When it comes to groundwater quality, fracking receives much of the public attention but misses most of the picture.
“There’s a critical need for long-term—years to decades—monitoring for potential contamination of drinking water resources not only from fracking, but also from conventional oil and gas production,” hydrogeologist Jennifer McIntosh from the University of Arizona said.
Fracking, also known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), is the practice of injecting liquid under high pressure into petroleum-bearing rock formations to produce fractures or cracks that allow recovery of oil and natural gas. But it’s a smaller player in the underground water scene.
“The amount of water injected and produced for conventional oil and gas production exceeds that associated with fracking and unconventional production by well over a factor of ten,” McIntosh said.
While groundwater use varies by region in both countries, about 30 per cent of Canadiansand more than 45 per cent of Americansdepend on the resource for their municipal, domestic, and agricultural needs. In more arid regions of Canada and the United States , surface freshwater supplies are similarly important.
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