Saving our water surpasses fracking

I recently read two articles in my local newspaper, one about a looming drought and the other about the county investigating fracking.

This article notes that two fracking companies “used a combined total of 4.2 billion gallons of water in 2022.”

Fracking uses surface water or fresh groundwater. It has been used in more than 180,000 wells in Alberta since the 1950s. Because water for fracking is commonly combined with chemicals, the water used in the process is not recovered. Unlike almost any other use, fracking water is taken permanently out of the normal water cycle.

I believe it when we are told there is a looming water shortage. However, it doesn't seem that we currently have a shortage of the oil and gas that fracking produces. Therefore, in our current circumstance, it seems that fracking is likely not the best use for our water.

Last year, the Oldman reservoir dropped so low that water had to be trucked into the district of Pincher Creek. It cost roughly $7,500 per day. With a forecast of drought again this summer, Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz has said districts are raising the possibility of “interbasin diversion.” This action is not normally even permitted under the Water Act and has many problems of its own.

We should not be giving priority to fracking, which takes billions of gallons of good, usable water permanently out of the system, when people in general and farmers in particular are facing the possibility of critical shortages.

Ross Dabrusin, Olds