If you stopped at Cabot’s Third Annual Community Picnic last weekend, you may have learned that it takes us approximately 3.9 million gallons of water to fracture a Marcellus Shale well. So where do we get all of the water that we use and what do we do with it once we’ve completed the fracturing process? That’s exactly what one follower asked us last week in the #AskCabot question: “Where does the Water that Cabot uses come from?”We answered the question with “The water comes from a variety of sources including recycled water and local creeks.” Hopefully, you had a chance to stop by the ComTech Industries Inc. booth in our industry exhibitors section at the picnic last weekend and learn more about our water management. Comtech, headquartered in Washington, Pa., manages all of Cabot’s water use, from the time it leaves the stream, to how much is used and to how it is recycled.ComTech Industries Inc. began business in 1995 with a focus on water treatment chemical sales and in 2005 launched a research and development program to “provide solutions for all areas of the drilling process, including pit mud, flow back, produced waters, mud solidification, waste solidification and AMD.”Did you know:

  • The oil and gas industries combined account for only one percent of national water usage. This is quite small compared to the water used for thermoelectric power generation, municipal water supplies, agricultural and other industrial concerns across the nation. And remember, water is used only once per natural gas operation – compared to long-term use of water resources by other industries that can last for years, decades or longer.
  • Water needed for a Cabot well equals the amount it would take to water a golf course for 20 days. It also represents 5 and a half minutes of water use in New York City and accounts for the amount of water needed for 9 and a half hours or use at a 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant. The amount of water needed to fracture one well could also water six acres of corn in a growing season.
  • Both Cabot and ComTech are committed to the utmost level of environmental safety when it comes to water use. ComTech collects water samples twice per week from both incoming (untreated) and outbound (treated) for submission to an outside lab for full water analysis. This data is rolled up and tracked, and then submitted to Cabot each month.

For more information about how Cabot ensures environmental safety and proper water recycling, read our Mulligan insert called “Cabot and Water Use… It’s Time to Get the Facts.”  If you would like to have a question featured in our blog, remember that today is an #AskCabot Thursday on Twitter. Tweet us your questions today with the tag #AskCabot.