Fracking will destroy our water supply. It consumes fresh water in quantities that are almost unimaginable.
Just one well will consume 30 million gallons of water.
The fracking industry says: So what? Other industries use that much water.
But: What they do not tell you is how many wells they intend to drill. In the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, where fracking is already extensive, the industry has sunk 16 wells per square mile.
16 wells = 480 million gallons of fresh water used up per square mile.
Where is this water to come from? Fracking cannot be done with dirty water, taken directly from the Ohio or Mississippi rivers, or Lake Michigan. The industry needs clean, drinking water.
The New Albany shale region of Southern Illinois covers 2,344 sq miles. To frack the entire New Albany shale region of Southern Illinois will require: 1,125,000,000,000 gallons of water.
For comparison, when full: The Lake of Egypt contains 13,500,000,000 gallons of water. Crab Orchard contains 20,983,000,000 gallons of water. Cedar Lake contains 7,983,360,000 gallons of water.
That means that fracking the entire New Albany Shale region of Southern Illinois would: Empty Lake of Egypt more than 80 times. Empty Crab Orchard more than 50 times. Empty Cedar Lake more than 140 times.
In other industries which use large amounts of water (such as to cool electric power plants) the water is cleaned and returned to the water cycle.
Frack water is terribly toxic. It contains salts in high concentration (EPA rates its salinity equivalent to the dead sea), substantial amounts of radioactive material which bubble up from the shale, and highly toxic chemicals added by the industry. It cannot be recycled. It must be put in holding wells, which will inevitably contaminate our ground water.
A long-term drought is already challenging our agriculture and human needs.
Do we really want the fracking industry to take all our fresh water in order to extract natural gas to sell to China in the midst of this drought?
This is what Southern Illinois will look like if we permit fracking:
Water tankers lined up along farms
Water hoses are used so often by tanker trucks they are left on the bank of creeks and rivers.
If our fresh water is used up, Southern Illinois may even come to look like this…
Several Counties in Eastern Ohio have placed a moratorium on fracking until such time as the industry explains where all the water will come from and what impact it will have on their local water supply.
Let us stand together to protect our families and make our voices heard!
