Water Use for Hydraulic Fracturing of Oil and Gas in the South Platte River Basin, Colorado

Abstract

Water use for oil and gas development (i.e., hydraulic fracturing) is a concern in semiarid basins where water supply is often stressed to meet demands, and oil and gas production can exacerbate the situation. Understanding the impacts of water use for hydraulic fracturing (HF) on water availability in semiarid regions is critical for management and regulatory decisions. In the current work, we quantify water use for HF at several scales — from municipal to state‐wide — using the IHS Enerdeq database for the South Platte Basin. In addition, we estimate produced water (a by‐product of oil and gas production), using data from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to explore reuse scenarios. The South Platte River Basin, located in northeastern Colorado, encompasses the Denver‐Metro area. The basin has one of the most productive oil and gas shale formations in Colorado, with much of the production occurring in Weld County. The basin has experienced higher horizontal drilling rates coupled with an increasing population. Results show water use for horizontal and vertical wells averages 11,000 and 1,000 m3, respectively. Water use for HF in the South Platte Basin totaled 0.63% of the basin's 2014 total water demand. For Weld County, water use for HF was 2.4% of total demand, and for the city of Greeley, water use was 7% of total demand. Produced water totaled 9.4 Mm3 in the basin for 2014, which represents 42% of the total water used for HF.

Activity and Water Footprint of Unconventional Energy Production under Hydroclimate Variation in Colorado

“…In Colorado, the oil and gas companies typically acquire water from other water users that hold water rights (e.g., irrigation, city water, or raw and treated wastewater from a water provider), because Colorado's water rights system is based on the prior appropriation doctrine. 33 The UOG industry could obtain water by leasing from the municipalities (surface water from the Colorado River Basin), 44 purchasing treated wastewater that would otherwise be discharged into surface water, or leasing agricultural irrigation water from landowners (surface water from a ditch or canal). 33 The oil and gas companies are willing to pay considerably higher prices for water than the agricultural sector.…”

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Regional Sustainability, and Hydraulic Fracturing: An Integrated Assessment of the Denver Region

“…About 70-80% of Colorado's precipitation falls west of the Continental Divide and 80-90% of the state's population lives east of the Divide. The Colorado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT), built between 1938 and 1956, supplies water more than 2.6 Gm 2 of irrigated farmland and approximately 880,000 people in northeastern Colorado in eight counties, including Boulder, Broomfield, and Weld [8].…”

“…Fracking and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (Table 2). c) Amount of recycling of fluids used to offset freshwater requirements: In Colorado, the amount of produced water reused is not tracked and the reuse of produced water is not mandatory [8,21,47]. d) Local water availability: Reflecting national trends, the total base water volume for hydraulic fracturing has steadily increased over time, doubling from one-half billion gallons in 2016 to almost 1 trillion in 2017 [46].…”

“…Public complaints: nearly sixfold increase from 190 in 2016 to 1,124 in 2017 Home explosion in the town of Firestone caused by abandoned gas line from existing well wastewater is injected into the ground or taken to evaporation ponds [8]. Metals and radioactive elements accumulate in aquatic sediments at disposal and spill sites [ [13]; Figure 10].…”

“…HVHF-"fracking"-combined with horizontal drilling is a timely, important, and contentious example of the interconnection between water and energy systems: it is a water-intensive process that uses high-pressure water to create cracks in underground shale formations to extract previously inaccessible gas and petroleum [8]. It has been described as a "wicked" problem: one involving complex and opaque science and policymaking, overlapping areas of policy jurisdiction, requiring coordinated action among divided stakeholders, and resulting in limited solutions with complex consequences [9,10].…”