DownWithTyranny!: "Will anyone go to jail for this? No." (Ian Welsh on contamination-by-fracking of drought-stricken California's water supply)

"Clean water is one of California’s most crucial resources, and these documents make it clear that state regulators have utterly failed to protect our water from oil industry pollution. Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the threat to public health. But Governor Brown should move quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely."

-- Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney for the Center for
Biological Diversity, in the RT report cited below

"What will stop this sort of thing from happening?

"Sending senior executives, CEOs and board members to maximum security prisons, after impounding all their assets under criminal forefeiture laws, thus forcing them to rely on public defenders. . . ."

-- Ian Welsh, in "How To Stop Deliberate
Fouling of Aquifers by Frackers"

by Ken

I'm sure that the story Ian Welsh highlights in his post today, "How To Stop Deliberate
Fouling of Aquifers by Frackers," has been headline news all over, and not just in the report he references from the website of the "autonomous nonprofit organization" RT, and I've just missed all the clatter.

In case you too have missed this story concerning massive toxification of the already-drought-endangered California water supply by your friendly neighborhood frackers, here's a larger chunk of the RT report than Ian quotes, with the portion he quotes highlighted in red.

California aquifers contaminated with billions of gallons of fracking wastewater

Published time: October 09, 2014 17:35
Edited time: October 11, 2014 09:27

Industry illegally injected about 3 billion gallons of fracking wastewater into central California drinking-water and farm-irrigation aquifers, the state found after the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a review of possible contamination.

According to documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, the California State Water Resources Board found that at least nine of the 11 hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, wastewater injection sites that were shut down in July upon suspicion of contamination were in fact riddled with toxic fluids used to unleash energy reserves deep underground. The aquifers, protected by state law and the federal Safe Water Drinking Act, supply quality water in a state currently suffering unprecedented drought.

The documents also show that the Central Valley Water Board found high levels of toxic chemicals - including arsenic, thallium, and nitrates - in water-supply wells near the wastewater-disposal sites.

Arsenic is a carcinogen that weakens the immune system, and thallium is a common component in rat poison.

“Arsenic and thallium are extremely dangerous chemicals,” said Timothy Krantz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Redlands, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

“The fact that high concentrations are showing up in multiple water wells close to wastewater injection sites raises major concerns about the health and safety of nearby residents.”

The Center for Biological Diversity obtained a letter from the state Water Board to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that said the Central Valley Regional Water Board discovered the health violations. Following the July suspension of the 11 injection sites, the EPA ordered a review of aquifers in the area to be completed within 60 days.

The state Water Board also said that 19 more injection wells may have also contaminated sensitive, protected aquifers, while dozens more wells have been the source of wastewater dumped into aquifers of unknown quality.

Despite these damning findings, the extent of wastewater pollution is still undetermined, as the Central Valley Water Board has thus far only tested eight water wells of the more than 100 in the area, according to the documents. Half of those tested came up positive for containing an excessive amount of toxic chemicals. . . .

WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO IAN'S TAKE

How To Stop Deliberate Fouling of Aquifers by Frackers

2014 OCTOBER 16

by Ian Welsh

Yup:

[See the highlighted portion of the RT report above.]

Now. Will anyone go to jail for this?

No.

Did they save a lot of money doing this, and therefore make money?

Yes.

Will they continue doing it?

Yes.

What will stop this sort of thing from happening?

Sending senior executives, CEOs and board members to maximum security prisons, after impounding all their assets under criminal forefeiture laws, thus forcing them to rely on public defenders. Prosecute them under RICO statutes to make sure you sweep the executive suite.)

(No, I don’t approve of criminal forfeiture laws as they exist right now (seizure before guilt is proved), nor do I approve of RICO. But if they’re being used against ordinary people, they should be used against the executive class. Best way to get them repealed, too.)