Drought helps fracking foes push for recycling

The worst U.S. drought in a half century is putting pressure on natural gas drillers to conserve the millions of gallons of water used in hydraulic fracturing to free trapped gas and oil from underground rock, Bloomberg reports. From Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania, farmers, activists and opponents of the drilling technique, also known as fracking, are using the shortage of rain to push the industry to recycle water and reduce usage—efforts that could prove costly to the industry. One company, Devon Energy Corp.—which is leading drilling efforts in the Tuscaloosa Shale in the parishes just north of East Baton Rouge—estimates that recycling is as much as 75% costlier than pumping wastewater into deep wells. That disposal method, common in the industry, has also drawn complaints because it is linked to earthquakes. “We just would like the oil and gas companies to figure out better ways, maybe a better use of this water,” says Bill Midcap, renewable-energy development director at the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union covering Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. “It’s a concern about the future, it is the concern about the price of water, as we look forward, and also taking water away from agriculture.” Environmentalists in Texas are lobbying the Legislature to pass water-conservation requirements during next year’s session. In Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission on July 16 suspended water intake for several companies. Read the full story here.