Posted July 9, 2014
The
115-year-old Kern River oil field is providing another valuable commodity to
California’s Central Valley: water, according to a New York Times article by
Norimitsu Onishi available here.
CNBC also published the NY Times article here.
Chevron
owns the field and sells millions of gallons every day to a local water
district that distributes it to farmers growing almonds, pistachios, citrus
fruits, and other crops.
The water
is pumped out of the same underground rock that contains oil. After the two are
separated, the water flows through an eight-mile pipeline to Bakersfield’s Cawelo Water District, which will
rely heavily on Chevron’s supply this year. The district sells the supply
exclusively to farmers for irrigation, and they reduce salinity in water by
blending it with water from other sources.
“These are
the years that it really shines, because that water is constant no matter what
the hydrology is,” said David R. Ansolabehere, the district’s general manager.
“In wet years, it almost becomes a problem because we don’t have so much use for
it. But in dry years, boy, it really does come in handy.”
Criticized for its use of water, especially in the
process known as “fracking”, the oil industry is focusing on efforts to
conserve and recycle water and increase irrigation supply. Critics are
dismissing the efforts as a political ploy.
California
relies on industry figures to determine the amount and kind of water used in
oil production. According to the Western States Petroleum Association, 323
acre-feet of water were used in fracking 830 wells in California in 2013,
compared with 2.7 million acre-feet for agriculture in Kern County.
"It's
almost impossible to get information," said Adam Scow, the California
campaign director for Food and Water Watch. "How much water is the oil
industry using every year, whether it's fracking, acidizing, cyclic steaming or
other methods?"
Oil
producers and farmers have resided peacefully in Kern County for decades, but
that has changed recently.
Due to
advances in drilling technology, oil companies have moved into agricultural
areas. The drought is also another hardship on the relationship.
Richard
Howitt, an emeritus professor of agricultural and resource economics who was
the lead author of the report for the State Department of Food and Agriculture,
said it was not possible to measure the effect of the oil industry's water
consumption on agriculture. But given the intensity of the drought, Mr. Howitt
cautioned against increasing fracking.
About
760,000 barrels of water a day are produced at the Kern River oil field as
compared to 70,000 barrels of oil, and half of that water goes to the Cawelo
Water District.
In normal
years, Chevron’s water is a slightly cheaper than water bought from the state,
which sells for $30 to $60 per acre-foot, said Mr. Ansolabehere, the water
district manager. This year, while the price of Chevron’s water is unchanged,
water from the state is valued up to $1,300 per acre-foot. Water districts
receive only a small fraction of what they are supposed to get from the state,
he added.
For background on the California drought, previous posts
from this blog are available here
and here.
