Fracking contaminates the water used to fracture the fuel bearing layers. This contamination is permanent, so disposal of the water is a cost that the industry would like to “externalize” which means they’d like to have others deal with it. They have various schemes, which don’t clean it, they make it the base for another product such as snow-melting-brine. This, of course, doesn’t clean it up it just spreads it over a large geographical area where it gets back into streams and rivers. The report which follows give some statistics. The big guys with deep pockets are shifting the hot potato to lots of little guys.

It’s easy to imagine that this nasty water could end up labeled as something else, losing its toxic identification and then being released into the environment as benign. If sold to AI data centers for cooling, will it later be discharged into a sewer or evaporator?

Exploring Midstream’s Water Handling Services | ETF Trends

VettaFi discusses the midstream companies operating water infrastructure in support of oil and gas production.

The energy industry continues to push the limits and externalize the damage fracing does.

Toxic secrets buried in Ohio: Lawsuit exposes how fracking waste threatens drinking water

Environmental advocates challenge Ohio’s use of outdated safety standards for fracking waste disposal sites containing “heavy metals and radioactive material” that sit dangerously close to the Ohio River and municipal water supplies

“A 2011 analysis by federal scientists found liquid waste from Marcellus shale gas wells had overall concentrations of radium roughly 40 times what the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission classifies as “hazardous” or “radioactive.” Despite these characteristics, Congress in 1980 exempted oil and gas waste from federal hazardous waste regulations pending a review. In 1988, the U.S. EPA determined that the regulations were not warranted. That’s why cuttings and other fracking solid waste are classified as residual waste (non-hazardous industrial waste) and can be sent to municipal landfills like Westmoreland.”

This story documents how byproducts of Fracking create hazards and costs downstream, and how the industry dodges paying for them.

Along the banks of the Monongahela River, fracking waste in a landfill poses a pollution problem

On a rainy morning, Mike Frederick showed off the Belle Vernon Municipal Authority’s sewage treatment plant, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.

This article quotes statistics on the horrific volume of wastewater fracking generates. It’s a terribly destructive process that permanently contaminates water, rendering it unsafe for human or animal consumption. The energy industry propagandizes and minimizes the damage, so you don’t hear much about it. Consider these statistics and think about all the efforts we make to conserve drinking water, such as low-flush toilets, shower restrictors, and drip irrigation for our gardens. Water destruction is yet another externalized cost that drillers aren’t held accountable for.

Fracking wastewater now endangers both drinking water and the wells that regurgitate the wastewater

There’s an old saying that I won’t spell out completely, but which most readers will certainly have heard at least once in their lives, to wit: “Don’t sh– where you eat.”

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND.