Texas Approves Use Of Fracking Wastewater To Irrigate Crops
We are what we eat, and what we eat is completely dependent on what we grow. Only 3% of the water in the entire world is fresh, and most of that is locked away in glaciers. It is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that the water we use to irrigate our crops should not contain toxins that are harmful to human health. And yet, modern oil and methane extraction techniques rely heavily on fracking, a process that injects water at high pressure deep underground to fracture the rock below so the oil and methane trapped there can be extracted.
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Well I hope they label it product of Texas.
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All those deep, dissolved heavy metals, brought on up to irrigate crops, but nobody to harvest, so maybe a complete waste, to save us all from the nasties…
Some people seem to live in a dream world.
You should see the wet process phosphoric acid used to make fertilizer phosphates. It is made by treating beneficiated phosphate rock (mined in Florida) with sulfuric acid. It is usually black or green and contains all sorts of suspended solids. All sorts of minerals no extra charge.
The phosphoric acid used in Coca-Cola is traditionally furnace acid. The phosphorus is distilled to purify it before converted to phosphoric acid.
These choices are made all the time in industry. Materials are selected to do the job without causing harm. Ultra high purity is not required.
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Not following, but I am not a chemist or geologist.
How do the examples you list explain the potential impacts (or not) on human and/or ecological health of using fracking wastewater on agricultural land?
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For your consideration via Google AI:
Heavy metals in ground water
Yes, plants are capable of picking up heavy metals from groundwater, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (.gov). This is part of a process called phytoremediation, which is a plant-based approach to clean up contaminated soil and water.
How it works (Rhizofiltration):
One specific type of phytoremediation, called rhizofiltration, uses plant roots to absorb or adsorb heavy metal ions from contaminated water, including groundwater.
- Absorption and adsorption: Plant roots have the ability to absorb and concentrate heavy metals from the water.
- Root exudates: Plants release root exudates, which are compounds that can change the pH in the area around the roots (rhizosphere), potentially leading to the precipitation of heavy metals onto the roots.
- Translocation: Once absorbed, some plants can then transport these metals to their above-ground biomass, where they are stored.
Plants commonly used for rhizofiltration:
Plants with dense root systems and high biomass production are generally effective for rhizofiltration. Examples include:
- Aquatic plants:
- Hyacinth
- Azolla
- Duckweed (Lemna minor)
- Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
- Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)
- Cattail (Typha latifolia)
- Poplar
- Terrestrial plants:
- Indian mustard (Brassica juncea)
- Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Important considerations:
- Non-edible plants: It’s important to use non-edible plants for phytoremediation, especially in gardens, to avoid accidental consumption of contaminated plant material.
- Biomass disposal: The harvested plant biomass containing heavy metals needs to be properly disposed of, according to local regulations.
This process offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to address heavy metal contamination in water.
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My Geologist BIL retired from the EPA after years of remediation attempts in various areas of the Wast… Hunter’s Point Naval Station was one, where they had buried all sorts of nasties, radium dials from instruments to aircraft carrier elevators! But later, mine sites came to their attention… As rainwater filled down into old abandoned mines, eventually it tries to escape into local rivers, including the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers as well as the smaller tributaries in the Sierras… Deadly stuff, contained by concrete plugs, ponds, so so toxic the tried to keep birds out by whatever means they could…If leaked into streams, everything dies… And the internal pressures in the mines are bad, the plugs have to be replaced, monitored… Nasties from the early mining days… No easy fix…
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Um, until there’s a purification standard and testing requirements in place, we won’t know what’s in the recycled fracking wastewater. There are lots of proprietary chemicals used that companies won’t disclose. How can you filter out stuff if you don’t know what’s in the water?
I guess I’m dreaming.
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Right, but the heavy metals are now concentrated in the plants.
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Could you tell me what is in the Fracking water? Could there be lead? Arsenic? Heavy metals? Go ahead and scoff but if they will not tell you what is in the water why in the H*ll would you eat anything watered with it? I know I know the Governor of Texas says it’s safe. But they told the people in Flint the same thing.
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Drink Coca-Cola to have a rust free digestive system!
The Captain
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If it were here in Northern Calif’s Sonoma, Napa. Lake counties, a very high amount of mercury! In the past many old mercury mines in the area, and after many decades, centuries, I’ assume the muds of SF Bay are really loaded, in fact I have had visions of actual pools of mercury down under the bay… Probably sealed in by our adobe clay soils… Luckily, no fracking here, but there are recommended limits of how much of those Sripers one should eat if you do any fishing…
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Drink Coca-Cola to have a scale-free system! Yes, (federally-funded) research has shown that drinking phosphate solution (as in Coca-Cola) stimulates the kidneys to excrete calcium. Where is the largest source of calcium in the body? The bones, of course.
“Scale” – which is calcium carbonate deposit – is a bad thing in pipes and boilers but we definitely want to keep calcium in our bodies.
Why wasn’t this ever publicized?
Well, “You’ll have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company!”
— Two points for anyone who can identify that quote which I think is one of the funniest lines ever from a movie.
Wendy
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The Sergeant guarding the Coke Machine at a remote Army Base where General Max Whacko had ordered total nuclear war and had changed the recall code to one only he knew, one that was related to “precious bodily fluids”…. A fey English Air Force adjutant was the only sane person on the base and he needed a dime to call out on a pay phone (the only communication device on the base not under the control of General Whacko) to the Pentagon to telll them what the hell was going on, and he requested the Sergeant to use his weapon to blast open the Coke machine with the precious dimes in it.
I almost died laughing at times watching that movie, even as total destruction descends.
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One of the classes that I greatly enjoyed in college was an elective that had nothing at all to do with my major (Engineering). It was a Film class. And one of the films we watched and discussed was indeed Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and it was terrific then, and probably still terrific now.
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The Air Force General was “Jack Ripper”, played by Sterling Hayden. I saw Hayden on a talk show some years after the film was made. He was a bit more than slightly odd. The guy with the M1 carbine that said the line was Keenan Wynn, playing “Bat Guano”, iirc, a bird colonel.
Steve
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Ha @steve203 I was just searching for that clip to post here!
@flyerboys Bingo! Two points to you!
Wendy
It will probably be more chemicals joining the arsenic in rice out of Texas.
@steve203 you get 4 points – 2 for identifying the quote and 2 for posting the video.
Wendy
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