Every time that oil shale production comes up in Colorado, the question is asked if there is enough water in Colorado to go around. The industry says, no problem, we have all the water we need or will ever need. The environmentalists warn that the industry is quietly buying up water rights and the net effect will be that there won’t be enough water to support recreation, agriculture, suburban lawns, and the oil and gas industry if the approved usage changes. And that’s before they start warning about fracking fluids polluting the water supply.
Now all these warnings are playing themselves out in real time in North Dakota. The Baakan Formation has been in the middle of a boom, to the extent that North Dakota is about the only state in the nation not facing huge budget problems this year. All that may be about to change.
The industry has requested permission to tap the water of the Missouri River in order to get about 2,000 natural gas wells into production this year. They need the water because they can’t frack wells without lots and lots of water. Today the industry has access to 7-million gallons of fresh water daily. The industry wants 28-million gallons a day and they want to tap into a lake on the Missouri River to get it.
The Army Corps of Engineers wants the industry to pay for using that water. This is a new trick for the Corps—and the idea of charging for the water is in the middle of a public review process.
The irony of the whole situation is that the industry needs water, wants fresh water, and yet produced 180 million barrels of water last year, some of it contaminated with fracking fluids, some of it salty from the ancient days of being sea water. While the industry says they could desalinate and/or purify the produced water, they say it would cost too much to do so. So, instead, they are creating one new well each week for the express purpose of injecting waste water back into the earth. What they are injecting is water that can’t be used for any purpose because it is so polluted. It starts out fresh, gets polluted and then gets injected into the earth. Am I the only person on this planet that thinks this is insanity?
Homework
Story About Water in ND
Now all these warnings are playing themselves out in real time in North Dakota. The Baakan Formation has been in the middle of a boom, to the extent that North Dakota is about the only state in the nation not facing huge budget problems this year. All that may be about to change.
The industry has requested permission to tap the water of the Missouri River in order to get about 2,000 natural gas wells into production this year. They need the water because they can’t frack wells without lots and lots of water. Today the industry has access to 7-million gallons of fresh water daily. The industry wants 28-million gallons a day and they want to tap into a lake on the Missouri River to get it.
The Army Corps of Engineers wants the industry to pay for using that water. This is a new trick for the Corps—and the idea of charging for the water is in the middle of a public review process.
The irony of the whole situation is that the industry needs water, wants fresh water, and yet produced 180 million barrels of water last year, some of it contaminated with fracking fluids, some of it salty from the ancient days of being sea water. While the industry says they could desalinate and/or purify the produced water, they say it would cost too much to do so. So, instead, they are creating one new well each week for the express purpose of injecting waste water back into the earth. What they are injecting is water that can’t be used for any purpose because it is so polluted. It starts out fresh, gets polluted and then gets injected into the earth. Am I the only person on this planet that thinks this is insanity?
Homework
Story About Water in ND
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