Water resources in the arid west are allocated, and sometimes oversubscribed, to a range of regional uses, including urban supply, recreation, riparian flow, industry and agriculture. The assessment of water resources for activities such as shale gas drilling has generally been conducted at the project level, e.g. the potential environmental impacts of an individual well on its immediate surroundings.  An assessment of water use in an arid region for unconventional energy development such as hydraulic fracturing has rarely been performed at the watershed scale. There is extensive and growing unconventional energy development in the Denver-Julesburg Basin located in northeastern Colorado as well as parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. Current work encompasses an evaluation of the water budget in the South Platte watershed, which includes the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin, and how hydraulic fracturing in this region is affecting water resources and stakeholder needs. An assessment of groundwater and surface water withdrawals for hydraulic fracturing is also being conducted.  Findings are compared to other regions with high unconventional energy development including Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Ultimately, work will be integrated with source water quality investigations to facilitate additional advances in this important area.

Water supply and unconventional energy development in the Denver-Julesburg basin: A case study in the South Platte watershed

249th National Meeting (2015)

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