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Canadian Firm Plans Fracking Campaign That Could Require 4 Billion Gallons Of Michigan Water | Bridge Michigan

Fracking Plan Could Use Billions Of Gallons Of Michigan Water
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KALKASKA -- A Canadian firm has laid out plans to drill 500 new natural gas wells in Northern Michigan, using a technique that could consume more than 4 billion gallons of groundwater -- or about as much water as Traverse City uses in two years.

The firm, Encana Corp., will rely on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," a technique cloaked in controversy that requires large amounts of water, mixed with chemicals and other elements, to break down rock formations and release natural gas. Encana, for example, used 8.5 million gallons of groundwater earlier this month to frack a single gas well, the Westerman in Kalkaska County, east of Traverse City.

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