Water Grab in Kansas Oil Boom
June 12th, 2012Via: CNN:
In the farm country of southern Kansas, water is a precious commodity. And not just for farming — for fracking.
In hydraulic fracturing, water is injected into the ground at a high pressure to help crack shale rock and bring oil to the surface. The industry says it takes as much as 2 million gallons of water to drill a single horizontal well in Kansas.
Most drillers use groundwater or surface water from ponds and rivers. But first they must receive permission from whoever has rights to it and get a permit. Water permits have soared to the highest level in 30 years.
At the same time, many of the Kansas oil boomtown counties are already under “drought watch,” and last month was the second driest May on record.
