Fracking eyed as drain on water

From The Philadelphia Enquirer

"The Marcellus Shale natural gas industry has a huge thirst for water — to hydraulically fracture a single gas well requires upward of a thousand tanker-trucks of water.

And so during the summer, when some streams here in gas-rich northern Pennsylvania naturally turn into trickles, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission pays close attention to ensure that drilling interests don’t suck the state’s creeks dry.

The SRBC, an interstate agency responsible for managing the Susquehanna watershed, this summer has suspended withdrawals from as many as 40 permitted locations because of seasonal low flows. Most of the suspended locations affect gas drillers. ...

But until the industry finishes building freshwater pipeline networks to move water out of view to remote drilling sites, the industry is reliant upon thousands of tanker trucks to ferry water to their impoundments. And the truck traffic makes the industry’s water consumption very visible indeed.

Chesapeake maintains 51 impoundments in the region that can hold up to 15 million gallons each, Grove said. A single impoundment might require 4,000 round trips to fill."

FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Fracking_eyed_as_drain_on_water_08-31-2011.html