Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Mapping Fracking Demands on Water


Over 350 billion gallons of water are used in hydraulic fracturing in the United States. Unfortunately over half of the wells hydraulically fractured in the last five years are in areas of high or extremely high water stress, including water basins in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and California.

Ceres has released an interactive map to show the locations of hydraulic fracturing well locations and the related water risk trends where these wells are located. The Competition for Water in US Shale Energy Development map provides an overview of overall water stress throughout the United States. The locations of fracked wells are also shown on the map. It is therefore easy to use the map to see where hydraulic fracturing is taking place in areas of high water stress.

The map also shows the outlines of major water basins in the United States. If you click on the water basin outlines on the map you can view the total number of fracked wells using the basin for water and the percentage of wells operating in areas of high and extreme water stress. For example 99% of fracking wells using the California water basin are operating in an area of high and extreme water stress.

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