>They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.
Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.
>It gets pumped back down underground where it dissipates into the rest of the water system.
This is the most inaccurate and hyperbolic part of your response. It is markedly false. The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows. They store the water onsite for the remaining wells. Or transport to another pad for continued hydro fracking use. Any water that is produced during well production is pumped into non-human use reservoirs. These disposal wells are called SWD’s, saltwater disposals. The depths of the wells vary, in our field it was 7500’. Whereas freshwater wells for human and cattle use were 300’. Regulatory bodies strictly manage the creation of SWD’s with significant research and paperwork to show the reservoir you are disposing into is not or has ever been used for human consumption. The water at this reservoir will not magically make its way into the freshwater reservoir.
>These people claim that it's safe for decades when our computer models can't predict the weather accurately next week.
This seems more emotionally driven than anything. Who are ‘these people’. How does this correlate to weather? I have worked with hundreds of wells that are +80 years old still in good standing. If the well integrity is in question a cement bond log is run, along with other logs. If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed. Or the well plugged and abandoned, is filled with cement and the wellhead removed.
I have not heard of fracking water ever being used for crops.
Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors as I am on my phone writing this message.
As someone who worked around fracking wells as a roughneck, I see a lot wrong with your post.
>Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%.
This is like saying "dihidrogen monoxide is the largest component of acid rain". Technically true, but the toxin is toxic enough even at low concentrations. You wouldn't enjoy having it in your eyes no matter how much of it is water that day. This is frankly a strange argument for someone who's worked with the stuff to make, it's not quite H2S but nobody I worked with took the toxicity lightly.
>The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows.
That is what's told to the people in the office but it's not reliable. A volume of fluid is pumped down the well, the same volume is pumped back up. So long as there's no water at all downhole, you would recover only fracking fluid. Typically if people are worried about fracking, there is water downhole and no way of preventing mixing.
>If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed.
The payment structure incentivises the field crews to under-report those kinds of errors. Some crews are diligent and take the reputational hit of reporting a fracking blowout, others simply kick some dirt over it. From my experience it's about 50-50. And in the latter case it certainly does often land on an unfortunate farmer's field.
Bingo. I knew his statement was bull** when he said it was strictly regulated.
This is America, there is no strict regulation anymore unless someone rich is being affected by it. Otherwise it's all rubberstamps, revolving door appointments, or outright bribery.
>>They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.
>Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.
How does this make the claim that they are not required to disclose the contents of the waste water false? Are friction reducers mostly similar and non toxic? It is irrelevant that it is 99% water as most industrial waste is mostly water. If I pumped out water that was 99% water and 1% mercury it would be incredibly toxic. The issue is certain chemicals end up lingering in water and bio accumulating for a very long time.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. 1% is actually an enormous amount since toxins are measured in ppm. Imagine being asked, for every 100 cups of water you drink, to drink a cup of mystery fluid. Actually, it's worse because any (non volatile) additive will tend to concentrate over time in food (and then concentrate further in animals if the food used for feed), and in addition any chemical is bound to change over time in contact with sunlight and ordinary plant/animal biochemistry.
I've never heard of this use of fracking water in CA, and if it's real it sounds to me like frackers IP be damned, we need to know what's in the damn water!
>> They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.
> not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own.
So, you’re agreeing with the poster then? Fracking wastewater is opaque and undisclosed to public.
> If the well integrity
My understanding was that the poster was talking about the fracking procedure and resulting wastewater, throughout their post. Nobody was questioning the integrity of concrete.
He's also wrong about there being a water *shortage* in California. There is water *diversion*, designed by environmentalists to save animals, that strips farmers of water.
We already reduced the flow of the rivers to a trickle by diverting most of the water for the farmers. Refusing to divert the last trickle and make the river bone dry is not the cause of the problem.
There is a water diversion indeed, to moronic growing of almonds in a desert! Where farmers claim more water 'rights' than physically exists.
It's like you guys looked at the Aral sea disaster created by USSR and said 'hold my beer'
These crops are dead, it's just a question of time, even if you diverted every drop of water and leave households to die. The sooner we accept it the better.
They were diverting water from regular farms in the Sacramento delta to almond farms. The delta farmers were naturally upset.
The diversion was actually being pushed at the federal level, but Sacramento successfully fought back.
Almonds also do not respond well to periods of drought since the trees need to be watered each and every year. Annual crops can be rotated based on water availability.
Humans do not respond well to periods of drought since humans need to drink water each and every day. Camels can be rotated based on water availability.
Yes, what good is a biosphere when we have strip malls to build in the short term, and the Shangrila of Mars to look forward to colonizing in the long term?
>They are not required to disclose the contents of the fracking wastewater fluid.
Majority of water used in hydro fracking is slick water. This is normal water with friction reducers added to it. Typically 1%. Though can change based on the design of the frack. These are maybe not disclosed to the public since they typically are proprietary formulas that each vendor creates on their own. Each wanting to protect their IP from other vendors supplying the friction reducers.
>It gets pumped back down underground where it dissipates into the rest of the water system.
This is the most inaccurate and hyperbolic part of your response. It is markedly false. The slick water is typically reused after the well back flows. They store the water onsite for the remaining wells. Or transport to another pad for continued hydro fracking use. Any water that is produced during well production is pumped into non-human use reservoirs. These disposal wells are called SWD’s, saltwater disposals. The depths of the wells vary, in our field it was 7500’. Whereas freshwater wells for human and cattle use were 300’. Regulatory bodies strictly manage the creation of SWD’s with significant research and paperwork to show the reservoir you are disposing into is not or has ever been used for human consumption. The water at this reservoir will not magically make its way into the freshwater reservoir.
>These people claim that it's safe for decades when our computer models can't predict the weather accurately next week.
This seems more emotionally driven than anything. Who are ‘these people’. How does this correlate to weather? I have worked with hundreds of wells that are +80 years old still in good standing. If the well integrity is in question a cement bond log is run, along with other logs. If it is found there are any discrepancies they are fixed. Or the well plugged and abandoned, is filled with cement and the wellhead removed.
I have not heard of fracking water ever being used for crops. Apologies for any spelling or grammar errors as I am on my phone writing this message.