New Science Confirms that Oilfield Produced Water is Safe for Irrigation, Refuting Activist Claims (Again)
Friday October 21, 2016
For more than 20 years, Kern County’s Cawelo Water District (Cawelo) has helped farmers offset water shortages by recycling some water brought from the ground (“produced”) during the oil and gas development process in non-hydraulically fractured wells. The produced water is filtered and treated by Cawelo. The water district then blends it with water from other sources and conducts quality testing before providing it to farmers. This program has never been more necessary than now, in the midst of California’s record-breaking drought.
New study confirms previous analyses: Treated water is safe for crops
This week, Cawelo released more good news about its ongoing water testing program to ensure the safety of recycled water. Results from a citrus crop study by a third-party environmental toxicologist found that
“…organic elements found in produced water are not being absorbed into fruit. This verified a previous water quality study that showed Cawelo’s produced water supply to be safe for agriculture irrigation. [emphasis added]
As Lois Henry of the Bakersfield Californian reported:
“Cawelo voluntarily hired toxicology firm Enviro-Tox to test produce harvested last fall, mostly nuts and grapes at that time of year. Those findings, released last April, showed no difference between nuts and grapes irrigated with water that included the recycled oilfield water and nuts and grapes irrigated by other sources.
This new round of tests involved mandarins, oranges and lemons from 18 different locations, again some irrigated with the oilfield water, some from other sources.
Enviro-Tox looked for nine different chemicals that had been found in Cawelo’s blended irrigation water — at levels lower than drinking waterstandards…
Toxicologists again found no difference between the ‘test’ fruit ...