Report: Volume of water used for fracking in Colorado could serve 79,000 households a year

New study on oil and gas industry released by Boulder's Western Resource Advocates

By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:   06/20/2012 11:56:54 AM MDT

Updated:   06/20/2012 06:33:12 PM MDT

The volume of water required annually to develop new oil and gas wells in the state could supply up to 79,000 Colorado households for a year based on average residential use, according to a report issued Wednesday by Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates.

The report goes on to say that when re-use of water is factored in at the residential level, the amount of water used by the oil and gas industry could actually serve up to 118,400 homes in Colorado.

"Governments -- local, state and national -- really need to take a look at this and plan out drilling and make sure they do it right," said Jason Bane, spokesman for Western Resource Advocates. "We don't want to look around 10 years from now and say we shouldn't have used so much water."

But Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry's water use is miniscule compared to all water consumption in the state.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association estimates the industry will use 6.5 trillion gallons this year -- just over one-tenth of a percent of total water use in the state.

"I'm not sure it's helpful to single out our industry when there are so many users," Schuller said. "We're still just in the noise of Colorado's water use."

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Fracking of wells puts big demand on Colorado Water

The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley

FORT LUPTON — Oil and gas drillers have bought at least 500 million gallons of water this year from cities for use in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," along Colorado's Front Range.

Now they need more.

It's the only way they'll be able to sink thousands of new wells into the Niobrara formation that — if announcements last week by Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. are correct — contains about 1 billion barrels of oil.

Each well drilled requires 1 million to 5 million gallons of water, and more when they are refracked.

Drillers "may need more water than we have," said John McGee, water manager for the city of Loveland, which has leased municipal water.

In Fort Lupton, tanker trucks tap hydrants to fill up. It's the same in Greeley, Frederick, Firestone and other communities amid the expanding oil fields north of Denver.

The trucks haul the water to rigs, where fracking crews mix it with sand and chemicals and pump it thousands of feet underground to release oil and gas.

But as companies propose new deals with utilities, including Aurora Water, they're finding that a resource often scarce for people and agriculture may be limited for fracking too.

State natural resources planners say they're working with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to calculate, within the next week or so, how much water may be available for oil and gas drilling.

For years, state officials have projected shortfalls of 600,000 to 1 million acre-feet of water needed to sustain Colorado's population and agriculture.

Restrictions abound

Court-enforced compacts oblige Colorado to let some water flow down rivers to other states. Unlike water diverted from mountain rivers for use by cities and farms, much of the water pumped underground for fracking stays there.

And water diverted from mountain rivers on the Western Slope to Front Range cities legally must be used within specified service areas — preventing long-distance hauling to rigs.

"That is a concern," said Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservation District, which delivers diverted water widely. District board members are discussing new rules to minimize legal exposure.

"It's up to each municipality to see how much available water they have to sell," said Sean Conway, a Weld County commissioner who helped launch a "Niobrara Working Group" to deal with water and other issues. "We must ensure that we don't jeopardize our agricultural heritage."

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Dr. Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action posted the data below last year.

OIL AND GAS: Drilling draws on scarce Colorado water supplies

Source: www.eenews.net

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Natural gas drillers will need more water from cities on the Niobrara formation in Colorado for use in hydraulic fracturing, which municipalities say they just may not have.

The operators have already purchased about 500 million gallons of water from local municipalities this year, but this usage will likely grow as a new announcement last week by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. suggested that 1 billion barrels of oil may lie in the shale.

Each new well requires 1 million to 5 million gallons of water to drill. State natural resource planners are now calculating how much water will be available for drilling in an already water-stressed state.

"This area was called the Great American Desert for a reason," said Sean Conway, a Weld County commissioner. "Long term, we're going to have to have serious discussions about new water storage."

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Do not be fooled that farmers and landowners will get a 'big fat paycheck' from the industry to purchase their water. No amount of money is worth using your water to extinction. Once this water is used in fracking it will never be the same and will not become drinkable again.  Please describe to us why then does the industry inject (dispose of)  their 'used toxic water' some, 8,000 feet into the ground to stay for all eternity?  Produced water is considered 'industrial waste' and is not potable whatsoever. Do not sell your water, do not sell our water to the oil and gas industry. Do not sell out to the greed that feeds the few and destroys the many.