|
W
|
hat do almonds, golf,
fracking, and Kim Kardashian's lawn have in common? They've all been publicly
shamed for their outsized water use during California's ongoing drought.
But you likely haven't heard as much about one of the
state's major water sucks: oil refineries, which are estimated to be the
second-biggest water user of non-ag businesses in the state (after golf).
The plants process more than 80 million gallons of oil per
day, turning it into products like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. According to
the Environmental Protection Agency, each gallon of oil takes between 1 and 2.5
gallons of water to refine, most of which is either dumped into the ocean after
it's used and treated, or evaporated as steam. Once in the ocean, the water is
unusable unless it's desalinated.
Read the Mother Jones
story - “Yet Another Way That Oil Is Screwing the Environment”.
No comments:
Post a Comment