 It's a chemical experiment being conducted on our food supply. 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 in green water. Somebody said, that's the standard. I'm like, I'm calling foul. This is a similar scenario that plays itself out over and over again. It's all prime farmland, which has been farmed for over 100 years. The oil company decided that down in the deep shale, there was significant oil deposits. 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. They produce about 130 billion gallons of wastewater every year. 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 oil-filled wastewater to grow food. Is it dangerous? Well, it's a bad idea to use water contaminated with chemicals, such as benzene, on crops and to recharge groundwater. In the situation in Kern County, it can be deception. Somebody out of fear agrees not coming clean with about what's going on, what's happening to the people, what could happen to the groundwater table. Chevron will not even reveal a third or more of the chemicals they use in the oil field that could be in the wastewater, so we don't even know what to test for right now. 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. It can be extremely expensive to test for every known substance that could possibly be in there. So you've got to have a list of what to test for. We don't have that list yet. 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. This is pure wastewater here in this canal. That's another delivery to the farmers. Just the last two years, they've set up a study committee and do some actual testing on the water for other chemicals and on the produce itself. This is after doing this for 20 years. With our 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? 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? It's a system failure at a federal, a state, and a local level. This is where people power makes a difference. 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. 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 scientists. You're not a politician. What do you know? If anyone thinks that, well, when it's gone, we go on, you're nuts because it's game over. If you like what you saw, please click the Subscribe button and leave a comment below. Thanks for watching.