Timing and location of withdrawal is poorly understood

Nearly half of the wells fracked since 2011 were in areas with "high or extremely high" water stress; more than 55% were in areas experiencing drought, said the analysts. Extremely high water stress is defined as 80% of available surface and groundwater already allocated for municipal, industrial and agricultural uses.However, there's still a lack of reliable, publicly available water-use and management data in many areas of the country, which has hindered industry efforts to develop "appropriately flexible and adaptive best management practices. Timing and location of withdrawal is poorly understood, particularly as water needs in fracturing spike at early stages of development."

That hasn't stopped some of the biggest E&Ps from going it alone, using non-potable water sources whenever possible.Drilling tools are packed with'puter sensors that adjust on the fly Analysts said that choice has to b'e the "default management choice for shale development." Water for fracking could be sourced from surface water, groundwater fresh and saline brackish, and wastewater or through recycling.Analysts dug deeper into individual E&P'pany practices to learn about best management practices now in place. What they found was "little evidence of group-level, formalized water policies and management systems." Overall, there's been "poor industry performance on water disclosure."

The best example of water accounting found was by Occidental Petroleum Corp. Oxy, now headquartered in California, where regulations often are stricter than in other parts of the country. In addition to providing water withdrawals that are broken out by water sources freshwater, municipal, non freshwater, Oxy details produced water recycling data and produced water management.Chemical disclosures on the voluntary FracFocus website also have progressed, according to researchers. In that category, Apache scored tops on toxicity reduction in North American operations.More regulations by local and state regulators also are in the offing, and E&Ps should consider preparing for them now. Today, mandates for baseline water testing pre and post drilling are required only in Wyoming and Colorado. Pennsylvania doesn't require testing, but "the relevant resumption of liability for pollution of nearby water sources applies," analysts said.