The war on fracking
has morphed to a war
on all fossil fuels.
Fracking was said
to pollute ground waters,
but in fact:
A study by hydrogeologists
Jennifer McIntosh, from the
University of Arizona, and
Grant Ferguson, from the
University of Saskatchewan,
claims fracking has less
impact on groundwater
than traditional oil and gas
production.
"Conventional Oil—
The Forgotten Part
of the Water-Energy Nexus,"
was published online
June 30, 2019, in the
journal Groundwater.
(2019)
DOI: 10.1111/gwat.12917
Global Water Futures
funded the research.
High-volume
hydraulic fracturing,
known as fracking,
injects water, sand
and chemicals under
high pressure into
petroleum-bearing rock
formations to recover
previously inaccessible
oil and natural gas.
Conventional methods of oil
and natural gas production,
used for about 120 years,
also inject water underground
to aid in the recovery of oil
and natural gas.
For all oil and gas production
activities, not just fracking,
Ms. McIntosh said:
"The amount of water injected
and produced for conventional
oil and gas production exceeds
that associated with fracking
and unconventional oil and gas
production by well over
a factor of 10."
About 30% of Canadians
and over 45% of Americans
depend on groundwater
for their municipal, domestic
and agricultural needs.
At the end of the cycle,
excess salt water is
disposed of by injecting it
into depleted oil fields or
deep into geological
formations that don't
contain oil and gas.
That injection of waste water
increases the likelihood
of contaminated water
reaching freshwater aquifers.
"There's a critical need
for long-term
—years to decades—
monitoring for potential
contamination of
drinking water resources,
not only
from fracking,
but also from
conventional
oil and gas
production,"
McIntosh said.
The researchers found information
for the Western Canada Sedimentary
Basin, the Permian Basin
(located in New Mexico and Texas),
the states of Oklahoma, California
and Ohio.
"What was surprising
was the amount of water
that's being produced
and re-injected by
conventional oil and gas
production compared
to hydraulic fracturing,"
McIntosh said.
"In most of the locations
we looked at—California
was the exception—
there is more water now
in the subsurface than
before. There's a net gain
of saline water."
Conventional activities
inject lower volumes of water,
and at lower pressure,
but injection take place
over longer periods of time.