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More than 5 million Californians live near oil and gas production. In Kern County, oil production is wedged between homes and looms over schools and playground. Our communities are under a haze of contaminants due to the gargantuan fields of oil and gas wells bordering towns and scattered along our roads.

Last week, regulators approved the expanded use of oil wastewater for irrigation of crops in Kern County.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), unanimously approved a Waste Discharge Requirement (WDR) permit for California Resources Corporation (CRC) to sell 21,200 acre feet (6.9 million gallons) of oil and gas wastewater from the Kern Front Oil Field to the North Kern Water Storage District annually. The produced water will be distributed to farmers for irrigation and used for groundwater recharge, despite significant questions about the safety of this

On December 16, the California Water Commission, which is administering $2.7 billion in bonds for water storage projects, forwarded draft regulations guiding that expenditure to the Office of Administrative Law for public review. The draft regulations are wholly inadequate.