permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/04/fracking-us-toxic-waste-water-washington

Fracking produces annual toxic waste water enough to flood Washington DC

Growing concerns over radiation risks as report finds widespread
environmental damage on an unimaginable scale in the US

"Fracking in America generated 280bn US gallons of toxic
waste<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/waste>water last year –
enough to flood all of Washington DC beneath a 22ft deep
toxic lagoon, a new report out on Thursday found.

The report from campaign group Environment
America<http://www.environmentamerica.org/sites/environment/files/reports/EA_FrackingNumbers_scrn.pdf>said
America's transformation into an
energy <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/energy> superpower was
exacting growing costs on the environment.

"Our analysis shows that damage from fracking is widespread and occurs on a
scale unimagined just a few years ago," the report, Fracking by the
Numbers, said.

The full extent of the damage posed by fracking to air and water quality
had yet to emerge, the report said.

But it concluded: "Even the limited data that are currently available,
however, paint an increasingly clear picture of the damage that fracking
has done to our environment and health."

A number of recent studies have highlighted the negative consequences of
horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which have unlocked vast
reservoirs of oil <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/oil> and natural
gas <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gas> from rock formations.

There have been instances of contaminated wells and streams, as well as
evidence of methane releases along the production chain.

The Environment America report highlights another growing area of concern –
the safe disposal of the billions of gallons of waste water that are
returned to the surface along with oil and gas when walls are fracked."