Fracking And Ethanol Industry Poisoning 14 Trillion Gallons Of Water Annually

by Monica Davis

The connection between water, energy, agriculture and climate change is generating a dangerous perfect storm for water resource depletion and resource wars.  As climate change interacts with massive increases in water use and fast track aquifer depletion, we are in the early stages of a dangerous water  shortage in the US and even globally. Competing industries consume trillions of gallons of water, much of it too contaminated to ever be used as drinking water.

Often  grossly unregulated, hydraulic fracking has become the latest cancer on the nation’s water supply, as fracking wells crop up across the nation.   Add ethanol production to the water depleting fracking industry and we are generating a fresh water shortage, which may well be more dangerous than the fossil fuel energy crisis. 

The undisputed champion of the current U.S. energy debate is hydraulic fracturing or fracking. As conventional oil and gas resources become more difficult to come by, energy companies now have to dig deeper than ever to unearth the rich deposits of fossil fuels still available. In order to fracture shale formations that often exist thousands of feet below the surface, drillers use anywhere from 1 to 8 million gallons of water per frack. A well may be fracked up to 18 times. The water, usually drawn from natural resources such as lakes and rivers, is unrecoverable once it’s blasted into the earth, and out of the water cycle for good. Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1l74t)

Fracking alone consumes billions of gallons of water–and the rate is climbing. Fracking, despite the water contamination dangers, is the darling of the energy industry.  It is also the darling of the federal government, because it promises to make the nation energy independent, but at what price?

That industry is powerful, so powerful that it claims that the chemicals used in the process are an industry secret, and can’t be released for research purposes.  Simply put, the industry is releasing untold bilions of contaminated water back into the environment, possibly contaminatiang underground water supplies–forever. That’s 18,000,000 gallons of unrecoverable, poisoned water per fracked well.

Even more dangerous, fracking has been linked to earthquakes, in regions not known to have quakes. Now, in addition to the quake danger,  water resource danger and depletion becomes a major problem;  the 18 million gallons used per fracked well, combined with the consumption of the electricity industry which consumes 40,000 gallons of water for every gallon used by US households, generates a perfect storm for dangeroursly expensive water shortages. And that power generation formula doesn’t include the massive amount of water consumed by the ethanol industry.

Put in perspective, for every gallon of water used in an average household, five times more water (40,000 gallons each month) is used to provide that home with electricity via hydropower turbines and fossil fuel power plants. Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1l74t)

Industry sources say it takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol, and 95 gallons of water to produce one gallon of gasoline from crude oil.  

And its rightfully frightening, because fresh water is in limited supply  

As energy demand goes up, so will the demand for fresh water. The International Energy Agency expects the demand for water just for energy production — not including water for washing, drinking or irrigating crops — to grow twice as quickly as the demand for energy itself. READMOREHERE

Between ethanol production, fracking, and crude oil refiniing, the energy sector uses trillions of gallons of water annually, not including water usage of the nation’s nuclear plants and hydraulic mining industry.  According to Technews Daily so-called clean energy and new tech energy sources use more water than traditional energy sources.

Fifteen percent of the water the world currently uses goes to making energy, according to the International Energy Agency. Nuclear, coal and other power plants use water to make hot steam to turn turbines, plus more water to cool and condense the steam. In addition, some newer energy technologies, including ones designed to be more environmentally friendly, use more water than their traditional counterparts.

About the author:

Monica Davis is an activist, author and public speaker. She is published globally and has written 5 books on energy, politics, farming and veterans’ affairs. . Purchase her e-books or paperback books here