Underground toxic waste
A kind of toxic soup lies at various depths beneath much of the United States. The extent of this hidden toxic waste is unknown. What is known is that these wastes sometime come up unexpectedly and pollute water wells and make people sick. They also endanger nearby aquifers.
The amount of hazardous waste injected underground in the United States is staggering. There are 163 hazardous waste injection wells in the country and more than nine billion gallons of hazardous waste are injected every year. Billions of gallons of automotive, industrial, sanitary and other wastes are injected underground as well.
There are hundreds of thousands of oil and gas waste disposal wells in the United States. More than two billion gallons of brine from oil and gas operations are injected underground every day. Oil and gas wastes are exempt from classification as hazardous even though the wastes contain benzene, pit sludge, various forms of hydrocarbons and many other dangerous components, This leaves the EPA with almost no authority to regulate oil and gas drilling wastes even though it is the agency responsible for protection of most groundwater.
There are viable and successful alternatives to underground dumping such as bioremediation and waste reduction. Learn more about underground toxic waste and let your government representatives know you are concerned about it and would like alternatives to be explored.