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Re:Water is bursting from another abandoned West Texas oil w... by hedora on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @03:26PM (#40661960)
This water is probably worse than fracking water. In addition to being contaminated with oil, etc, according to the article it's 5-8 times saltier than sea water. These wells are literally salting the earth around them.
Re:Water is bursting from another abandoned West Texas oil w... by ZeoVII on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @05:27PM (#40663313)
and also lots of >hazardous compounds such as arsenic, bromide, strontium, mercury, barium, and organic compounds, particularly benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes.

This will likely contaminate the land, rendering it unsuitable for agriculture and, I dare say, potentially transforming it into a barren wasteland incapable of supporting organic life.

Re:Water is bursting from another abandoned West Texas oil w... by callalex on Thursday June 13, 2024 @11:47AM (#40671086)
Salt will definitely render the land unusable, but most of those other things are the consumer’s problem, not the producer. I find it highly unlikely that governments in Texas will ever successfully prevent a farmer from growing food on poisoned land, for the same reasons that governments in Texas let these wells become seeping messes in the first place.