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Fracking In 2012 Produced 280 Billion Gallons Of Wastewater In US
Unfortunately, all of this toxic water didn't somehow find a way to actually funnel itself to Washington DC.
As we saw recently with 20,000 frack wells putting our water, environment and health at risk during the recent floods in Colorado: FRACKING IS INSANITY.
In a world where we now see global water scarcity and lack of access to over a billion people, will we still stand for these people being allowed to POISON OUR WATER?
Here is a quote from the report linked above:
"Fracking produces enormous volume of toxic wastewater - often containing cancer causing and even radioactive material. Once brought to the surface, this toxic waste poses hazards for drinking water, air quality and public safety."
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From page 4 of file linked:
Fracking wells since 2005: 82,000
Water used since 2005: 200 billion gallons
Chemicals used since 2005: 2 billion gallons
(And remember, fracking operations are exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, meaning the poisons they inject into our water and land are industry "secrets.")
Acres of land directly damaged since 2005: 360,000
(This would also then affect livestock, crops, other species, etc.)
Air pollution in one year: 450,000 tons
Global warming pollution since 2005: 100 million metric tons
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And yet, fracking is considered part of the Obama administration's CLEAN ENERGY POLICY TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE? Again, INSANITY.
This is no bridge. This is a galley on which we are HANGING OURSELVES.
Do the math. An ever increasing population in a world with decreasing arable land and clean water. Do I really have to explain further?
We have a moral imperative to BAN FRACKING NOW.
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Get Down With Global Frackdown 2013
Fracking/Radiation Risk
Dangerous Levels Of Radioactivity Found At Fracking Waste Site in Pennsylvania
The Duke University study, published on Wednesday, examined the water discharged from Josephine Brine Treatment Facility into Blacklick Creek, which feeds into a water source for western Pennsylvania cities, including Pittsburgh. Scientists took samples upstream and downstream from the treatment facility over a two-year period, with the last sample taken in June this year.
Elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions, are present in the Marcellus shale wastewaters, the study found.
Radioactive brine is naturally occurring in shale rock and contaminates wastewater during hydraulic fracturing – known as fracking. Sometimes that "flowback" water is re-injected into rock deep underground, a practice that can cause seismic disturbances, but often it is treated before being discharged into watercourses.
Radium levels in samples collected at the facility were 200 times greater than samples taken upstream. Such elevated levels of radioactivity are above regulated levels and would normally be seen at licensed radioactive disposal facilities, according to the scientists at Duke University's Nicholas school of the environment in North Carolina.
Hundreds of disposal sites for wastewater could be similarly affected, said Professor Avner Vengosh, one of the authors of the study published in Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal.
"If people don't live in those places, it's not an immediate threat in terms of radioactivity," said Vengosh. "However, there's the danger of slow bio-accumulation of the radium. It will eventually end up in fish and that is a biological danger."
Shale gas production is exempt from the Clean Water Act and the industry has pledged to self-monitor its waste production to avoid regulatory oversight.
However, the study clearly showed the need for independent monitoring and regulation, said Vengosh.
"What is happening is the direct result of a lack of any regulation. If the Clean Water Act was applied in 2005 when the shale gas boom started this would have been prevented.
End of excerpt.
Not the end of this fight to protect our water.
Scientists: US Climate Credibility Getting Fracked
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