Fracked to the last drop

Most of the hydraulic fracturing going on in the United States occurs in drought-stricken areas, a report finds.

Fracking companies used 97 billion gallons of water in the process of stimulating almost 40,000 wells from January 2011 to March 2013, according to a recent article at Grist.org. And “[n]early half of the wells hydraulically fractured since 2011 were in regions with high or extremely high water stress, and over 55 percent were in areas experiencing drought,” according to the report issued by sustainability-focused coalition Ceres. “In Colorado and California, 97 [percent] and 96 percent of the wells, respectively, were in regions with high or extremely high water stress.”

Citing the Ceres report, the article noted that Texas-headquartered Anadarko Petroleum Corp. “is the worst offender when it comes to tapping parched regions for water used in fracking operations.”