Experts find 30 trillion tons of toxic liquid injected into earth poisons ground water

[IDemo]

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation’s geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

There are growing signs they were mistaken.

Records from disparate corners of the United States show that wells drilled to bury this waste deep beneath the ground have repeatedly leaked, sending dangerous chemicals and waste gurgling to the surface or, on occasion, seeping into shallow aquifers that store a significant portion of the nation’s drinking water.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/21/experts-find-30-trillion-tons-of-toxic-liquid-injected-into-earth-poisons-ground-water/

[BlueToTheBone]

1. Like that should have been a suprise!

I can't believe people are so stupid that they would say, sure, pump as much poison into the ground below our water table. We love flaming faucets.

[gordianot]

2. Just remember the job creators need their profit that is all that matters.

[polichick]

3. Yep, and as long as nearly all our politicians whore for corporations...

...we'll keep seeing this.

America is so fucked because of its "money comes first" values.


edit: typo

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. And now, let's frack the whole country, too!

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Didn't Jeb Bush try to do this to Florida?

It was the only stupid idea we managed to stop.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. Such contaminants are destroying water supplies. Another water problem should also be considered.

What about the ground water being contaminated by radioactive leaks. This report is from 2011:

Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP's yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.
http://www.wbez.org/story/tritium-leaks-found-illinois-nuclear-sites-88386

Water systems are destroyed. Profits are made. But no one is held accountable.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. And we know U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission would never lie to us.

I am betting the truth is a lot worse than the report.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

14. Sadly, I'm also assuming that the truth is a lot worse than what is being reported.

[Stephen Caddell]

7. Spam deleted by tjwmason (MIR Team)

[jwirr]

8. Curious does this include farm chemicals that polute well water in most farm areas?

[nolabear]

10. Yes. Check out the Salton Sea.

Fascinating place, once planned as a resort community but it's downstream from where irrigated land runs off into the water table and waterways. It was killed, and I mean killed. It's now a bizarre, dead desert community where fish die in the water and the shells of yacht club buildings and restaurants just rot away.

[jwirr]

13. I have reason to believe that my disabled daughter was a victim of a farm chemical in the well water

in our well in Iowa in 1958. Today most wells are sealed and either residents are drinking and cooking with bottled water or are on water lines even in the rural areas.

We need to remember that there are horrible consequences to what we are doing to nature.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. 1 gallon =/= 1 ton

Alarm is appropriate, hyperbole is not.

[siligut]

11. Who makes that sort of mistake?

It tends to cast doubt into the whole story.

[joshcryer]

15. Here's the rub. Renewables increasingly rely on fracking for their deployment.

A really fucked catch-22.