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Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

rollingstone.com

91–100 of 109 posts

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they weren’t informed about the real dangers of what was being spread. I wonder how many of them would even care. This week the EPA dismantled the Clean Water Rule. The primary backers for this were farmers and developers.

The "farmers" backing the EPA rule change are the industrial CAFO operations that produce open-air manure lagoons (literal lakes of shit) that cause all kinds of environmental hazards. They can afford to care less because they typically don't live on-site like traditional farmers did. Hell when it comes to hogs they might not even be citizens - the largest hog producer, Smithfield, is owned by the Chinese now. If you…

There is the myth of the small time farmer and hero status given to them. Outside of destroying the environment over the last 100 years. The local farm hardly exists anymore. I still do not understand why politics are so heavily placating this age of Billy, overweight in his coveralls chewing on a a bit of grain.

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "farmers" backing the EPA rule change are the industrial CAFO operations that produce open-air manure lagoons (literal lakes of shit) that cause all kinds of environmental hazards. They can afford to care less because they typically don't live on-site like traditional farmers did. Hell when it comes to hogs they might not even be citizens - the largest hog producer, Smithfield, is owned by the Chinese now. If you…

Is seems, this also affects public roads. Here is, for example, methodology of application of these waste products to road surfaces in California: https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innov... Doesn't seem there is much there on controlling amounts of lead, cadmium and radium in the material. No on the gradual accumulation on the road. As per the following paper, not much research had been done on t…

> methodology of application of these waste products

Linked document is interesting, however it is "Brine Application Equipment and Methodology" - methodology of deicing paved roads. Only mention of toxic or waste is an aside of brine use motivation - granular material in California is for some reason regulated as toxic waste.

Mentioned in the document are NaCl, MgCl₂, CaCl₂ brines and beet juice, and in the survey section, some agencies also report use or discontent with proprietary deicing products.

Going by the second document, O&G wastewater use on roads is not permitted in California. In the 13 states that do allow its use, the study mostly mentions use on unpaved roads as a dust suppressant in lieu of salt brine (neither a particularly good idea IMO).

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#94

I used to do the soil lab testing for a guy that dealt with this waste in my state. They did permitting and paid farmers to be able to spread it on their fields and tell them it is good for them and will make the soil more fertile. It can be either the salt brine or the more hydrocarbon based stuff that was basically like tar being spread on the farmer’s pasture. He himself wrote the laws that the state government ju…

i thought nothing would grow on salted earth, so how is it supposed to make the soil more fertile? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#95
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s an example of some I found the other day. Each one of those white dots is a well pad where they cleared the land for a drilling rig to work. If you look closely you can see surface pumps on many of them. Some have storage tanks as well. This entire region (the Permian Basin) is pockmarked like this. (31.6643861, -103.0348924) Dropped pin Near Winkler County, TX https://goo.gl/maps/J2zi8VwD2QjKUpbk8

holy shit, this is not even the worst spot... this one appears to be more dense: https://goo.gl/maps/9YZrP4of97tDgQmH6 .... I think I found out where they dump all those waste products: https://goo.gl/maps/ZkfDDKM26gfmtQTL6

Interestingly the first thing to stand out in your first link is the Crane branch of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

This is all so...absurd...

(speechless)

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#97
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing here, but I think the number seems high because shale wells have short lifespans. The declines are much higher than conventional wells, and so there are a great many of them to maintain production as the wells decline. There are large a number of DUCs, or drilled but uncompleted wells. They maintain these so that when one well runs dry, another can be brought online to maintain production targets. Also i…

The vast majority of wells are old vertical wells, not shale wells. For example, in the Permian basin there are around 18,000 horizontal shale wells but over 300,000 vertical conventional wells.

Does that hold for the Bakken in ND also? See

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a...

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#98
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because wetlands should be protected doesn’t mean that they are protected under the Clean Water Act. (Congress doesn’t have the authority to regulate every body of water in the US. It’s limited to regulating the “channels of interstate commerce.”) States can, and do, regulate intrastate wetlands. And they can do it more efficiently, because they already handle permitting of local construction projects.

It's actually up to the Army Core of Engineers to determine if a wetland is under the CWA. They aren't blanket included or excluded.

The Army Corps of Engineers makes decisions on individual wetlands, but they have to follow the statutory definition in the Clean Water Act. (And the Clean Water Act can only be interpreted in a way consistent with the Constitutional limits on Congress’s power to regulate intra-state activity.)

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "farmers" backing the EPA rule change are the industrial CAFO operations that produce open-air manure lagoons (literal lakes of shit) that cause all kinds of environmental hazards. They can afford to care less because they typically don't live on-site like traditional farmers did. Hell when it comes to hogs they might not even be citizens - the largest hog producer, Smithfield, is owned by the Chinese now. If you…

There is the myth of the small time farmer and hero status given to them. Outside of destroying the environment over the last 100 years. The local farm hardly exists anymore. I still do not understand why politics are so heavily placating this age of Billy, overweight in his coveralls chewing on a a bit of grain.

Farms are "placated" by politics because people don't like starving to death. Which is what happens if you let your food supply be freely buffeted by the boom and bust cycle of the market. That will remain true even after urbanites get their wish to live in pods and drink soy-roach slurry - somebody will still have to grow the soy and roach food.

Farming - growing crops and animal husbandry - are what kickstarted human civilization, and still undergirds it to this day. Until recent history the vast majority of people were still farmers. It really comes automatically to most people, to appreciate the people who toil in the dirt to grow food and wrangle animals so they don't have to. To commune with nature, put in hard labor and in the end produce food is an almost spiritual experience that most people have a positive sentiment for, even if they have no desire to do it themselves.

If you really feel none of that whatsoever I think you're missing part of your humanity.

Re: Oil-and-gas wells produce radioactive waste

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We literally mine Uranium. How can people not realize this stuff can be found naturally on Earth? The same way 30% of British children think that cheese is a plant, that fish sticks come from pigs, and 10% think potatoes grow on trees. https://www.bbc.com/news/education-22730613 Of course, with almond "milk" and soy "turkey" these days, I guess it's normal for them to be confused.

Most of this is probably just kids taking the piss with adults who ask them dumb questions. > "Where do fish sticks come from? Do they think I'm retarded just because I'm five? Fuck it, I'll tell them it comes from pigs, I wonder if they'll be stupid enough to think I'm not fucking with them."

I don’t think you have experience with kids... while there are a rare few with that level of “big picture” awareness, most aren’t. Additionally, it would be rather disingenuous for a study to ask kids rather than post-adolescent adults and not include a disclaimer.
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