Texas Study Finds Increase in Water Used for Fracking
A new University of Texas at Austin study has found that the amount of water used in the drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing has risen sharply in recent years as oil and natural gas production has surged.
But the 97-page study, funded by the Texas Oil and Gas Association, also found that the amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing would level off sometime in the decade starting in 2020, as water recycling technologies matured and the industry's rapid growth rate cooled.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a water-intensive practice in which liquids are pumped underground at high ...
Comments (3)
JC DemocratofTejas
Ah no wonder the rice farmers are getting the shaft, we are on restricted watering, et al. Gotta keep fracking cause where else can you create an earthquake in Texas. Wise up people!
Kim Feil
I believe that if big oil and gas was assured their same insane profits in moving us to wind and solar that we could save our planet to be livable for our children...liveable for future senior citizens....if we could just make that happen....lets all agree to allow big oil and gas to charge us for the wind and the sun and all that it costs to bring it to us for a 30 year contract....win win?
Alice Mechler
Evidently NO ONE is paying attention! Parts of Texas, including those that have 'fracking' going on, ARE IN A SEVER DROUGHT.....and future forecasts say IT WILL GET WORSE! So...we let the O&G companies use all the water they want.....and the AQUIFERS ARE NOT GETTING REPLENISHED! Nice forward thinking, Texas. Fracking makes the water unusable by man or beast. And I have further news for ya.....WE CAN'T DRINK OIL OR GAS! Not only does it foul our water, but Texas is having earthquakes where they never had them before....including my county, where little O&G exploration is going on! Not to mention the pipeline 'accidents' spilling their contents over land and the refining process fouling our air.
O&G get huge subsidies and large tax breaks, while wind and solar R&D get little or nothing.
I was born and raised in Texas, and have lived here most of my 70+ years. I come from an O&G family...my grandfather owned a drilling company in the 20's thru the 40's - five old cable tool rigs - punched the first hole in the Wheeler Fields (guess only old timers remember those) and I can assure you he is rolling in his grave at the state of O&G today!
So it doesn't matter what we want or what we do about it....that industry is gonna kill us one way or another!