The Stream, May 29: Clean Up Your Fracking Mess

Wastewater
America’s natural gas boom has an undesirable companion: billions of gallons of polluted wastewater. The Houston Chronicle reports on the “billion-dollar game of musical chairs” that is going on as companies try to be first in line with new treatment technologies.

Meanwhile, Scientific American looks at the technical challenges confronting those companies—and the new ideas they are spawning. Waterless or low-water fracking, for instance, would rub out most of the treatment market.

With an eye toward supplying growing Chinese demand for grain, a Japanese company is close to announcing a US$5 billion deal to acquire a leading U.S. grain merchant, Reuters reports.

Discord
Two people were killed during an anti-mining protest in Peru, according to the Associated Press. Those living near the mine claim that its owner, Swiss company Xstrata, is polluting water supplies and sickening farm animals.

The Guardian reports that the latest round of climate talks ended in “discord and disappointment,” lowering expectations for brokering a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton