A new study is highlighting concerns over the connection between hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking) and the nation’s water supply, indicating that unless proper regulations are put in place, the country could find itself in a fracking-induced crisis.
The “Gone for Good” report, published by the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) concludes that frack-heavy areas are struggling with dwindling water supplies. In 2012, up to 174 billion gallons of water were used by the oil and gas industry.
The process of fracking depends on a cocktail of primarily water, chemicals and “frac sand,” which is injected into the earth to break up rock formations for access to oil or natural gas deposits.
While the extraction of “frac sand” comes with its own set of issues for residents of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the draining of water resources is one expected to have a trickle-down impact on the entire nation if current rates continue.
Frack-heavy states, like Colorado and North Dakota, are already experiencing drought, according to the WORC report. This is not a surprise to those in the industry — in 2006, the Department of Energy report indicated underground water supplies were “dropping at an alarming rate.”
“With this study, we hope to call attention to a very serious problem growing in our dry Western states,” WORC spokesman Robert LaResche told North Dakota’s Dickinson Press. “The oil and gas production methods that are resurrecting our oil and gas industry have a very dark side. Those methods are threatening to suck us dry of our limited water resources in the West.”
Earthjustice, a legal environmental organization, issued a statement on the issues facing North Dakota’s Bakken Formation area. In 2010 the area produced more than 225,000 barrels of oil a day — a figure that’s set to increase to 350,000 barrels a day by 2035, according to Energy International Agency estimates.
Yet in order to meet those expectations, the area need water, a lot of it. One fracking well uses on average 5 million gallons — and wells can be fracked multiple times. While the oil industry claims the water could potentially be treated and reused, the WORC report indicates the oil industry has yet to provide an example. FracFocus, a “watchdog” site run by the oil industry, claims “some operators in the Marcellus Shale and at least one operator (Devon Energy) in the Barnett shale” are successfully reusing fracking water.
Yet even at the rates made in those claims, it’s nowhere near the amount used. Devon Energy indicates that, since 2005, it has recycled more than 500 millions gallons of water, a statistic which the WORC report points out as the amount of water used to frack 125 to 250 shale oil wells.
With the current usage rates, WORC points up the problems sure to persist in the future, especially without effective state guidelines regarding water use.
“From the research undertaken to compile this report, it seems clear that water use for fracking is reaching a crisis point in the region,” the report states. “There is mounting evidence that the current level of water use for oil and gas production simply cannot be sustained.”