Here
in California's thirsty farm belt, where pumpjacks nod amid neat rows
of crops, it's a proposition that seems to make sense: using treated oil
field wastewater to irrigate crops.
Oil giant Chevron recycles 21
million gallons of that water each day and sells it to farmers who use
it on about 45,000 acres of crops, about 10% of Kern County's farmland.
State
and local officials praise the 2-decade-old program as a national model
for coping with the region's water shortages. As California's four-year
drought lingers and authorities scramble to conserve every drop,
agricultural officials have said that more companies are seeking permits
to begin similar programs. The heightened interest in recycling oil
field wastewater has raised concern over the adequacy of safety measures
in place to prevent contamination from toxic oil production chemicals.
Until
now, government authorities have only required limited testing of
recycled irrigation water, checking for naturally occurring toxins such
as salts and arsenic, using decades-old monitoring standards. They
haven't screened for the range of chemicals used in modern oil
production. MORE
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