Black Harvest: New Mexico aquifers being sold out for fracking

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[div style="float: left; padding-right: 12px;"]CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — With a scant agriculture water supply due to the prolonged drought, some farmers in Eddy County with supplemental wells are keeping bill collectors at bay by selling their water to the booming oil and gas industry.

The industry needs the water for hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, the drilling technique that has been used for decades to blast huge volumes of water, fine sands and chemicals into the ground to crack open valuable shale formations.

In recent months, more legal notices have been appearing in the Current-Argus informing the public that a water-right holder with a supplemental well has submitted an application to the state engineer’s office seeking to change the purpose of use from agriculture to commercial, or transferring the right from one location to another.

http://www.abqjournal.com/216332/news/nm-farmers-selling-water-to-oil-and-gas-developers-2.html

[matthews]

1. My goodness, that really is cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. This cannot

end well.

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2. It certainly won't lower the cost of produce

and with fracking catching on globally, could have big implications for world hunger

[matthews]

3. The most important natural resource we have is water. They will go through their water

supply like shit through a goose.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Fracking run amok

Totally insane.

[Champion Jack]

5. doesn't it take centuries for an aquifer to replenish?

Many of the most toxic chemicals used in Fracking don't biodegrade.
So this water they are ruining for short term profit is going to be fucked forever.
Of course, the gas companies tell us how safe and clean fracking is. If that's the case why don't they tell us what's in the frack fluid?
If it's so safe why did they need an exemption from the clean water act?

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6. Water descends through soil at a rough average of 1 meter/year

So yes, it can take that long. Certainly longer than we're taking to destroy them.