© Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
That amount is of water used is less than previously projected by industry -- which estimated fracking used about 100 million gallons of water per year. Nevertheless, water in California is at premium. The state is entering its fourth year of record drought, and a mandatory water reduction plan was announced last week by Governor Jerry Brown. California may only have 12 months' worth of water left, as snowpack measurements for the year are set to hit record lows. Yet fracking operations are not included in the conservation efforts.
To unleash oil or natural gas from shale or other areas, the fracking process requires blasting large volumes of highly pressurized water, sand, and other chemicals into layers of rock. Once used, toxic fracking wastewater is then either stored in deep underground wells, disposed of in open pits for evaporation, sprayed into waste fields, or used over again.
As the california drought continues it's rampage, Fracking Companies go undisturbed.#CaliforniaDrought"Hydraulic fracturing uses a relatively small amount of water - the equivalent of 514 households annually," Steven Bohlen, the state oil and gas supervisor, told Reuters, which first reported the water usage figure.
— IPL (@IsaacPLambert) April 4, 2015
Comment: Looks like a large portion of Spiegel readers are smart enough to know when they are reading propaganda and to leave it behind. The popular German magazine is functioning similarly to mainstream media in the U.S. - merely as a mouthpiece for the government. Perhaps they will realize that their biased reporting isn't such a profitable position. Best not to hold your breath though. The majority of journalists in the Western world are shills for government propaganda, and Spiegel isn't any different.