ford Shale
by Joe Conger / KENS 5
Posted on February 22, 2012
“It’s basically the product that comes out of the ground when they’re drilling the wells. There’s a lot of it, and they’re bringing more of it every day, said Zapata County judge, Joe Rathmell.
By the truckloads it’s hauled in from the other Texas counties where the oil runs deep. The waste contains dirt, oil sludge, barium, lime, arsenic, lead, benzene, and other sediments.
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“It is the contamination of our water and our land. I’m already suffering from migraine headaches, when they have that chemical,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re doing back there, but it does give us a lot of migraine headaches, and I’m having respiratory problems right now.”
According to the American Petroleum Institute, drilling creates 1.2 barrels of waste per foot and much of that waste is toxic. Add to that the flowback and produced water and we have a toxic disposal nightmare!
There was enough opposition that the plans for this dump were scrapped but the waste has to go somewhere. This just means it will go to another, less fortunate community.
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