Big Gulp: Water regs expected to weigh on shale-gas operators

摘要

For all of the gripes about the volume of water used in fracturing shale-gas wells, what's often overlooked is just how much water it takes to make, say, a Coke. In 2010, natural gas drilling consumed 79 million gallons of water per day (GPD) from the Susquehanna River Basin, which delivers about half^of the fresh water that flows to the Chesapeake Bay. In 2009, after Coca-Cola cut its annual water use by an impressive 2.9%, it still drank up 224 million GPD.