Thanks to High Country News for that sign, and also for the following tidbits, which I've excerpted unashamedly:
Do you or someone you know live on or near what used to be an orchard? Did you know that the soil in those areas can contain extremely high amounts of hazardous chemicals? Growing veggies, playing / digging in the dirt, or dust stirred up by the wind, can expose you. And, of even more concern, expose unborn fetuses or your children to extreme levels of DDT (and it's breakdown products, DDE & DDD), Arsenic, Lead, & Chlordane. Testing is expensive, but if it's a concern, there are methods to reduce risk - let me know if you want those. The article noted that several states suggest testing by developers, but none REQUIRE it. And so, because it's expensive AND they might actually find something, few do it. It is of course, more complicated than what I've written here, but that's the bottom line.
Also... in a note related to one of my earlier blogs re: our destructive dependence on oil, did you know that we have pretty much exhausted supplies of "light oil" which required roughly 4.5 barrels of water to produce 1 barrel of oil. Now, we have to mine "heavy oil" which was shunned in the early years of oil production. It is "heavy" due to geology (shallow deposits and tectonic movement" and biochemistry (petroleum-consuming bacteria have made the oil the consistency of molasses). It now requires nearly 8 barrels of water per barrel of oil. And that contaminated water, "produced water" has to be disposed of in some fashion (and it is FULL of chemicals such arsenic and nitrates, chloride & boron, and can also have detectable radiation). A small percentage of that water is recycled by the oil companies, but the majority is either a) pumped into evap pits (often unlined) or b) pumped into underground disposal wells (which can have unknown access to underground aquifers & water tables.) In CA, the oil companies have to BUY their water, supposedly encouraging recycling. However, due to the cost of recycling, it is cheaper to just buy everything they need. And, yes, there is some government oversight of the disposal, but the income from oil is so great, that they are often overlooked. In Kern County, CA, in 2008, oil companies pumped 425 million barrels of produced water into underground wells & discarded 200 million barrels into surface evaporation ponds. And, considering the long-running drought in CA, why are we continuing to ignore the fact that oil companies divert & use as much as eighty-five percent of the water in various water districts?
Here's my bottom line question: Isn't it time we a)seriously re-think our dependence on oil; b)at a minimum enforce current regulations and perhaps even beef them up; and c)consider our water a REQUIRED item for our life & protect it accordingly???
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