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Every
day millions of gallons of
wastewater from oilfield
operations moves across the
desert of southeast New
Mexico’s Permian Basin. About
half is recycled and reused to
drill and frack new oil wells.
The other half is injected
into the ground at wastewater
disposal sites like this one
near Carlsbad. Photo © Keith
Schneider / Circle of Blue
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As it
weighs giving states,
tribes, and fossil fuel
companies more leeway in how
they handle rising volumes
of oilfield wastewater, the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency will have
to balance regulatory
flexibility with the
potential for harm to the
environment and human
health.
That’s
one conclusion from a draft
study the agency released on
May 15. The study describes
current industry practices
for managing wastewater,
assesses the need for
additional options, such as
discharging water into
streams or treating it for
use in agriculture, and
outlines impediments to
reuse.
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Wyoming
regulators are considering a
permit revision that would
increase the amount of oil and
gas wastewater that is
discharged into Boysen
Reservoir. Photo courtesy of
Flickr/Creative Commons user ocean_dfr
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Two
huge oil and gas projects in
Wyoming are testing the
Trump administration’s
resolve to maximize energy
production from federally
managed public lands.
If
the Converse County and
Moneta Divide projects are
fully developed, some 9,250
oil and gas wells could be
drilled and hydraulically
fractured, mostly into
federal lands and subsurface
mineral holdings in
Wyoming’s Powder River and
Wind River basins.
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The
lack of rain is worsening
North Korea’s chronic food
shortages, and an estimated
10.1 million people, about
40 percent of the
population, are facing
severe food insecurity. The
situation is not yet a
famine, says Herve Verhoosel
of the World Food Programme
(WFP). But it could end up
that way in coming months.
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“What’s
Up With Water” condenses the
need-to-know news on the
world’s water into a snapshot
for the start of the workweek
via podcast.
This week's edition includes
coverage on the CDC's
statement that hepatitis A
cases in the last three years
were up nearly 300 percent
over the previous three-year
period in the U.S
and how most of the seas in Europe are
contaminated by heavy metals
and synthetic substances.
Elsewhere, listen on how North
Korea is suffering
from record-low rainfall
this spring, leading
international aid agencies to
call for food assistance. And
in Bosnia, the
government declared a state of
emergency after severe rain
and floods damaged houses and
crops, and disrupted power and
water supplies. Finally, in Mozambique,
reconstruction after Cyclones
Idai and Kenneth will require
an estimated $3.2 billion in
aid. Listen to these stories
and more in this week's
edition of What's Up With
Water.
You
can listen to the latest
edition of What's Up With
Water, as well as all past
editions, by downloading the
podcasts on iTunes,
following on Spotify, and
subscribing
on SoundCloud. |
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From
Circle of Blue's Archives:
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Water
lines snake across the Permian
basin. Photo © Keith
Schneider/Circle of Blue
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The
United States is now the
world’s largest crude oil
producer, and close to
one-third of the country’s
output comes from
the Permian.
Oil
is not the only liquid that
emerges from the Permian’s
wells. Producing oil
produces even more water:
two to five barrels of water
for every barrel of fracked
oil. (A barrel equals 42
gallons.) As oil production
climbs to new heights, the
basin is swimming in its own
wastes. Getting rid of the
produced water is a large
and expanding business.
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