As Texas’s population booms and the state grows hotter and drier, it’s more important than ever to understand: Who’s wasting our water? Without water, there’s no fracking. Without fracking, there’s no twenty-first-century Texas oil boom. Water’s role is evident in the full name of the process—hydraulic fracturing.Drillers pump water, laced with sand and chemicals, deep into the ground to crack open the ancient rocks of the Permian Basin, releasing trapped fossil fuels from their primordial prison. About half of that water—three million barrels a day—is drawn from the region’s fast-dwindling aquifers. That’s enough to feed the faucets of more than 600,000 Texas households, enough for the city of Dallas.Water helped turn the Permian Basin into one of the world’s largest oil fields. Each day, more than…
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