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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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.