‘Monster Fracks’ Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : Water is important in oil refining and the cooling of power plants, and also plays a role in the mining of lithium and other minerals essential in the transition to cleaner energy.
62% : Some local governments are starting to take action.
59% : Mexico said it “vigorously disagrees” with the lawsuit’s allegations and was proud of its work regulating oil and gas.
58% : Sharon Chischilly for The New York TimesAcross the country, investments like these in water for oil and gas — wells, pipelines and even water distribution companies — are extensive and spreading.
57% : Source: FracFocus chemical disclosure database as of Aug. 1, 2023 Note: States adopted disclosure requirements at different times.
57% : ”It’s happening, of course, because there is money to be made in oil.
55% : Sergio Flores for The New York TimesIn La Salle County — where workers were drilling the water well last year that would supply BP — the local aquifers have already been strained by decades of pumping to feed crops and cattle.
52% : The Times based its water-use analysis on data from FracFocus, a registry of chemicals used in fracking that is operated by two national associations of state agencies, the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
47% : Pockets of public resistance are emerging.
46% : The water would be mixed with sand and toxic chemicals and pumped right back underground — forcing oil and gas from the bedrock.
46% : In the sprawling Permian Basin in Texas, the largest oil field in the country, just 15 percent of water used for fracking is recycled water, according to state estimates.
45% : If you’re using water for oil and gas, it’s considered exempt,” said Ronald T. Green, a hydrologist who advises Wintergarten.
39% : Sergio Flores for The New York TimesToday, the insatiable search for oil and gas has become the latest threat to the country’s endangered aquifers, a critical national resource that is already being drained at alarming rates by industrial farming and cities in search of drinking water.
39% : Oil companies say the industry uses substantial amounts of brackish water not suitable for drinking, though there is little systematic tracking of how much.
38% : It was a reminder that to strike oil in America, you need water.
38% : Oil companies require no permits to drill their own groundwater wells and there is no consistent requirement that groundwater used for fracking be reported or monitored.

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