More oil and gas drillers turn to water recycling

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131111/DAA0805G0.html

Nov 11, 1:58 AM (ET)

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI

MIDLAND, Texas (AP) - When the rain stopped falling in Texas, the prairie grass yellowed, the soil cracked and oil drillers were confronted with a crisis. After years of easy access to cheap, plentiful water, the land they prized for its vast petroleum wealth was starting to dry up.

At first, the drought that took hold a few years ago seemed to threaten the economic boom that arose from hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method that uses huge amounts of high-pressure, chemical-laced water to free oil and natural gas trapped deep in underground rocks. But drillers have found a way to get by with much less water: They recycle it using systems that not long ago they may have eyed with suspicion.


A worker looks over tanks holding waste water from hydraulic fracturing Sept. 24, 2013, in Midland, Texas. The water is being statically charged to allow particles of waste to separate and fall to the bottom. Those solids are taken to a landfill, leaving more than 95 percent of the water clean enough to be reused for fracking. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)


"This was a dramatic change to the practices that the industry used for many, many years," said Paul Schlosberg, co-founder and chief financial officer of Water Rescue Services, the company that runs recycling services for Fasken Oil and Ranch in West Texas, which is now 90 percent toward its goal of not using any freshwater for fracturing, or "fracking," as it is commonly known.

Before the drought, "water was prevalent, it was cheap and it was taken for granted," he added.

FULL story at link.

[arcane1]

1. "It was cheap and it was taken for granted"

How's that for an epitaph?

[Mojorabbit]

2. I wonder what is in those solids being taken to the landfill. nt