Amidst Fire and Drought in Colorado, a City’s Worth of Water is Going Where?
In Colorado, drought conditions and the worst wildfire season in a decade have brought renewed focus on water budgeting in the state. A new report by Western Resource Advocates (WRA) highlights community concerns about the impact of fracking on Colorado’s water supply. The study found that water used in one year for new oil and gas development throughout the state could supply the entire population of Lakewood, the fourth-largest city in Colorado.
Though oil and gas companies often point out that water used for fracking is a small percentage of that used for agriculture and municipal purposes statewide, in certain counties it can be much more. According to the report, in Weld County, water used for new oil and gas drilling operations equaled between one-third and two-thirds of domestic and public water use in 2011.
Weld County and other area farmers now face extreme water shortages from ongoing drought conditions, requiring them to remove hundreds of acres from production. Nearby cities can’t help because many have already auctioned off all of the water they had allotted for sale to agricultural users and oil and gas companies.
Enormous wildfires are also taking a toll on the state’s water resources. A huge amount of water is being used to combat the eight blazes burning in Colorado. Making matters worse, water infrastructure, including reservoirs and treatment plants, may become contaminated with ash from these wildfires, causing shutdowns and requiring emergency water supplies to be tapped.
Considering the water situation in Colorado this summer, it’s no wonder WRA is concerned about the vast quantity of water used for fracking. Not only does fracking take water away from other potential uses, much of the water used for fracking is gone forever – at least we hope it doesn’t find its way into aquifers and contaminate them! A lot of the fluid used in fracking stays underground indefinitely, and in Colorado the fluid that does return to the surface as wastewater often gets disposed of using deep well injection, locking it in the ground for good (we hope).
States such as Colorado have a choice when allocating their water resources. Water should go to local farmers and firefighters battling drought conditions, not to the oil and gas industry.
Katherine Boehrer is a Food & Water Watch summer communications intern and a junior at Cornell University.