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Unconventional oil and gas development and its stresses on water resources in the context of Water-Energy-Food Nexus: The case of Weld County, CO

  • December 2015
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.35874.79049
  • Conference: American Geophysical Union 2015 Fall Meeting
  • At: San Francisco, CA
Authors:
Panagiotis D. Oikonomou at University of Vermont
Panagiotis D. Oikonomou
Reagan Waskom
Reagan Waskom
Reagan Waskom
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Karie Boone at Colorado State University
Karie Boone
Joseph N Ryan
Joseph N Ryan
Joseph N Ryan
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
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GC33C-1309: Unconventional oil and gas development and its
stresses on water resources in the context of Water-Energy-Food
Nexus: The case of Weld County, Colorado
Abstract:
The development of unconventional oil and gas resources in Colorado started to rapidly increase since the
early 2000's. The recent oil price plunge resulted in a decline of well starts' rate in the US, but in Weld County,
Colorado, it is currently at the 2013-levels. The additional water demand, despite its insignificant percentage in
overall state's demand (0.1% in 2012), it competes with traditional ones, since Colorado's water is almost fully
appropriated. Presently, the state has 53,597 active producing oil and gas wells. More than 40% of these are
located in Weld County, which happens also to be one of top food production U.S. counties. The competition
for land and water resources between the energy and agricultural sectors in water stressed areas, like the
western U.S., is further intensified if recycle and reuse practices are not preferred to water disposal by the
energy industry. Satisfying the multiple objectives of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in order to achieve
sustainable economic development requires balanced management of these resources. Identifying pressures
on key areas that food and energy sectors are competing for water, is essential for prudent water management
and developing appropriate policies. Weld County, as a water stressed and fossil fuel producing area, was
selected for investigating current stresses on local water resources alongside with future climatic and water
demand scenarios for exploring probable long-term effects.
Authors
Panagiotis D. Oikonomou*
Colorado State University
Reagan Waskom
Colorado State University
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Joseph Nolte Ryan
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... In 2010, the estimated irrigated parcel area in the basin was 3426 km 2 (846,634 acres) ( Colorado Decision Support Systems, 2016 ). Industrial activities are also present in the basin, including water demand for unconventional oil and gas development ( Oikonomou et al., 2016;Oikonomou et al., 2015b;Oikonomou et al., 2015c ). Groundwater plays a substantial role in meeting these water needs, particularly in the agricultural sector. ...
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