As Oil And Gas Drilling Competes For Water, One New Mexico County Says No

Via National Geographic, an article on the watergy nexus in New Mexico:

In drought-plagued New Mexico, water is gold.

And this week, Mora County in the northern part of the state took a firm stand to protect its precious liquid:  it banned all oil and gas extraction from county lands.  It is believed to be the first county in the nation to take such action.

Big oil companies, notably Shell, had reportedly already leased more than 100,000 acres of land in Mora.

But the county’s new ordinance calls for a state constitutional amendment that puts community rights above corporate property rights.

Of concern in Mora, and increasingly throughout the country, is the potential harm to water sources from oil and gas drilling, including a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The process entails injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure deep underground so as to break up rocks and release the oil and gas they hold.

Because many wells cut through water-bearing formations called aquifers, fracking risks contaminating drinking water supplies with hazardous chemicals.  Yet fracking is exempt from compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Besides the threat of water contamination, fracking also competes for local water supplies. A single well can require more than 5 million gallons of water.

Across the United States, 47 percent of hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells are being developed in highly water-stressed regions, according to a report released this week by Ceres, a Boston-based non-profit organization that educates investors about corporate environmental risks.

Colorado and Texas, two states where fracking operations have expanded rapidly, exhibited the highest degree of water risk, according to the Ceres report.  In Colorado, 92 percent of shale gas and oil wells were in “extremely high” water stress regions, defined as areas in which cities, industries and farms are already using 80 percent or more of available water.

In Texas, 51 percent of wells were in “high or extremely high” water stress regions.  In some Texas counties, water use for fracking accounted for more than one-fifth of total water use.

The Ceres study used well data available at FracFocus.org and water stress maps developed by the Aqueduct Project at the World Resources Institute.

While the hydraulic fracturing industry has made some progress toward use of recycled and saline water, which could reduce competition for scarce freshwater supplies, these sources are still a minor component of the overall industry’s water demand.  And even with use of alternative water sources, the risks of groundwater contamination from the chemicals used in fracking remain.

With hydraulically fractured gas and oil production projected to double in the coming years, the bottom line, according to Ceres, is that “competition and conflicts over water should be a growing concern for companies, policymakers and investors.”

But Mora County’s decision – to keep more climate-altering fossil fuels in the ground so as to preserve and safeguard local water supplies for its people – draws a more precautionary line in the sand.  It’s a line other counties may want to draw, too – because without adequate supplies of safe drinking water, no region’s future is bright.



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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”