Oilfield... Yep... you should not have been tossing around 42 year old, out-dated 'facts' to the generically uninformed public.

Metal70s, I should have been more specific. The USA stopped dumping in 1970, but 14 other countries didn't until the International treaty was signed in 1993. There should be no "legal" dumping going on today.

Oilfield trash? Radwaste dumped in the ocean? I've been in the US nuke industry since 1979. Military & commerical power... And the waste end of it since 1987. I package & ship the stuff for a living... Not once have i heard of a shipment going into the ocean. Ya Dimwit. As for OSHA fining the company for cramped quarters... that kind of bunking is okay for the Navy (military, in general) but not joe blow? I never knew... HAR!

Hidden Agenda, Mother Nature, if you want to call it that, is going to shut everything down, at some point in time. The other 50% that you asked Lervia about, actually comes back out of the well during production, as does the oil, gas, saltwater, etc. The saltwater is injected back into the formation, thousands of feet below our water table. Radioactive waste is also done in this manner, except for that dumped in the ocean.

@Oilfield trash- nobody will have to shut it all down.. Mother Nature will eventually do it for us.. @Lervia- Recycling the waste water is all fine and dandy but in order for it to work effectively they would need to pump out 100% of the waste they put in to the ground.. as of now they barely extract 50% of what they put in to the ground.. so what happens to the other 50%?

Here's a good, recent article: "Energy industry works to recycle hydro-fracking waste water" ... http://www.americanrecycler.com/0512/1517energy.shtml .... And, hidden agenda, please don't put words in my mouth. I'm quite capable of doing that myself.

Maybe we should just shut the oil and gas industry down completely, start buying it from foreign countries again and pay whatever price they demand. The people up north can cut all of the trees down for firewood to stay warm and cook. Shut down all electric generation that uses natural gas, so that the electric bills go up. We can all start walking or riding bycicles to the grocery store. Everyone working in this industry can get on welfare and let the guvmint take care of us like so many others are already doing. Automobile industry will shut down because they use natural gas and oil in the production of metal, and gasoline will be too expensive to buy. Wind generators also use oil, so it will be too expensive to run, and when those things catch on fire, now thats what I call pollution. So, now we're down to solar panels, which are expensive as h3ll, and work really good when you don't need them. Oh, and by the way, petroleum is also used to make the panels. We can cut all of the trees down for firewood for heating and cooking, if the guvmint give us anything to eat. This way we will be d@mned sure that Fracking did not pollute our water or cause that Earthquake. But, if that Earthquake happens anyway, and drains the Edwards Aquifer and all of the other aquifers, we won't have to worry about polluted water. We might have to worry about all of that METHANE and CARBON DIOXIDE and HYDROGEN SULFIDE GAS released into your air that you breathe. Shut it down, if that's what you want.

most sewage plants are not required to monitor for radioactive elements in the water they discharge. So there is virtually no data on such contaminants as water leaves these plants.So if there is NO data then the water MUST be clean huh? there is a difference between an accident and intentionally overlooking a problem for the sake of a dollar bill and then calling it an accident when you get caught..

Most of our waste water is treated differently than in some other states, specifically Pa. And, unfortunately, accidents can happen in any aspect of our daily lives, as is evidenced by the news every morning with regard to drivers.

I read the entire article, hidden agenda, and stated that I wasn't denying that there are problems that need to be addressed. We were talking about water contamination, which the incident in Texas wasn't specified and I believe was only one area incident, but I can't remember for sure, at the moment. Discussion of atmospheric contamination is another subject and aspect of problems and contention. Now, I've got to get some work done, but will check by occasionally when I can. Have a good day.