I wonder what RFK Jr and the MAHA gang think of this:
This topic is all coming to a head right now because the great state of Texas has just passed legislation that allows recycled fracking wastewater to be used to irrigate crops in the Lone Star state. According to WFAA News in Texas, proponents argue the recycled water could supplement the state’s supply of fresh water and incentify the oil and gas industries to clean up their messes. Critics say it could contaminate the very land Texans depend on for food and survival.
Yum. Mystery chemicals, greasy surfactants, petrochemical contaminants, all the stuff we love to find in our salads. And that’s not all!
Farmers in Johnson County, Texas, are already fighting toxic sewage-based fertilizer biosolids. They are outraged by the new legislation that approves using wastewater from fracking to irrigate crops despite the fact that it contains many of the same carcinogenic chemicals found in those fertilizers,
“There was another bill that was put forth that would allow fracking water to be land applied. They’re going to… treat it and then it’s gonna be safe for land application,” Dana Ames, who lives in Johnson County, told WFAA News. “Contaminated with all kinds of chemicals from oil and gas fracking. We don’t even know all the chemicals because they’re proprietary.”
Mystery chemicals and sewage based fertilizer biosolids? Squeeee! Fortunately, they’re deporting all of their immigrant farm workers, so I think a lot of them will be rotting on the ground. Or not rotting, if this cocktail of toxic slime has miraculous preservative powers.
But don’t worry, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner is quick to reassure us that it’s been purified.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller believes the concept has potential if done right. “Well, we need water. We don’t really care what the source is as long as it’s good, clean water that we can grow crops with. Fracking water would be fine,” he said. He added that first all harmful substances like heavy metals would need to be removed. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would be responsible for regulating the process. “As long as this water meets those strict guidelines, I don’t have a problem with it,” Miller added.
Miller said technological advancements are bringing the state closer to being able to fully clean and reuse produced water. “I don’t know that we’re all the way there yet, but with the technology and AI and everything that we’ve got available to us now, we’re in the technology age, so it’s certainly doable and it’s, you know, probably doable pretty quick, I would think.”
I note that he’s not saying that heavy metals are removed — they would need to be removed. And some other Texas commissioner, of environmental quality (I bet that commission is well funded and active!) would be responsible. But he doesn’t know that “we’re all the there yet,” but sure what with AI and all that, he thinks it is doable. He’s a moron.
You might be entertained by his campaign ad for Agriculture Commissioner, in which he brags about being a Christian, a cattleman (he runs a nursery business that grows decorative shrubs), and he supports the second amendment, all irrelevant to the job. At the end he mentions that Ted Nugent is his campaign treasurer. Yeah, that Ted Nugent. He’s also notorious for his embrace of every right-wing conspiracy theory (except those involving Big Oil) and corruption.
But he does own a big cowboy hat.
Texans will, apparently, elect anyone with a big enough hat, even if they’re planning to poison everyone.
“the recycled water could supplement the state’s supply of fresh water and incentify the oil and gas industries to clean up their messes.”
sure, jan
Would Sid Miller himself drink that water?
A certain scene from the Erin Brokinovitch movie here (41 secs) springs to mind.
Let me get this straight: we’re going to take out the fluoride, and add industrial waste?
Texas, the cavity, brain damage and cancer state. Makes for great number plates!
“Texans will, apparently, elect anyone with a big enough hat” Including sombreros?
QFT. Right.
.1. AI is the new magic. The new nanotechnology.
AI can do anything that we have no idea how to do right now.
AI might be good for something but getting detergents and heavy metals out of fracking water isn’t one of them.
.2. FWIW, some of the waste water that comes out of those bore holes is highly radioactive. The procedure leaches naturally occurring radioactive isotopes out of the shale formations.
.3. I’m sure they can clean that fracking water well enough to use in agriculture. They could use heat to distill it or reverse osmosis to desalinate it.
The real question is how much is it going to cost?
A lot.
It might be cheaper to actually set up a desalinization plant and pump in sea water.
Or even cheaper to, I don’t know, maybe import vegetables from Mexico and Canada.
And when the next drought comes around, it will all be the fault of these stupid environmentalists who just don’t want this beautiful toxic wastewater on the fields! /s
Sure, because Texas loves regulation, and follows it stringently in all cases, right?
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas Republicans declared they were going to use Brawndo (“It’s got electrolytes!”)
Sid Miller is a classic Texan moron, kook and grifter. This is the guy who flew to Oklahoma on taxpayer money to get a “Jesus shot” that was supposed to cure his “chronic pain” forever. Same guy flew to Mississippi on the Texas dime to participate in a rodeo. Can’t make this up. He’s been investigated over and over for syphoning tax money to cronies and relatives. Somehow he escapes justice over and over and gets re-elected.
Multiply Sid by however many and you get the scientifically illiterate Christian nationalist legislature who pass insane legislation like this. I can tell you two things without evidence: they didn’t talk to a single analytical chemist, and they will award big contracts to some bogus company to “purify” the water then forget about the whole thing in a few years.
There’s a reason fracking companies inject that brine deep (supposedly) into injection wells. Why not process sea water? Oh, well, then you couldn’t write big checks to your buddies running the bogus Frackwater Cleaner Upper company.
“Texans will, apparently, elect anyone with a big enough hat”…And and empty enough head.
Did W wear a big hat? He is such a pinhead it would take a lot of filler keep it above his eyes. At that, he might be smarter than these bozos.
Jesus, what happened to all the “clean” food, anti-GMO, grow-your-crops-in-shit, hippies that though Brainworm Jr. was their newage woo health messiah?
toxic texass with the ‘lone star’ out of 5 rating; proud of sid miller the texass wonder, huge hat, nothing under it! FRACK YOU!
It’s sad because I patronize two very good, ethical companies there
Sounds ultraprocessed. They would insist on all-natural crude oil to irrigate our crops. It’s got what plants crave.
All hat and no cattle
Mmm, night soil.
Speaking of Brainworm, I noticed he was messaging against seed oils a while ago, between his regular antivax messaging. The wildly popular “clean eating” myth that seed oils are unhealthy seems to be largely based on the suspicion that chemically extracted vegetable oil might contain residues of the hydrocarbon solvents used in the extraction process…
I continue to check produce and avoid US-sourced stuff. For nationalism reasons, but I guess I can add food safety to the list.
I do need to find a new source for lemons though. Also cauliflower.
Why don’t they re-use the waste water for fracking and keep the fresh water for agriculture instead?
@3 Matt G:
Americans love adding industrial waste to their food.
Smithsonian – How Crisco made Americans believers in industrial food
The words “fresh” and “water” seem to be beyond their understanding. Molly Ivins would write this up in no time.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @ 20
No, American corporations love adding industrial waste into our food. The quote you posted shows that quite clearly.
@22 Walter Solomon: touché
@ 18 numerobis
I do need to find a new source for lemons though.
Just sighted some from Egypt yesterday in Metro.
Matt G in post #3 reminds me of the old Tom Lehrer song “Pollution,” one line of which, as I recall, goes “Pollution, Pollution, you can use the latest toothpaste – Then rinse your mouth with industrial waste!” It only took 60 years for the dream to come true!
The Chinese elite have their food grown on special farms, because they have so much faith in the food grown for the masses. I’d be interested to know where Greg Abbot sources his food.
California supplies a significant amount of this nation’s fruits nuts and vegetables. We’ve been doing this for decades as an ecological means of dealing with the solid(-ish) remains after sewage is treated. All y’all are soaking in this palmolive already.
We have some pretty strict standards, but as the leak from Long Beach/San Pedro into the harbor about four years ago during COVID-19 shows, people are inclined to think of sewage as nasty and don’t pay as much attention as they should even with automatic controls active. So who knows how nasty Texas’ sewage-based fertilizer biosolids are or might be?
California doesn’t have enough water for its population and agriculture. Water from sewage treatment was first used in industrial/civic landscaping, then agriculture, and as of about four years ago, our drinking water. Especially if you are part of a large conurbation like me here in the 10 million thirsty people of the Los Angeles greater metropolitan area. We’re soaking in it.
About halfway between San Antonio and Houston, there is an egg processing plant that looks like a red barn.
The sign says that the eggs they sell are laid by happy cage-free hens, yet no hens are visible outside of that “barn”.
However, several fracking drills were very visible behind and to one side of it.
While living in Texas, I made sure NOT to buy local eggs. I felt a little safer buying a brand shipped in from Vermont at the commissary.