In parched states, fracking's thirst grows

[jsr]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-colorado-fracking-20140220,0,3689568.story

In parched states, fracking's thirst grows
Greeley, Colo., sells water to the oil and gas companies that have brought a drilling boom to town. Some residents wonder whether it will run out.
By Jenny Deam
February 19, 2014, 5:22 p.m.

GREELEY, Colo. — In this parched farming region, where the land flattens out and every drop of water is precious, another player has lined up at the spigot.

On a recent sunny afternoon, a huge cylindrical tanker truck rolled up to a red city fire hydrant and driver Jose Ofornio hopped out. With well-practiced efficiency he hooked hose to hydrant and began to fill. And fill.

"It's really bad in the mornings," Ofornio said, noting that trucks often have to wait in line for their turn. This was his third trip of the day. In less than 15 minutes, thousands of gallons of water gushed into his tank and was shuttled 50 miles to a drilling site, where it would be blasted into the ground along with sand and chemicals to free a bounty of oil and gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

According to the petroleum industry, most new wells in this country now use fracking to coax an average of 250 barrels of oil or 1.3 million cubic feet of natural gas from the ground per day. But that can't happen without water — about 3 million to 8 million gallons per well before extraction begins.

[niyad]

1. the denver post had an article on sunday (suspect it was one of those industry ad things, actually)

that claimed that fracking only used about one tenth of one percent of the water in this state, and that some company has a process for reclaiming the water.

we live in a DESERT here in my part of the state, which, as I explain to our dear leaders, means NO WATER. idiots, one and all.

[madamesilverspurs]

2. I live in Greeley.

The city council and county commissioners are, for all intents and purposes, owned by oil interests.

The water used in fracking is rendered permanently toxic for any other use. And the poisons they put into the water and into the ground do not stay here. It will all eventually find its way into systems nowhere near to the wells fracked. Just like the VOCs that escape from the wells and containment tanks migrate into our neighborhoods and into our lungs and endocrine systems. And yours.