Mixing Oil and Water

New oil and gas drilling techniques such as hydraulic fracking require vast quantities of water.  Each oil well drilled in arid South Texas can require 6 million gallons of water to break open rocks deep in the earth and  release oil and natural gas according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

This sounds like the use of an enormous amount of water resources until it is compared to the amount of water it takes to irrigate a corn crop in the same area.  It takes 407 million gallons of water to irrigate 640 acres of corn to bring it from seed to maturity.

What is the economic result of the use of that water resource?  640 acres of corn would produce about $200,000 of revenues.  The same amount of water used in hydraulic fracking could be used to drill enough wells to generate $2.5 billion of oil.

You might be surprised to learn that only about 7% of the total use of water in the United States is for domestic uses such as drinking, bathing, sanitation, cooking and lawn watering. Most water usage by far is used for thermoelectric power (48%) and irrigation (31%). The remaining 14% is spread between industrial, livestock, mining and aquaculture.

What is the better use of that precious water resource?  Economics are great but you still can't eat oil.  There still must be a good case to use that water for the corn crop.  This would seem to be logical thinking until it is considered  that in the United States it takes an estimated 400 gallons of gasoline equivalents annually to feed each American.  Agricultural energy consumption breaks down this way according to one study I found.

31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer

19% for the operation of field machinery

16% for transportation

13% for irrigation

08% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)

05% for crop drying

05% for pesticide production

08% miscellaneous

I have written about it before but it bears repeating.  Energy is what makes the American economy go. Without affordable and accessible energy the economy is not going to grow.  We also need it to make our crops grow and to bring them to market. 

Water is a precious resource and we need to protect it and conserve it.  However, we also need oil and other fossil fuels to grow and maintain our way of life.  The old adage is that oil and water do not mix.  That thinking does not work when it comes to our economy and our future.  We need to mix and balance both to our best advantage if we are going to optimize our health and wealth looking forward.