Oil Fracking In Texas

With the increased scale of fracking in Texas, one might wonder if the oil boom is affecting our water supply. The value of water in Texas is deeply cherished considering Texas’s dry climate and long-standing droughts. One may even wonder if Texas is valuing its water as much as it is its oil. As research furthers, we can begin to weigh the positive and negative effects of oil fracking. By providing overwhelming data on oil fracking and it’s effect on our water supply, we will begin to understand the vast impact of oil fracking in Texas.
One of the court hearings that has debated the issue of oil fracking has been FPL Farming v. Environmental Processing Systems. In the hearing, FPL Farming accused Environmental Processing Systems that “wastewater

One of these groups that proclaim this has been the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. According to the Texas Tribune, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reported that there is “no evidence that hydraulic fracturing has led to widespread, systemic impacts on the nation’s drinking water” (Malewitz). This report was published to calm the public’s concern over the possibility of water contamination. Christi Craddick, chairwomen of the Texas Land Commission, states that, “Texans have known for sixty-plus years that hydraulic fracturing, when well regulated, is not only safe but critical to unleashing America’s true oil and gas production potential” (Malewitz). Critics of this finding still have problems with this publication due to unanswered questions. Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, states that, “The EPA’s water quality study confirms what millions of Americans already know—that dirty oil and gas fracking contaminates drinking water” and that “the EPA chose to leave many critical questions unanswered” (Malewitz). It is critical that the EPA works with the general public to answer every question so that we can begin to work together to understand the complexity of this

According to Climatecentral.org, “fracking for natural gas used to produce electricity may make Texas more drought resistant as the state shifts from coal power generation to natural gas power generation” (Magill). This could be a major breakthrough for Texas because not only would we produce electricity and save our environment, but we would also save millions of gallons of water. The amount of water we could save by shifting from coal to natural gas plants “is up to 50 times the amount of water lost in fracking to extract the natural gas from underground shale formations. According to the article, “The study’s authors estimate that for every gallon of water used to frack for natural gas, Texas saved 33 gallons of water by using that gas for electricity generation rather than producing the same amount of power with coal” (Magill). By fracking for natural gas and shifting from coal to natural gas power generation plants, we could benefit economically, save our environment, and save millions of gallons of