New study uncovers a jaw-dropping fact about water and natural gas "fracking" By Matt Badiali
editor, Resource Report
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
For every gallon of water used in fracking, Texas saves 33 gallons overall. You read that right… fracking saves water.
Let me explain…
That was the result of a recent University of Texas at Austin water use study. It's critical information because Texas is just coming out of a massive drought.
In 2011, 98.2% of the state suffered from severe to exceptional drought. It was the hottest, driest year on record.
The current drought is the second longest in Texas (back to 1899). And water is critical to Texas' economy. Agriculture (including timber) accounts for $20 billion per year of the state's economy. Cattle accounts for $10.5 billion of that. If you don't have water for cows, you have dead cows…
That's why the University studied water intensive industries like fracking and electric power production. Power generation accounts for 40% of freshwater consumption in the U.S.
The water use of fracking is highly visible and controversial. It takes about four million to six million gallons of water to frack a well in Texas. That makes it an easy target for politicians and activists.
According to the research, new natural gas power plants are far more efficient than older, coal-fired plants. Coal plants require water for evaporative cooling. New natural gas power plants use a whole lot less. The new plants save 25 to 50 times the amount of water used to extract the gas.
The University's researchers studied all of the power plants in Texas. The study concluded that if all the 423 plants in Texas burned coal, they would use an extra 32 billion gallons of water per year.
Water use is one of the largest knocks on fracking. This study's results show that it isn't true. I remain a huge proponent of fracking.
Poster Comment:
Fracking saves water? Well, if they say so. I don't know much about it. ;)