Who Needs Water More?
Here’s a great example of why we need to have clear priorities and conserve resources in order to meet the demands placed by a growing population. In Colorado, where drought has made water even scarcer than usual, there’s not enough to go around. Farmers need it to irrigate their crops; drillers need it to frack for gas. In an interesting analysis, one farmer says,
“It’s not a level playing field,” said Peter Anderson, who grows corn and alfalfa on eastern Colorado’s parched plains. “I don’t think, in reality, that the farmer can compete with the oil and gas companies for that water. Their return is a hell of a lot better than ours.”
Maybe in a straight financial analysis of return on investment, but that’s still a strange view when comparing natural gas to food.
It will be interesting to see how battles like this play out, especially as gas companies use their resources to buy land with their eye not on mineral rights but on water rights.
Read the whole article at
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/farmers-battling-drillers-over-water-amid-drought-652068/
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/farmers-battling-drillers-over-water-amid-drought-652068/