On June 30, 2015, the
U.S. Geological Survey released an article
assessing the amount of water injected during hydraulic fracturing operation
across the United States and its potential environmental impacts. The article
is entitled “Hydraulic fracturing water use variability in the United States
and potential environmental implications.”
According to the
article, the amount of fresh water used for hydraulic fracturing is different
from one state to another because of regional variations in terms of local
climate, geological strata, hydrologic flow, and management practices applied
to natural gas drilling and production. USGS also determines that well
configurations within specific hydrocarbon reservoirs affect the water use. As
a result, the potential for environmental impacts is greatly influenced by oil
and gas characteristics among the states.
The researchers
concluded that “because hydraulic fracturing is not a one-size-fits-all
operation, assumptions and generalizations regarding water use in hydraulic
fracturing operations and the potential for environmental impacts should be
made with caution.”
As part of the report,
researchers provided a national-scale map
of hydraulic fracturing water usage. Further information is available at http://energy.usgs.gov/default.aspx.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
07/03/2015
No comments:
Post a Comment