Texas town runs out of water after using it for fracking

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/08/fracking-texas-drought-climate-change

"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'Dear God, help us.' That was the first thought that came to mind."

snip

So what is a town like Barnhart to do? Fracking is a powerful drain on water supplies. In adjacent Crockett County, fracking accounts for up to 25 percent of water use, according to the groundwater conservation district. But Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, argues fracking is not the only reason Texas is going dry—and nor is the drought. The latest shocks to the water system come after decades of overuse by ranchers, cotton farmers, and fast-growing, thirsty cities.

"We have large urban centers sucking water out of West Texas to put on their lands. We have a huge agricultural community, and now we have fracking which is also using water," she said. And then there is climate change.

West Texas has a long history of recurring drought, but under climate change, the Southwest has been experiencing record-breaking heat waves, further drying out the soil and speeding the evaporation of water in lakes and reservoirs. Underground aquifers failed to regenerate. "What happens is that climate change comes on top and in many cases it can be the final straw that breaks the camel's back, but the camel is already overloaded," said Hayhoe.

(More at the link.)


Much, much further reading:

Water privatization by the richest rich is happening now ("hydraulic empire&quot incl. the Bush family
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023406830

The ‘Wild West’ of groundwater: Billion-dollar Nestlé extracting B.C.’s drinking water for free
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023464038

[Paladin]

1. Inevitable, gleeful posts from DU Texas-haters in 3...2...1... (nt)

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. They should be careful. Climate change drought will be the new normal across the entire West Coast.

You might get what you laugh at.

[cordelia]

15. As expected. So tedious.

[matt819]

32. Oh, come on

Please don't take this undying pleasure away from us.

While I'm not a Texan, I have lived there, and hating on Texas is an entertaining pastime.

As for the water loss - well, who'd a thunk it? The really tragic part of this is that we - as a nation - will not learn from it. And other communities, despite this and simliar reports, will bow to the pressure of the oil companies to drill in their backyards. Fracking may make the US less dependent on foreign oil, but, as with all things - at what price?

[iamthebandfanman]

37. Gleeful post from me

but not because I have any disdain for texas...

but I am happy people are getting to have some consequence from piss poor decision making :p

hopefully lessons are being learned , even if it is after the fact :p

[rhett o rick]

61. You grabbed the #1 response to say that? Are you trying to turn this thread into a flame war? nm

[Brigid]

4. Water is becoming the new oil.

Here is the perfect example.

[Iliyah]

5. One resource that will outweigh

any other resource besides food product and will be the number one resource in the "world" will be H20. This compound will supersede money, gold, silver, diamonds, etc.

Who ever controls H20 controls the world and I've been reading that the Nestle Corporations is buying or stealing up all the compound resources they can get their hands on.

[aggiesal]

25. Remember ENRON? . . .

They were in bed with the IMF and the WTO.

When IFM & WTO bail out a country, one of the conditions they would
place is to give up rights to their countries resources.

Enron started buying up the water rights.

Last I heard, they owned the water rights in Argentina.
If anyone has more up-to-date info, please let use know.

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. There is some info on Enron's interests and actions in the article linked to at the bottom of my OP

"Richest rich hydraulic empire".

[Boom Sound 416]

26. What about desalination?

[Javaman]

39. Got to have salt water to desalinate.

Barnhart is about 300 miles from the coast.

[magical thyme]

36. Nestle sued tiny village after tiny village in Maine

trying to force us to let them drill for more of our water. I moved up here because I knew there would be water here. Turns out Maine sits on a major aquifer.

Nestle CEO is on record as stating that water is not a human right and should be privatised.

[dixiegrrrrl]

53. Fla. Gov Jeb Bush GAVE Nestle the right to suck up Fla.'s aquifer, for pennies.

I remember reading that story and realizing the importance of resource grabs.

[Link Speed]

6. 1/3 of Texas' water goes on fucking lawns

But we never hear about that, do we?

Oh, no, we must have our pretty turf grasses on our bullshit manicured lawns. That way, we can pour all of those wonderful chemicals on them - chemicals that were never needed by native grasses.

Statewide, fracking water use consumes a fraction of lawn consumption. But fracking should still be outlawed, in my opinion.

[Mariana]

13. I lived in Texas for years.

During a rather nasty drought in the area I lived in, municipalities put on some pretty severe watering restrictions, with heavy fines and so on for violations. Guess what happened? The damned homeowners associations started laying fines on the residents for letting their lawns go brown. How fucked up is that, fining people for obeying the law? When I read that in the paper I turned to my husband and said "You see! You see why I refused to buy in one of those neighborhoods!"

I did notice that no matter how severe the drought and the watering restrictions were, all the area's high school football fields - not just the playing fields, but the practice fields as well - had sprinklers going regularly and remained green and lush at all times.

[Javaman]

40. also golf courses.

they are nothing but a complete waste of water.

[GoCubsGo]

20. Not just Texas.

That's everywhere. Here in the Southeast, we had several years of severe to extreme drought in most places, up until recently. Yet, many, many people still watered their lawns regularly, despite urging not to do so. So did all the golf courses. Lots of people washing their cars on their driveways, too, rather than going to the car wash, where they use recycled water.

I see the same damn thing every time I visit Phoenix, too. Middle of the damn desert, and it's wall-to-wall golf courses. And, lots of people with turf grass in their yards. I can't tell you how many times I have seen torrents of water going down the gutters, because of people over-watering their lawns. At least they've been wising up there. People are starting to go with native vegetation. Some of the surrounding towns require natives for landscaping.

As you have probably guessed, I'm not a fan of bullshit manicured lawns, either. And, it's not just the water and chemicals that are bad. A gas lawn mower spews out more pollution than an automobile does during the same amount of time.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. The problem with frackng isn't just the gallons "used."

It's the contamination of entire aquifers with the "trade secret" noxious chemicals they push into the ground.

[laundry_queen]

51. Bingo. That's the issue.

Once they use the water, it is RUINED.

[clarice]

33. The other 2/3rds goes into beer. Texas RULES !!!! nt

[Javaman]

41. st. augustine grass is a blight.

it takes almost 4 times as much water to water that garbage grass as it does natives.

[Divernan]

44. In U.S., golf courses use 4 BILLION gallons of H2O DAILY!

Golf is $49 BILLION per yr. business; 4 BILLION gals. of H2O DAILY

During the past decade, there has been an explosion in new golf courses. The
United States is now home to nearly 18,000 golf courses, more than half the
world's 35,000 golf courses, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a think
tank that monitors global environmental trends.

In the United States, golf courses cover more than 1.7 million acres and
soak up nearly 4 billion gallons of water daily, the institute estimates.
They also use pesticides and fertilizers that contribute to water pollution.

A 1994 review of death certificates for 618 golf course superintendents by
researchers at the University of Iowa's College of Medicine found an
unusually high numbers of deaths from certain cancers, including brain
cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The results were similar to other studies that have found an elevated risk
for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among farm workers and pesticide applicators.


http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/golf042604.cfm

The "modern" game of golf originated in Scotland in the 1400's, Early Scottish golf courses were primarily laid out on links land, soil-covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. This gave rise to the term "golf links", particularly applied to seaside courses and those built on naturally sandy soil inland.

Those original Scottish golfers would surely scoff at the pampered US golfers with their courses manicured, watered and chemically treated to look like some unnaturally green, Thomas Kinkade fairy tale. And the Scots would also ridicule the ubiquitous use of golf carts. Today's golfers get minimum exercise - it's gotta be the least strenuous "sport" in the world.

[Divernan]

48. Statewide, fracking uses 1%; in some communities it's 25% and rising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/us/as-fracking-in-texas-increases-so-do-water-supply-fears.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing — roughly 4 million to 6 million gallons per oil or gas well — has stirred concerns around Texas as the drought wears on and the drilling boom continues.

Studies say that fracking consumes less than 1 percent of the total water used statewide, far less than agriculture or even watering lawns. But in some drilling hotbeds like Dimmit County, the proportion of water used for fracking has reached the double digits and is growing along with the oil boom. Companies are springing up to offer recycling, and some drillers are able to use brackish water, but those technologies are often not cost-effective.

Increasingly, the spotlight is also on water supply problems. Some of the most oil-rich parts of Texas, including the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, are also some of the state’s driest areas. Carrizo Springs, in the heart of the fast-developing Eagle Ford, averages 21 inches of rainfall a year.

In 2011, Texas used a greater number of barrels of water for oil and natural gas fracking (about 632 million) than the number of barrels of oil it produced (about 441 million), according to figures from the Texas Water Development Board and the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulator.

[thesquanderer]

7. Whether it's fracking or climate change...

...either way, the right there is stuck in a circular firing squad.

[DeSwiss]

8. K&R

[drynberg]

18. Fracking is only "logical" if you life in the "bottom line" and don't care about the (near) future.

Fracking is only psychotic if you care about the environment and all it's organisms more than money. That's my two cents.

[kestrel91316]

9. You can't fix stupid. And you can't fix greedy, wither.

[Auggie]

10. Want to see a corporatist salivate? Just say "water privatization."

[theHandpuppet]

22. +++++++++++++

Most folks really have no idea....

[Baitball Blogger]

11. "I just dunno. It was there one day and gone the next. I don't fracking know what happened?"

Do you think it's odd that they came up with a term for fracking that was used as a derogatory term in Battlestar Galactica?

[blackspade]

14. Water wars here we come!

[Javaman]

42. it's already happening, just not a whole lot of shooting yet...

at least not here in the states.

give it time. It will get bad.

[SCVDem]

16. Regulations?

We don't need no frakkin regulations!

Memo to Rick Perry.

How are you going to fix this problem? Tax cuts?

BTW, I don't hate Texas, just that attitude of superiority.

Until shit hits the fan that is.

I feel for the poor residents who got screwed by this greed.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. Tax cuts alone are not enough.

They need to deregulate industry and roll back those intrusive environmental rules.

The only legitimate functions for gubmink are to keep out Mexicans, suppress dissent, promulgate fundamentalist Christianity, and enforce restrictions on abortion.

[clarice]

34. But we ARE superior. nt

[SCVDem]

54. You forgot something!

[snagglepuss]

17. Jawdropping. Thanks for posting. Bkmrkd.

[CarrieLynne]

19. “Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned....

“Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. Absolutely. Perfect quote. The First Nations consider water to be sacred,

to be life itself. We'd better begin listening and acting along those very lines.

[laundry_queen]

52. +1 nt

[jberryhill]

59. In all fairness, though, you can't eat trees either

[truebluegreen]

62. whiff

[Kelselsius]

21. They should try what they did before

Rick Perry can gather thousands of Texans and pray for water. Look how well it worked the last time.

[Boom Sound 416]

27. Lol

[liberal N proud]

28. Great example of wasting our necessary resources.

[hue]

31. This is 1 of the most important issues of our time!! I remember this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022473474

[Auggie]

35. +1

[louis-t]

38. Nestle is running wells dry in Michigan as well.

[They_Live]

43. This should be a NATIONAL EMERGENCY

but it is not. If we don't stop the destruction of fresh water sources it will be the end of mankind.

[SCVDem]

45. Texas would rather shoot an enviromentalist

Than listen to green solutions on water conservation.

How sorry are we supposed to feel?

At least in California we realize there's a problem.

The solutions may not be cheap but over time we are better off.

Our air quality is so much better than in the 70s.

Regulation is not a bad word.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

46. While I'm very much against fracking

I'm not sure this water shortage was caused by fracking.

http://www.newswest9.com/story/22544471/water-flowing-again-in-barnhart-texas

In small towns, it's common to have well problems. We have four wells on our property and often have issues with them.

[Divernan]

47. Annual H2O use for fracking is 100% consumptive

Roughly 90-95% of residential water used indoors returns to a wastewater treatment plant and is ultimately released to streams or reused. But water used for fracking is too contaminated and polluted with toxic chemicals and minerals to be reused EVER.

"

Basically, your water is being driven away.Your Water Is Driving Away
A recent report completed for Douglas County, CO estimates 11, 040 loaded truck trips for one well pad (containing six wells) over a 265 day period.

6,000 trips were made to haul fracking water
3,000 trips were for wastewater disposal

Bureau of Land Management report estimates 1,160 truck visits are required to develop each well."

So what happens to those other 3,000 tanker trucks full of chemically laced water, per well, which have been pumped
into the ground under pressure? Well, they are not recovered but seep through the ground to pollute the water tables and seep into our creeks, ponds, streams and rivers, from which they poison plant life and animal life, not to mention private wells relied upon by millions of Americans.

Fracking Our Future: Where's the Water?
Everything You Need to Know About Water and Community Impacts from Hydraulic Fracturing

Fracking Our Future is the first report to provide a comprehensive measure of water and community impacts from hydraulicfracturing. This timely report addresses the questions, "How much water is required for new production, such as through the process of hydraulic fracturing, and where will that water come from?" It provides specific recommendations to guide future development that decision makers can use in developing policies to make sure that water resources are properly managed along with oil and gas development.

http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/frackwater/

[canonfodder]

49. Checked reports

The majority of reports I saw, related to the issue, indicated the drought, and not the "fracking".
"Fracking" was implicated as a small contributor to the problem.
Barnhart has had this issue many times in the past, all related to lack of rainfall.
There are a few articles that do point to it, however, if you read the source correct, they are anti-fracking to start with.

[Wounded Bear]

50. This is what happens when resource management....

is left to the 'invisible hand of the market.' When water's only value is how much money one can get for it, then the large corporate interests will dominate and people will go without.

Texas is certainly not the only place where this type of thing is happening now, or very imminent.

[Ilsa]

55. Drought, lack of xeriscaping,

farming, and fracking. But not just fracking.

Barnhart has had water trouble for years.

[Wounded Bear]

57. Well if my geography serves....

much of West Texas is on the edge of, or actually in desert. One would think that water management would be a priority.

Of course when corporate interests get involved, most logic kind of falls by the wayside.

[Ilsa]

60. There was an article about three years ago

explaining that they had to have water trucked in. I don't remember if it was 2009 or 2010.

It's not about xeriscaping in Barnhart, or farming there. It's also about water drained from one area to use further down towards the coast, isn't it? Isn't there bickering over Colorado River allocation in central Texas versus the farmlands (rice, cotton, etc) along the coastal plains?

Texas has a water crisis and big industry and the politicians on their parole don't want to think about that.

[malaise]

56. Frack baby frack

Now frack off!! Keep on hating regulations! Oh and fuck Rick Perry!

[bravenak]

58. They should move to Alaska like me.

We had water problems in California too. People spray painted the Brown lawns green. Why on earth would you give up your water for fracking? Especially when you live in a dry area? Don't you need that to drink?