Water & Fracking
Protecting Our Water
Water is one of Southern Illinois’ most valuable resources. Our communities depend on groundwater, private wells, streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs for drinking water, agriculture, recreation, wildlife, and everyday life.
Mni Wiconi =Water is Life
Hydraulic fracturing is closely connected to water throughout the entire process—from withdrawing water to create fracking fluid to managing the wastewater that returns to the surface afterward.
Understanding what happens to that water, and how drinking-water resources can be affected, is an important part of understanding fracking.
The Fracking Water Cycle
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes five stages in the hydraulic-fracturing water cycle:
Water acquisition —
Groundwater or surface water is withdrawn for use in hydraulic-fracturing fluid.
Chemical mixing —
Water is combined with sand or another proppant and chemical additives to create the fluid that will be injected into the well.
Well injection —
The fluid is pumped into the well under high pressure to fracture the targeted rock formation.
Produced water handling —
Water returning to the surface after fracturing is collected, stored, transported, and managed.
Wastewater disposal or reuse —
Wastewater must ultimately be reused, treated, discharged where permitted, or disposed of through another approved method.
Potential impacts to water resources can occur at different points in this cycle.
How Can Drinking Water Be Affected?
The EPA’s comprehensive assessment of hydraulic fracturing and drinking water found scientific evidence that activities in the hydraulic-fracturing water cycle can affect drinking-water resources under some circumstances.
The EPA identified several situations in which impacts may be more frequent or severe, including:
The EPA documented impacts at every stage of the hydraulic-fracturing water cycle. Those impacts ranged from temporary changes in water quality to contamination that made some private drinking-water wells unusable.
At the same time, the EPA found significant gaps in available data and did not attempt to estimate how frequently drinking-water impacts occur nationwide.
Hydraulic fracturing requires substantial quantities of water.
Water Use
Where that water comes from matters. Withdrawals from streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, or groundwater can place additional pressure on local water resources, particularly during dry periods or in areas where water supplies are already limited.
For Southern Illinois, questions about water use should include not only how much water a project requires, but where that water will come from and what effect its withdrawal could have on nearby communities and ecosystems.
Spills and Surface Water
Once a well has been fractured, the water returning to the surface presents another challenge.
This wastewater can include some of the fluids originally injected into the well as well as water and other substances originating underground. It must be collected and managed rather than simply released into the environment.
Depending on the circumstances and applicable regulations, wastewater may be transported elsewhere, treated, reused in additional oil and gas operations, or disposed of underground.
That means the potential effects of fossil-fuel development can extend beyond the location of the original well. Wastewater storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal are also part of the picture.
Groundwater and Private Wells
Groundwater is particularly important in rural areas where families may depend on private wells rather than public water systems.
Groundwater moves beneath property lines. Contamination underground can therefore be difficult to detect, trace, and clean up.
Protecting groundwater requires preventing contamination in the first place, maintaining the integrity of oil and gas wells, safely managing chemicals and wastewater, and identifying problems as early as possible.
Southern Illinois Water Is Worth Protecting
Southern Illinois is shaped by water.
Our streams, wetlands, lakes, rivers, springs, and groundwater support communities, farms, forests, wildlife, recreation, and some of the most treasured natural areas in Illinois.
Once a water resource is damaged, restoring it can be difficult, expensive, or sometimes impossible.
That is why SAFE believes decisions involving fracking and other fossil-fuel development should begin with a fundamental question:
How will we protect the water that Southern Illinois depends upon?
Why SAFE Pays Attention to Water
SAFE was created in large part because Southern Illinois residents understood that decisions about fossil-fuel development could have consequences long after a well is drilled.
We monitor proposed development, permits, regulations, research, and emerging information about oil and gas operations so that potential threats to our region’s water resources are not overlooked.
Communities deserve to know where their water comes from, what activities could affect it, how wastewater will be handled, and what protections are in place before development occurs.