To: The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Legislature: Stop Water Hogs
I urge you to support tough, mandatory water conservation standards on some of the state's biggest water hogs, including oil and gas companies. Without a dramatic change from business as usual, Texas’ water scarcity problem will only get worse.
Why is this important?
Last year, we saw one of the worst droughts in history: Reservoirs dipped to record-lows. Stretches of the Rio Grande, Brazos and Guadalupe rivers ran dry. As many as 500 million trees across Texas died. And we're not out of the woods yet: 72% of Texas is still in drought and 11 reservoirs are still less than 10 percent full.
But despite these very real and current conditions, some of Texas’ most powerful industries are still wasting billions of gallons of water—a precious resource that we—and our environment—depend upon.
For example, using a new drilling technique known as "fracking", oil and gas companies used 25 billion gallons of water last year in Texas, the vast majority of which was contaminated and then injected deep underground, forever removed from the hydrologic cycle.
But despite these very real and current conditions, some of Texas’ most powerful industries are still wasting billions of gallons of water—a precious resource that we—and our environment—depend upon.
For example, using a new drilling technique known as "fracking", oil and gas companies used 25 billion gallons of water last year in Texas, the vast majority of which was contaminated and then injected deep underground, forever removed from the hydrologic cycle.