Link – http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/24/fracking-wells-guzzle-water/     

‘Monster’ Fracking Wells Guzzle Water in Drought-Stricken Regions

The fracking industry likes to minimize the sector’s bottomless thirst for often-scarce water resources, saying it takes about 2-4 million gallons of water to frack the average well, an amount the American Petroleum Institute describes as “the equivalent of three to six Olympic swimming pools.” That’s close to the figure cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well.

 Photo – Shuttlestock

It takes a lot of water to drill a fracking well, and 261 “monster” wells sucked up 3.3 billion gallons, competing with agriculture and drinking water needs. Photo credit: Shutterstock

But a new report released by Environmental Working Group (EWG) located 261 “monster” wells that consumed between 10 and 25 million gallons of water to drill each well. Among the conclusions EWG teased out of data reported by the industry itself and posted at fracfocus.orgis that between April 2010 and December 2013, these 261 wells consumed 3.3 billions of water between them, a average of 12.7 million gallons each. And 14 of the wells topped 20 million gallons each.

“It’s far more relevant to compare those figures to basic human needs for water, rather than to swimming pools or golf courses,” said EWG’s report. “The 3.3 billion gallons consumed by the monster wells was almost twice as much water as is needed each year by the people of Atascosa County, Texas, in the heart of the Eagle Ford shale formation, one of the most intensively drilled gas and oil fields in the country.”

And proving that everything really is bigger in Texas, that’s where most of these monster wells were located, hosting 149 of them. Between them they consumed 1.8 billion gallons of water. The largest was located in Harrison County on the east Texas border, where in March 2013, Sabine Oil & Gas LLC drilled a well using more than 24.8 million gallons of water. Irion County in west central Texas had the most monster wells with 19 averaging water use of 12.9 each. And Texas also had what EWG described as the “dubious distinction” of using more fresh water in fracking, consuming 21 million gallons in 2011 alone.

Pennsylvania had the second largest number of these monster wells with 39 located in that fracking-boom state atop the Marcellus shale formation. It was followed by Colorado (30, including 8 of the 15 biggest water consumers), Oklahoma (24), North Dakota (11), Louisiana and Mississippi (3 each) and Michigan (2).

EWG also found that 2/3rds of the monster wells were in areas suffering from extreme drought, including 137 of the ones in Texas.

“Like almost all of the Lone Star State, Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, is in a severe and prolonged drought,” said EWG. “Last year, the state water agency cited oil and gas exploration and production as a factor in the dramatic drop of groundwater levels in the aquifer underlying the Eagle Ford formation.”

That’s a huge problem for a state with a growing population and a big agriculture industry, including a large, water-intensive cattle-raising sector, resulting in conflicts over water use likely to intensify in the future.

The EWG report cautions that their estimates of fracking water use may be low.

“There is no way of knowing just how much water is being used for fracking, however, because while the controversial well stimulation technique is known to be used in 36 states, only 15 require reporting to FracFocus, and none of the numbers that do get reported are vetted by any kind of regulatory agency or independent authority,” it said. “Even the data that does get reported is incomplete. EWG says that for 38 of the 261 monster wells, FracFocus did not even identify such basic information as whether the wells were drilled for oil or natural gas, or what kind of water they used.”

 YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Fracking Makes California’s Drought Worse

Fracking Bans Pass in Denton, Texas, Two California Counties and One Ohio Town

Groundbreaking Study Shows How Demand for Water Could Impact Fracking Worldwide

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

Please support the excellent work of Animals Asia

Look at the wording from Jill below to see what a massive difference they are making !

https://www.animalsasia.org/intl/about-us/who-we-are.html

 https://www.animalsasia.org/intl/get-involved/spread-the-word.html

Jill Robinson MBE

Founder and CEO

Jill heads Animals Asia’s team of over 300 enthusiastic staff. She divides her time between mainland China, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and travels frequently around the world to give presentations at conferences and speak at fundraising events. A hands-on leader, she is involved in all major decision-making. She works with the vet and bear teams during rescues and health checks and advises closely on construction projects. She visits dog and cat markets and zoos and safari parks throughout China to document the abuse of animals, and visits hospitals and homes for the elderly with her own animal-therapy dog, Eddie, who was rescued from a meat market in China.

She writes her own blog, her own speeches and presentations, is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and a frequent guest on radio and TV shows. She has also co-written a children’s book about moon bears and co-written a number of scientific papers with Animals Asia’s vet team.

Born in the UK, Jill arrived in Hong Kong in 1985 and spent 12 years working in Asia as a consultant for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Repeatedly faced with scenes of widespread animal cruelty, Jill decided to introduce the concept of “animal welfare through people welfare” and founded “Dr Dog” in Hong Kong in 1991 – the first animal-therapy programme of its kind in Asia.

Jill founded Animals Asia in 1998 – five years after an encounter with a caged bear on a farm in southern China changed her life forever. Learning that bear bile could be replaced by herbs, she vowed to put an end to bear bile farming. Since then, Animals Asia has rescued 400 bears in China and Vietnam.

Jill is a Council Member of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS) Herbal Committee and shares her home in Hong Kong with her family of three dogs and five cats.

PLEASE SUPPORT IN ANY WAY YOU CAN – Thank You.

All above reproduced directly from leaflet by AA.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

Hi all;

For the first time in more than 40 years, nearly every gray wolf in the Lower 48 could be stripped of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could announce its final decision to delist wolves any day now.

If they do move forward with delisting, it will mean they’ve ignored the recommendations of their own scientific peer review panel and leave wolves at the mercy of extreme anti-wolf state politicians, putting the recovery of wolves everywhere at grave risk.

We cannot let that happen.

I know that you and I both share the dream of wolf recovery, that’s why I’m turning to you.

Any donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doing twice as much for wolves.

I donated.

I hope you do too!

Thanks!

Mark

We can’t let that happen.

With your help, we’re launching an Emergency Protection Fund for Wolves. Will you be among the first supporters?

To get the fund off to the strongest possible start, generous donors have agreed to match your gift, dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of $150,000.

Your support will help give us the extra resources we need to protect wolves where and when they need it most.

Our legal team is already gearing up for a monumental legal battle to uphold the law and restore federal ESA protection to wolves;

We’re stepping up our presence in battleground states like Idaho, where extreme anti-wolf politicians have caused the deaths of more than 1,400 wolves since 2009 and made a mockery of wolf conservation;

We’re going to states like California and Oregon, where there’s plenty of suitable wolf habitat, and where pro-wolf voices ring loud and clear;

And we are tirelessly organizing – in neighborhoods, online, and through the media – to make it clear to our elected officials that most Americans want wolves in their world.

Please be among the first to donate generously to our Emergency Protection Fund for Wolves. Your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $150,000 until 11:59pm EST on November 21st.

I want to be clear on one thing: Whatever happens in the coming days, this fight is far from over.

Thanks to you, in 1967, Defenders of Wildlife was the first organization to propose reintroducing wolves. In 1995, we were there when a new generation of wolves first set foot in Yellowstone National Park and the central Idaho wilderness. Every day since, we have fought in court, in Congress, and in statehouses across the country to make sure wolves get a fighting chance to survive.

With people like you at my side, I remain steadfastly optimistic.

Please help us today. 

For the wolves,

Jamie Rappaport Clark
President
Defenders of Wildlife

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »