Frack Wastewater Wells: To Power AI Data Centers, the Permian Buries 630 Million Gallons of Toxic, Radium-Laced Brine Underground Every Day. The Pressure Has Triggered Texas's Strongest Earthquake in 30 Years and Is Blowing 'Zombie Wells' 100 Feet Into the Sky.
Posted by crix_22@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 49 comments
NimbusFPV@reddit
This is a great source, thanks for sharing it. I read through it but couldn't find where AI data centers factor in. Can you point me to that part?
jferments@reddit
Fracking has been destroying the environment for decades. They are just jumping on the anti-AI hype train and tacking "data centers" onto the headline to get more clicks.
NimbusFPV@reddit
100% this. Taking real facts and injecting your own spin is one of the most dangerous forms of misinformation, precisely because people digest headlines as gospel without reading the actual article.
I use AI every day and I'm genuinely a fan, but I also care about responsible infrastructure development. What I don't care for is people completely misrepresenting the data to manufacture outrage.
Today I saw a post claiming a Phoenix data center raised temperatures by 4 degrees. The actual study says it was an average of 1.3 to 1.6 degrees on average, downwind, within a few blocks of the facility, with a max peak of 3.96 degrees measured under specific conditions. The post made it sound like the entire city was in the oven.
Internet points over facts I guess.
MeepersToast@reddit
Is this an exaggeration? I just don't know enough about fracking to know if I can trust the article
somethingonthewing@reddit
Fluff exaggeration
Save-All-Animals@reddit
I hate AI but here, what is the link with AI ? I read the article and the article is about the oil industry and her toxic water, not AI.
DaisyHotCakes@reddit
AI takes an incredible amount of electricity. Oil and gas are used to generate electricity. Thus the amount and frequency of fracking increasing to keep up with the demand for electricity. Pretty direct relationship.
Royal_Register_9906@reddit
How are the people in charge this stupid?
anadayloft@reddit
Only some of them are stupid. All of them are evil.
GalacticCrescent@reddit
Considering a lot of things, I argue the 'some' part
Wonkybonky@reddit
Earth has entered its Shinra era.. everyone knows what’s happening they aren’t dumb…
Ciennas@reddit
Because they're completely detached from reality, and never have to directly face consequences for any decision they make, and when they are forced to confront outcomes, they'll just try to buy their way out of them.
Flash back to COVID when it first hit, and a lot of them tried to buy all the equipment they'd need to carry on living as they always had, and their absolute indignant outrage when they found that no amount of money would let them get out of this.
Djcnote@reddit
We all live in earth
Jukka_Sarasti@reddit
Greed and avarice. They care nothing for the people this impacts.
aglowworms@reddit
What do they start feeling claustrophobic because the good places for people like them are rapidly shrinking as the world grows more polluted?
Djcnote@reddit
We are running out of places to hide. I just don't understand what else people could buy once you already have a billion dollars
Djcnote@reddit
This whole thing is super confusing. Why are they intentionally harming earth for computers? I thought we were not trying to go extinct ? Who will be around to use these magic computer because literally the air is almost un breathable . Either someone knows something we don't or I don't know because not enough will buy you a new atmosphere
-sussy-wussy-@reddit
You know, at some point, you have to stop thinking of it as "stupid" and start thinking it's evil. They fundamentally don't have their people's best interests in mind, to the point where they can be bought, just like most politicians.
SinickalOne@reddit
They are shamelessly bought and paid for.
crix_22@reddit (OP)
who is ?
Bastdkat@reddit
The state officials who are supposed to be regulating the oil industry.
uslashuname@reddit
Regulation? In Texas? You must be new
crix_22@reddit (OP)
agreed
Jovan_Knight005@reddit
They're not stupid. They have been bought and paid by the oil industry (i.e corrupt).
IndependentZinc@reddit
Don't forget blackmailed.
crix_22@reddit (OP)
Its an interesting question which you can basically ask about any post on this subreddit if the threat is originally man-made. Here is an interesting way to look at it:
Einstein provided the theoretical framework proving that splitting an atom would release catastrophic amounts of energy. Oppenheimer weaponized the fission process into the first atomic bomb. Same as the AI race - it may ultimately destroy humanity yet some very smart people are working on it. (Actually, they built bunkers already)
DeltaForceFish@reddit
And thats just the start of it. Every year the wells produce more water than oil. Pretty soon you could see 30 barrels of radioactive water per barrel of oil. The cost to dispose of that water is also increasing. This is why american oil is not sustainable and everyone knowledgeable on the topic knows america will become import dependent (beyond just Canada) in a few more years.
PM_ME_YOUR_LEFT_IRIS@reddit
This piece is absolutely some alarmist fluff. Pumping out oil leaves voids where it used to be; filling those voids back in is frankly just the responsible thing to do. We use wastewater because why waste freshwater, and the fact that it’s stuff contaminated with Radium is fine. Radium is naturally occurring to begin with, at a low level. Assuming this is higher activity stuff I honestly can’t think of a better place for it than an emptied oil well. It’s not going to typically contaminate drinking water anymore than the oil itself would have, so we should be clear there; the geysers due to overpressurization are negligent and those wells should have been sealed better for sure. The earthquakes are more a result of those voids than them being filled in with water - it’s much worse to have an empty space than a filled one. I expect a lot of the issues come from trying to get the cavity back up to a similar pressure to what it was before drilling.
Additional_Shape_589@reddit
Commenting for the responses to this
TernarySquare0123@reddit
I don't want to get into a debate so I'll just reply my comment directly to you:
It's been pretty well studied that high-pressure water injection for enhanced recovery induces seismic activity.
A lot of the research was done around 10 years ago, iirc.
Sigmond-Condrite@reddit
It's the higher concentrations contaminating ground water and the increased pressure blowing toxic water out of older sealed wells. Fracking + high-pressure waste injection is also causing earthquakes.
NiSiSuinegEht@reddit
They've been doing this for over 100 years, but sure, it's AI's fault.
HDK1989@reddit
If they keep blaming AI on everything then maybe people won't realise that the real problem hasn't changed, the problem is still unregulated capitalism.
Sigmond-Condrite@reddit
It's the coal plants that power the data centers that produce the radioactive waste
Bagain@reddit
It’s capitalism fault… do you get tired of blaming everything on your boogeyman? Political influence, subsidies, regulatory capture, land rights, lobbying, and infrastructure control… just a starter list of things, that are not capitalism; that are used to suppress competition and push costs onto the public. But sure, it’s the concept of free markets fault that there isn’t free markets. Alternative energy sources have been fighting for decades to get fair treatment from politicians who are bought by big oil and do their bidding. It’s antithetical to a free market.
bluehands@reddit
Capitalism ≠ free markets
Capitalist like to conflate the two because it lends legitimacy to capitalism. Capitalism is about where the power is centered, just like feudalism. Free markets can exist within a host of different governments, capitalist is just one example.
In fact, in your very comment, you stop using capitalism and just use free market instead.
Your list of problems are exactly capitalism.
For example in feudalism, money can not be used as effortlessly do all of the things you listed. It can fiddle around the edges but the lord of the land can just make it all stop whenever he wants because the power isn't centered around money but around land & personal relationships. Around the lord.
Bagain@reddit
Fundamentally capitalism requires a free market. If you can agree that private ownership of the means of production is a fundamental aspect of capitalism, there is no leap to the market mechanics required to assure that. I could make all kinds of bad faith arguments against socialism, it just requires making up my own definitions and weaponizing them.
NiSiSuinegEht@reddit
And most people's problems with AI are actually problems with capitalism.
Common tactic of the class warfare we've been subjected to for ages, distract the populace with manufactured strife so they're too tired to take the fight to the ones actually screwing them over.
bluehands@reddit
Such a nice, succinct phrase and absolutely correct.
refusemouth@reddit
They've been fracking for over 100 years?
NiSiSuinegEht@reddit
The fracking has only been going on for \~ 77 years, but the oil and gas exploration and extraction was polluting groundwater before that.
NimbusFPV@reddit
The article doesn't mention AI or data centers at all. While I agree we need to think about the environment building all this new infrastructure out, appending things to real sources/problem like they are fact isn't going to help ones cause.
crix_22@reddit (OP)
of course you are right, however, you must recognize the amount of power that AI needs is far from typical.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
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jeffreycoley@reddit
How lovely for them
daviddjg0033@reddit
read this happened to Ogres arm from heroin addiction or was that an exaggeration
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/crix_22:
The hype around building new AI data centers completely ignores what is actually happening on the ground in Texas. To get enough power for these computer grids, the oil industry is pumping 630 million gallons of toxic, radioactive wastewater deep underground every single day.
RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION: This wastewater contains Radium-226, which stays dangerous for over 1,600 years. It is being pumped underground at levels thousands of times higher than safe drinking water limits. POISONOUS
GEYSERS: In just one Texas county, they pumped 39 billion gallons underground in a single year. The pressure is now so high that it is busting open old, rusted wells, causing toxic water to shoot 100 feet into the air like geysers and threatening the local drinking water.
MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES: Scientists from the USGS have confirmed that pumping all this water underground is what is causing the massive spike in earthquakes across Texas and Oklahoma, including a recent 5.4 magnitude quake, which was the strongest Texas has seen in 30 years.
TL;DR: Tech companies want to build 158 more gas power plants in Texas just to run their AI servers. The system is already failing, and we are literally destroying our drinking water and triggering earthquakes just to power computer chips.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1tgig5x/frack_wastewater_wells_to_power_ai_data_centers/omgjlni/
crix_22@reddit (OP)
The hype around building new AI data centers completely ignores what is actually happening on the ground in Texas. To get enough power for these computer grids, the oil industry is pumping 630 million gallons of toxic, radioactive wastewater deep underground every single day.
RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION: This wastewater contains Radium-226, which stays dangerous for over 1,600 years. It is being pumped underground at levels thousands of times higher than safe drinking water limits. POISONOUS
GEYSERS: In just one Texas county, they pumped 39 billion gallons underground in a single year. The pressure is now so high that it is busting open old, rusted wells, causing toxic water to shoot 100 feet into the air like geysers and threatening the local drinking water.
MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES: Scientists from the USGS have confirmed that pumping all this water underground is what is causing the massive spike in earthquakes across Texas and Oklahoma, including a recent 5.4 magnitude quake, which was the strongest Texas has seen in 30 years.
TL;DR: Tech companies want to build 158 more gas power plants in Texas just to run their AI servers. The system is already failing, and we are literally destroying our drinking water and triggering earthquakes just to power computer chips.