Water For Fracking In The Bakken

Anyone Who Tells You Water Is An Issue In The Bakken Is An Idiot
Or Lying

Lake Sakakawea / Garrison Dam Release

So, how much water is being released from the Garrison Dam today? Dynamic link here.

The answer: 20,000 cubic feet/second.

A cubic foot of water: 7 gallons.

• So, in one second: 140,000 gallons of water released from the Garrison Dam today
• In one minute: 8 million gallons of water released from the Garrison Dam today
• In one hour: 500 million gallons of water released from the Garrison Dam today

Less then 4 million gallons of water are used to frack a well, but let's keep it simple:
500 million gallons / 5 million gallons = 100 wells

Enough water is released from the Garrison Dam each hour to frack 100 wells.

2,000 wells will be fracked this year. Less than a day's worth of discharge from the Garrison Dam should be enough water to frack all the wells that will be fracked in the North Dakota Bakken this year.

Lake Sakakawea / Garrison Dam Release

Metric: amount of water being released from the Garrison dam. Dynamic link.

News item: The US Army Corps of Engineers is looking at allowing 30,000 acre-feet of "surplus" Missouri water be used for fracking.

1.  Back in late 2011, it was estimated that approximately 6 acre-feet of water was used to frack a Bakken well.

In a more recent article the estimate was 1 million to 3.5 million gallons of water is used to frack a Bakken well (see paragraph 3 below). The conversion factor: a acre-foot = 325,851 gallons. Therefore 1 million to 3.5 million gallons converts to 3 acre-feet to 10 acre-feet.

Currently, it is estimated that about 2,000 wells will be fracked each year in the Bakken. That equates to somewhere between 6,000 acre-feet to 20,000 acre-feet of water being required to frack Bakken wells on an annual basis. Again, the USACE is looking at releasing 30,000 acre-feet of water.

2.  Maximum water storage of Lake Sakakawea is 23,800,000 acre-feet.

30,000 acre-feet represents 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) of the volume of Lake Sakakawea. [Update: in the June 6, 2013, the NDIC stated that the amount of water needed to frack wells for two years in the Bakken equated to the top one inch of surface water in Lake Sakakawea. Bakken Activity Update, June 6, 2013, a PDF file.]

3. From the third link above:

Thanks to the Bakken shale, the state has become the country's second-biggest oil-producer practically overnight. And while the world still runs on oil, with the rise of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, oil increasingly runs on water. Drillers inject 1 million to 3.5 million gallons of pressurized water into each well to shatter the rock and free the oil. More of the trucks you see are carrying water than anything else, some 400 to 800 truckloads per well.

4. And, of course, the Missouri is not static. As water is removed for fracking (or for farming for that matter) it is being replaced by additional water flowing downriver.

Bottom line: there is more than enough water for fracking in the Bakken. The US Army Corps of Engineers calls it "surplus" water and says they are considering 30,000 acre-feet to be released for fracking. At the very least, this would be enough water to frack 3,000 wells/year in the Bakken, and currently, about 2,000 wells are being fracked annually.

Lake Sakakawea is probably not the only source of water for fracking in the Bakken. Recycling of water for fracking will also decrease the amount of water required.

The Greedy, Greedy US Army Corps of Engineers

May 22, 2010: The story below was posted May 21, 2010 (yesterday). Today it was announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers will NOT impose a moratorium on new water permits from Lake Sakakawea. Very, very good news.

Original Post
May 21, 2010

Earlier this week, I posted a story that there was plenty of water in Lake Sakakawea for fracturing -- that all the water needed for the oil industry represented about two-tenths of one percent of the Missouri River flow.

But it turns out the US Army Corps of Engineers plans to put a hold on any more water coming out of the Missouri.

The corps is proposing a long-term water allocation study that could take at least three years and possibly seven years to complete. During that time, the corps has said, no new lake water intake permits will be issued and existing permits will not be changed for higher capacity.

Yup, anything to destroy the oil industry in this country.