Essentially, Californians and the American people
for that matter are the guinea pigs for this experiment
My name is Erin Brockovich
I remember in Hinckley looking at two-headed frogs
and green water
Somebody said that's the standard
and I'm like, I'm calling foul!
This is a similar scenario that plays itself out
over and over again.
Tom: It's all prime farmland which has been farmed
for over a hundred years.
The oil company decided that down in the deep shale
there was significant oil deposits.
Andrew: We're here in Bakersfield today
to talk about the use of oil and gas wastewater
for irrigation of crops.
The oil and gas industry has this massive waste stream.
It produced about a hundred and thirty billion gallons
of wastewater every year.
Tom: Disposal of that wastewater is a big concern
for a company like Chevron.
My name is Tom Frantz.
I'm an activist, an environmentalist
and a fourth-generation farmer here in Kern County.
It sounds dangerous to use
oilfield wastewater to grow food.
Is it dangerous? Well...
Adam: It's a bad idea to use water
contaminated with chemicals such as
benzene on crops and to recharge groundwater.
Erin: In the situation in Kern County
it can be deception..
Somebody out of fear or greed is not coming clean
with about what's going on...
What's happening to the people...
What could happen to the groundwater table...
Tom: Chevron will not even reveal
a third or more of the chemicals they use
in the oilfield that could be in the wastewater
So we really know what to test for right now.
Adam: this is a common claim
that the oil and gas industry has long made
saying that they can't tell us what
chemicals they're using because of
competition within the industry.
Well, that's baloney.
Tom: It can be extremely expensive to test for every
known substance that could possibly be in there.
So, you gotta have a list of what to test for.
We don't have that list yet.
Adam: We know that some of these chemicals
cause cancer.
We don't know to what extent they may be
getting into the soil and then getting into the food.
Tom: This is pure waste water here in this canal.
It's another delivery to the farmers
Just the last two years and they've set up a
study committee to do some actual
testing on the water for other chemicals
and on the produce itself.
This is after doing this for 20 years.
With are really intense drought here in
California, looking for ways to reuse
water is a good thing.
The problem is there has not been a
systematic approach to look to see if
this is safe for humans or if it's not
and if it's not, why are we still doing it?
Tom: The only thing to do with this
wastewater is to clean it.
You have to use reverse osmosis. That costs money.
That would make the cost of oil more expensive
But why shouldn't we pay the true
cost of producing oil and using it?
Erin: It's a system failure at a federal
a state and a local level
This is where people power makes a difference.
Tom: We're not going to necessarily be using
oil 50 years from now, but we're still
going to be eating.
so the protection of farmland, it should be paramount.
Erin: It's important that people report
they ask questions, and oftentimes they don't
because they may get what I did
You're not a doctor, you're not scientist
you're not a politician. What do you know?
If anyone thinks that, "Well, when it's gone, we go on"
you're nuts.
'Coz it's game over.