The Railroad Commission Informs Me

Today I called the Railroad Commission and spoke with Charles. Everyday I drive by several dozens of Barnett Shale gas wells. I have witnessed one well being fraced three times in the past year. Several people, who should know of such things, told me to call the RRC and get the frac records or get the API number and look up the information online. Since there was no sign on the gate, which is a violation, I looked the well up on the Public GIS Map Viewer for Oil, Gas, and Pipeline Data. When I found the API number I called the RRC and was connected to Charles.

Here’s what I learned from Charles:

1. Frac records don’t exist. So, operators can frac a well any time they please and they are required to report to no one. They don’t even have to file pretend reports where they make shit up which is what people who should be in the know told me.
2. Horizontal wells are only fraced once but they do the fracing in stages of about 500 feet each frac. He said they use about 5 million gallons for the whole frac job.
3. Vertical wells are fraced frequently but they don’t often drill vertical wells any more.
4. They are drilling approximately 240 wells per month in the Barnett Shale.

I asked Charles how the hell we are supposed to know how much water they are using. They quote figures, they say it’s only 2% of the total water usage, but how do we know? He said, “We don’t know. All we can do is guess based on what they tell us.”

That’s why we need the Groundwater Conservation District to pass in the November election.

Let’s do the math based on our best guess:

We’ll use 10 years but keep in mind that they’ve already been at this for a while.

And, how much water is that?

Please keep in mind that 144,000,000,000 is just an approximate number. No one knows for sure what the water usage is.

I asked Charles if he was concerned about permanently removing such a significant amount of water from our water table at a time when, because of our rapidly expanding population, our water needs are increasing dramatically. He admitted that he is very concerned.
Even if they are telling the truth (what are the odds) and drilling is only using 2% of our water every year, that’s a lot of water over time–20% in 10 years. And, this is happening all over the US.

Then Charles told me that climate change is the biggest scam ever. So, I’m not really sure what I learned for sure. Consider the source, I guess.