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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas town runs out of water after using it for fracking
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/08/fracking-texas-drought-climate-change
"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'Dear God, help us.' That was the first thought that came to mind."
snip
So what is a town like Barnhart to do? Fracking is a powerful drain on water supplies. In adjacent Crockett County, fracking accounts for up to 25 percent of water use, according to the groundwater conservation district. But Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, argues fracking is not the only reason Texas is going dryand nor is the drought. The latest shocks to the water system come after decades of overuse by ranchers, cotton farmers, and fast-growing, thirsty cities.
"We have large urban centers sucking water out of West Texas to put on their lands. We have a huge agricultural community, and now we have fracking which is also using water," she said. And then there is climate change.
West Texas has a long history of recurring drought, but under climate change, the Southwest has been experiencing record-breaking heat waves, further drying out the soil and speeding the evaporation of water in lakes and reservoirs. Underground aquifers failed to regenerate. "What happens is that climate change comes on top and in many cases it can be the final straw that breaks the camel's back, but the camel is already overloaded," said Hayhoe.
(More at the link.)
Much, much further reading:
Water privatization by the richest rich is happening now ("hydraulic empire" incl. the Bush family
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023406830
The Wild West of groundwater: Billion-dollar Nestlé extracting B.C.s drinking water for free
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023464038
Paladin
(28,276 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)You might get what you laugh at.
Response to Paladin (Reply #1)
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cordelia
(2,174 posts)matt819
(10,749 posts)Please don't take this undying pleasure away from us.
While I'm not a Texan, I have lived there, and hating on Texas is an entertaining pastime.
As for the water loss - well, who'd a thunk it? The really tragic part of this is that we - as a nation - will not learn from it. And other communities, despite this and simliar reports, will bow to the pressure of the oil companies to drill in their backyards. Fracking may make the US less dependent on foreign oil, but, as with all things - at what price?
iamthebandfanman
(8,127 posts)but not because I have any disdain for texas...
but I am happy people are getting to have some consequence from piss poor decision making :p
hopefully lessons are being learned , even if it is after the fact :p
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Here is the perfect example.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)any other resource besides food product and will be the number one resource in the "world" will be H20. This compound will supersede money, gold, silver, diamonds, etc.
Who ever controls H20 controls the world and I've been reading that the Nestle Corporations is buying or stealing up all the compound resources they can get their hands on.
aggiesal
(8,924 posts)They were in bed with the IMF and the WTO.
When IFM & WTO bail out a country, one of the conditions they would
place is to give up rights to their countries resources.
Enron started buying up the water rights.
Last I heard, they owned the water rights in Argentina.
If anyone has more up-to-date info, please let use know.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)"Richest rich hydraulic empire".
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)Barnhart is about 300 miles from the coast.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)trying to force us to let them drill for more of our water. I moved up here because I knew there would be water here. Turns out Maine sits on a major aquifer.
Nestle CEO is on record as stating that water is not a human right and should be privatised.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I remember reading that story and realizing the importance of resource grabs.
Link Speed
(650 posts)But we never hear about that, do we?
Oh, no, we must have our pretty turf grasses on our bullshit manicured lawns. That way, we can pour all of those wonderful chemicals on them - chemicals that were never needed by native grasses.
Statewide, fracking water use consumes a fraction of lawn consumption. But fracking should still be outlawed, in my opinion.
Mariana
(14,861 posts)During a rather nasty drought in the area I lived in, municipalities put on some pretty severe watering restrictions, with heavy fines and so on for violations. Guess what happened? The damned homeowners associations started laying fines on the residents for letting their lawns go brown. How fucked up is that, fining people for obeying the law? When I read that in the paper I turned to my husband and said "You see! You see why I refused to buy in one of those neighborhoods!"
I did notice that no matter how severe the drought and the watering restrictions were, all the area's high school football fields - not just the playing fields, but the practice fields as well - had sprinklers going regularly and remained green and lush at all times.
Javaman
(62,534 posts)they are nothing but a complete waste of water.
GoCubsGo
(32,095 posts)That's everywhere. Here in the Southeast, we had several years of severe to extreme drought in most places, up until recently. Yet, many, many people still watered their lawns regularly, despite urging not to do so. So did all the golf courses. Lots of people washing their cars on their driveways, too, rather than going to the car wash, where they use recycled water.
I see the same damn thing every time I visit Phoenix, too. Middle of the damn desert, and it's wall-to-wall golf courses. And, lots of people with turf grass in their yards. I can't tell you how many times I have seen torrents of water going down the gutters, because of people over-watering their lawns. At least they've been wising up there. People are starting to go with native vegetation. Some of the surrounding towns require natives for landscaping.
As you have probably guessed, I'm not a fan of bullshit manicured lawns, either. And, it's not just the water and chemicals that are bad. A gas lawn mower spews out more pollution than an automobile does during the same amount of time.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)It's the contamination of entire aquifers with the "trade secret" noxious chemicals they push into the ground.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)Once they use the water, it is RUINED.
clarice
(5,504 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)it takes almost 4 times as much water to water that garbage grass as it does natives.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Golf is $49 BILLION per yr. business; 4 BILLION gals. of H2O DAILY
During the past decade, there has been an explosion in new golf courses. The
United States is now home to nearly 18,000 golf courses, more than half the
world's 35,000 golf courses, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a think
tank that monitors global environmental trends.
In the United States, golf courses cover more than 1.7 million acres and
soak up nearly 4 billion gallons of water daily, the institute estimates.
They also use pesticides and fertilizers that contribute to water pollution.
A 1994 review of death certificates for 618 golf course superintendents by
researchers at the University of Iowa's College of Medicine found an
unusually high numbers of deaths from certain cancers, including brain
cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
The results were similar to other studies that have found an elevated risk
for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among farm workers and pesticide applicators.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/golf042604.cfm
The "modern" game of golf originated in Scotland in the 1400's, Early Scottish golf courses were primarily laid out on links land, soil-covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. This gave rise to the term "golf links", particularly applied to seaside courses and those built on naturally sandy soil inland.
Those original Scottish golfers would surely scoff at the pampered US golfers with their courses manicured, watered and chemically treated to look like some unnaturally green, Thomas Kinkade fairy tale. And the Scots would also ridicule the ubiquitous use of golf carts. Today's golfers get minimum exercise - it's gotta be the least strenuous "sport" in the world.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)The amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing roughly 4 million to 6 million gallons per oil or gas well has stirred concerns around Texas as the drought wears on and the drilling boom continues.
Studies say that fracking consumes less than 1 percent of the total water used statewide, far less than agriculture or even watering lawns. But in some drilling hotbeds like Dimmit County, the proportion of water used for fracking has reached the double digits and is growing along with the oil boom. Companies are springing up to offer recycling, and some drillers are able to use brackish water, but those technologies are often not cost-effective.
Increasingly, the spotlight is also on water supply problems. Some of the most oil-rich parts of Texas, including the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, are also some of the states driest areas. Carrizo Springs, in the heart of the fast-developing Eagle Ford, averages 21 inches of rainfall a year.
In 2011, Texas used a greater number of barrels of water for oil and natural gas fracking (about 632 million) than the number of barrels of oil it produced (about 441 million), according to figures from the Texas Water Development Board and the Railroad Commission of Texas, the states oil and gas regulator.
thesquanderer
(11,993 posts)...either way, the right there is stuck in a circular firing squad.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)drynberg
(1,648 posts)Fracking is only psychotic if you care about the environment and all it's organisms more than money. That's my two cents.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)Auggie
(31,194 posts)theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Most folks really have no idea....
Baitball Blogger
(46,758 posts)Do you think it's odd that they came up with a term for fracking that was used as a derogatory term in Battlestar Galactica?
blackspade
(10,056 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)at least not here in the states.
give it time. It will get bad.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)We don't need no frakkin regulations!
Memo to Rick Perry.
How are you going to fix this problem? Tax cuts?
BTW, I don't hate Texas, just that attitude of superiority.
Until shit hits the fan that is.
I feel for the poor residents who got screwed by this greed.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)They need to deregulate industry and roll back those intrusive environmental rules.
The only legitimate functions for gubmink are to keep out Mexicans, suppress dissent, promulgate fundamentalist Christianity, and enforce restrictions on abortion.
clarice
(5,504 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)CarrieLynne
(497 posts)Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)to be life itself. We'd better begin listening and acting along those very lines.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Kelselsius
(50 posts)Rick Perry can gather thousands of Texans and pray for water. Look how well it worked the last time.
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)liberal N proud
(60,346 posts)hue
(4,949 posts)louis-t
(23,297 posts)They_Live
(3,241 posts)but it is not. If we don't stop the destruction of fresh water sources it will be the end of mankind.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Than listen to green solutions on water conservation.
How sorry are we supposed to feel?
At least in California we realize there's a problem.
The solutions may not be cheap but over time we are better off.
Our air quality is so much better than in the 70s.
Regulation is not a bad word.
Boudica the Lyoness
(2,899 posts)I'm not sure this water shortage was caused by fracking.
http://www.newswest9.com/story/22544471/water-flowing-again-in-barnhart-texas
In small towns, it's common to have well problems. We have four wells on our property and often have issues with them.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Roughly 90-95% of residential water used indoors returns to a wastewater treatment plant and is ultimately released to streams or reused. But water used for fracking is too contaminated and polluted with toxic chemicals and minerals to be reused EVER.
"
Basically, your water is being driven away.Your Water Is Driving Away
A recent report completed for Douglas County, CO estimates 11, 040 loaded truck trips for one well pad (containing six wells) over a 265 day period.
6,000 trips were made to haul fracking water
3,000 trips were for wastewater disposal
Bureau of Land Management report estimates 1,160 truck visits are required to develop each well."
So what happens to those other 3,000 tanker trucks full of chemically laced water, per well, which have been pumped
into the ground under pressure? Well, they are not recovered but seep through the ground to pollute the water tables and seep into our creeks, ponds, streams and rivers, from which they poison plant life and animal life, not to mention private wells relied upon by millions of Americans.
Fracking Our Future: Where's the Water?
Everything You Need to Know About Water and Community Impacts from Hydraulic Fracturing
Fracking Our Future is the first report to provide a comprehensive measure of water and community impacts from hydraulicfracturing. This timely report addresses the questions, "How much water is required for new production, such as through the process of hydraulic fracturing, and where will that water come from?" It provides specific recommendations to guide future development that decision makers can use in developing policies to make sure that water resources are properly managed along with oil and gas development.
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/frackwater/
canonfodder
(208 posts)The majority of reports I saw, related to the issue, indicated the drought, and not the "fracking".
"Fracking" was implicated as a small contributor to the problem.
Barnhart has had this issue many times in the past, all related to lack of rainfall.
There are a few articles that do point to it, however, if you read the source correct, they are anti-fracking to start with.
Wounded Bear
(58,719 posts)is left to the 'invisible hand of the market.' When water's only value is how much money one can get for it, then the large corporate interests will dominate and people will go without.
Texas is certainly not the only place where this type of thing is happening now, or very imminent.
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)farming, and fracking. But not just fracking.
Barnhart has had water trouble for years.
Wounded Bear
(58,719 posts)much of West Texas is on the edge of, or actually in desert. One would think that water management would be a priority.
Of course when corporate interests get involved, most logic kind of falls by the wayside.
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)explaining that they had to have water trucked in. I don't remember if it was 2009 or 2010.
It's not about xeriscaping in Barnhart, or farming there. It's also about water drained from one area to use further down towards the coast, isn't it? Isn't there bickering over Colorado River allocation in central Texas versus the farmlands (rice, cotton, etc) along the coastal plains?
Texas has a water crisis and big industry and the politicians on their parole don't want to think about that.
malaise
(269,186 posts)Now frack off!! Keep on hating regulations! Oh and fuck Rick Perry!
bravenak
(34,648 posts)We had water problems in California too. People spray painted the Brown lawns green. Why on earth would you give up your water for fracking? Especially when you live in a dry area? Don't you need that to drink?