Frackers pumping waste water directly into aquifers in Central Valley

E-mail this page More press releases For Immediate Release, October 6, 2014 Contact: Hollin Kretzmann, (415) 436-9683 x 333 or hkretzmann@biologicaldiversity.org Documents Reveal Billions of Gallons of Oil Industry Wastewater Illegally Injected  Into Central California Aquifers Tests Find Elevated Arsenic, Thallium Levels in Nearby Water Wells SAN FRANCISCO— Almost 3 billion gallons of oil industry wastewater have been illegally dumped into central California aquifers that supply drinking water and farming irrigation, according to state documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity. The wastewater entered the aquifers through at least nine injection disposal wells used by the oil industry to dispose of waste contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants. The documents also reveal that Central Valley Water Board testing found high levels of arsenic, thallium and nitrates — contaminants sometimes found in oil industry wastewater — in water-supply wells near these waste-disposal operations. “Clean water is one of California’s most crucial resources, and these documents make it clear that state regulators have utterly failed to protect our water from oil industry pollution,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a Center attorney. “Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the threat to public health. But Governor Brown should move quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.”

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