California oil producers used 214 acre-feet of water, equivalent to nearly 70 million gallons, in the process of fracking for oil and gas in the state last year, less than previously projected, state officials told Reuters on Thursday. Jerry Brown’s sweeping executive order Wednesday requiring mandatory 25 percent cutbacks on urban and industrial water use is another welcome step toward what Californians must do — learn to live with drought. Jerry Brown issues the state’s first-ever mandatory water restrictions, environmental activists are calling on officials to limit the use of water by oil companies
Jerry Brown announced sweeping mandatory cuts to water use, Californians said they worried that their efforts to scrimp and conserve were simply not enough in the face of a four-year drought that has drained reservoirs, robbed mountains of snow and raised concerns about an increasingly scarce and precious resource. In Marin County, just outside San Francisco, Chas Blackford, 64, recently installed a $500 gray-water system that lets him use water from the laundry machine on the drought-resistant plants in his yard. In addition to depleting water resources, there has been concern over the waste disposal methods used by fracking companies, which deposit the waste into deep wells underground. It’s time for Californians to drop the myths about water use that we tell themselves to avoid taking action — time to end the north vs. south, coast vs. valley, fish vs. farm water wars.
In other efforts to be thrifty, he pours used pasta water onto his garden, shares a bath with his wife and has replaced his lawn with crushed granite. “At this point, there is not much more we can do except be more vigilant,” Mr. Some portion of it is “produced” water, or water that comes to the surface during oil drilling that is not suitable for drinking or agricultural use. In March, California halted drilling at 12 wastewater injection sites due to the possibility that the toxic water could seep into drinking aquifers, though officials maintain there’s no evidence to suggest drinking water has been contaminated. The governor’s order is solutions-oriented, requiring more frequent and more detailed reporting from water agencies to spot water waste and illegal water diversions
In developing the mandate, Brown viewed the agricultural and urban water systems as two different systems, administration officials said, largely because of the effect of diminished state and federal water allocations to farmers. It demands more detailed management plans for, and closer monitoring of, agricultural water use and offers technical assistance for smaller districts lacking the expertise or will to do so.
Of that, two-thirds was put back into the aquifers from which it came or was used to produce more oil through drilling techniques including steam flooding and cyclic steam injection. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, about 9 million acres of farmland in California are irrigated, representing about 80 percent of the water used by people. Felicia Marcus, the head of the State Water Resources Control Board, said her board would release a proposal in about two weeks on how to achieve the 25 percent statewide reduction in water contained in Mr Farmers counter that they have already endured severe water cutbacks forcing them to fallow fields, uproot trees and let go of workers. “We’ve had folks reduced 50, 80 and 100 percent of their water allocation,” said Danny Merkley, director of water resources for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “We don’t like to see this happening to anybody else, but others are starting to feel what we’ve been experiencing.” Politically, agriculture occupies an influential rung in the hierarchy of industries lobbying – and contributing to – California’s elected officials. Brown’s order called for investment in new water technologies and the streamlining of water projects such as desalination plants that turn ocean water into drinking water.
The $40 billion industry employs about 420,000 and has made California the nation’s top agricultural producing state, sustaining its image as the nation’s breadbasket. “Agriculture has a lot of clout,” said former Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento. “I think that for most members, urban or rural, they see agriculture as a very important economic component in California,” and agricultural groups “have generally been unenthusiastic, to say the least, about things that would change the status quo with respect to water.” Until last year, California was the lone Western state that did not regulate withdrawals of groundwater. Communities could be ordered to cut their water consumption by about 10 percent to as high as 35 percent, depending on their conservation efforts to date. The per capita water consumption rate in some communities is two or three times the state average. “There are folks who have been conserving for decades and have been great on conservation,” Ms. A: Before the executive order calling for mandatory water conservation, Brown in January 2014 asked residents to voluntarily slash water use by 20 percent. With Brown urging them on, Dickinson and others responded with bills regulating California’s groundwater, stoking opposition from agricultural groups and from both Republicans and moderate Democrats representing rural districts.
In November, voters overwhelming approved a $7.5 billion water bond, which aims to expand the state’s water storage capacity to better weather droughts. Marcus and other state water officials spent much of Thursday talking to leaders of California’s 400 water agencies, urging them to start the cuts now.