CARRIZO SPRINGS, TX -- The oil boom could mean a bust for some of South Texas' water supply. The increase in drilling in the area has oil companies competing for the water supply with farmers, ranchers and cities.
Combined with the lingering drought, the scarcity of water could bring about water rationing.
"We got a great crop, but it's not as big as it usually is, just because we didn't get any rain," said Bruce Frasier, of Dixondale Farms.
A patch of green in this dusty, South Texas landscape is interrupted by a line of fruit pickers hauling cantaloupes - a fruit that had no chance in the drought if it hadn't been for irrigation.
"We're placing water exactly where the plant needs it," Frasier said.
Farmers like Frasier have to dig deeper for their water, and it’s more costly by the foot for his water wells.
In addition to the worst drought in 40 years, there's now something else sucking up the water: oil wells.
"We've been in business 98 years and we've seen oil booms come and go," Frasier said. "But this one, one of the biggest differences is that we've never seen the need for water quite what they're doing now."
The water is needed for a process called "fracking." That's where high pressure jets of sand, chemicals and water are pumped into the rock formations to release the trapped oil and gas.
According to records, it takes approximately 13 million gallons of water to produce one oil well.
A farmer can allegedly use that same amount of water to irrigate over 120 acres for two days.
Combine all that in a Texas-size drought, and experts on the Texas Water Development Board said the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer is shrinking.
"Because there's already so much water being pumped out of it, even before the industry has come in, we've seen water levels decline tens of feet," said Robert Mace, an analyst for the state’s Water Development Board. "In some cases, hundreds of feet."
Mace said the Carrizo-Wilcox is an aquifer that takes years to replenish.
Oil rig outfitters and landmen said without that water, the oil rush could come to a halt.
"The water drying up could run people out, because they use a lot of water for fracking," said James Lee, a landman.
To compensate, oil companies are considering recycling their fracking water. Others are looking into de-salination technology, using pressurized gas or even buying waste water from nearby cities.
Frasier has built a retention pond on his farmland.
A bumper crop of rain could bring him some extra cash, selling to his parched, oil-producing neighbors.
"You can go anywhere from 35 cents a barrel to 70 cents a barrel. At that time I will see. Maybe I'll just sell water and quit farming, but I don't think so,” he laughed.
Because of the demand in drilling oil wells, new state legislation gives local water boards the ability to track water usage by oil producers in an effort to establish parameters for drawing water.
The Texas Water Development Board and The University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology will release a new study this month, centered upon the fracking-water demand on the state’s aquifers.
