Desperate California farmers are relying on Chevron’s wastewater
This can't be a good idea
Lindsay Abrams
Topics:
California Drought,
Oil and Gas,
Wastewater,
Agriculture,
Chevron,
Sustainability News,
News

(Credit:
TFoxFoto/Shutterstock)
How bad is the historic drought plaguing California?
So bad,
reports Newsweek, that Central Valley farmers consider wastewater purchased from Chevron’s oil drilling activities to be “a good deal.”
Freshwater, which is typically preferred for use on food crops, is selling for up to 10 times its usual cost. That’s where Chevron, which produces 10 barrels of wastewater for every one barrel of oil, steps in. The company, explains reporter Zoë Schlanger, is selling up to 500,000 barrels of that waste per day back to the Cawelo Water District in Kern County, “essentially ‘at cost,’” for farmers’ use.