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California's epic drought is pushing Big Oil to solve a problem it's struggled with for decades: what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that gush out of wells every year.
Golden State drillers have pumped much of that liquid back underground into disposal wells. Now, amid a four-year dry spell, more companies are looking to recycle their water or sell it to parched farms as the industry tries to get ahead of environmental lawsuits and new regulations.
The trend could have implications for oil patches across the country. With fracking boosting the industry's thirst for water, companies have run into conflicts from Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania. California could be an incubator for conservation efforts that have so far failed to gain traction elsewhere in the U.S.
If you were thinking California's drought might accelerate desalinization technology, you're wrong. It's actually helping the oil and natural gas industries make more money.
Original Submission
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 12 2015, @04:41PM
I think that sort "let them eat cake" response perfectly sums up just how ignorantly callow you are.
Or it could reflect my opinion that this is a minor engineering problem.
increasing it like you so casually suggest is much like dumping excess nitrogen oxide into the air - look how great that worked out for humans.
We got a lot of civilization for those excess nitrogen oxides. A little cost/benefit analysis would go a long ways here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:47PM
I think that sort "let them eat cake" response perfectly sums up just how ignorantly callow you are.
Or it could reflect my opinion that this is a minor engineering problem.
Potato, potato.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 13 2015, @01:20AM
Potato, potato.
The thing is, which should I take seriously a viewpoint where diluting concentrated salt water in ocean is considered to be a hard problem?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday July 12 2015, @08:07PM
Did the prior comment really just point out how callow khallow is? Oh, the pun! Oh Mores! Oh the Humanity!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 13 2015, @01:27AM
Did the prior comment really just point out how callow khallow is?
No. The problem here is diluting concentrated salt water in ocean. It's not a hard problem. It's never going to be a hard problem. If desalination is viable in the first place, then you can afford the slight overhead of mixing your discarded waste water with sea water.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday July 13 2015, @02:15AM
you can afford the slight overhead of mixing your discarded waste water with sea water.
Let me see if I have this straight: "Callow khallow is shallow about the brine-o?"
Sometimes it is just very difficult to have a non-serious conversation around here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 13 2015, @03:32PM
Sometimes it is just very difficult to have a non-serious conversation around here.
Sure, but I can't that it's due to a failing on my end.