June 2011 Current and Projected Water Use in the Texas Mining and Oil and Gas Industry Prepared for Texas Water Development Board Bureau of Economic Geology Scott W. Tinker, Director Jackson School of Geosciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78713-8924 Cover photo: Aggregate facility in Bexar County (courtesy of Google Earth) Prepared for Texas Water Development Board under Contract No. 0904830939 Jean-Philippe Nicot, P.E., P.G., Anna K. Hebel, Stephanie M. Ritter, Steven Walden1, Russ Baier1, Peter Galusky2, P.E., P.G., James Beach3, P.G., Richard Kyle4, P.G., Leigh Symank3, and Cari Breton June 2011 Bureau of Economic Geology Scott W. Tinker Director Jackson School of Geosciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78713-8924 1Steve Walden Consulting, Austin, TX 2Texerra, Midland, TX 3LBG-Guyton Associates, Austin, TX 4Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ xiii Glossary and Abbreviations...........................................................................................................xv Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................... xvii 1 Executive Summary.................................................................................................................1 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................9 2.1 Overview of Mining Activities in Texas and a High-Level Perspective on Water Use in the Industry ................................................................................................9 2.1.1 Mined Substances..........................................................................................................9 2.1.2 Mining Facilities..........................................................................................................11 2.1.3 Water-Use Overview...................................................................................................12 2.2 Overview of Recent Projections ....................................................................................13 3 Methodology and Sources of Information .............................................................................25 3.1 General Sources of Information.....................................................................................25 3.2 Definition of Mining Water Use for the Purpose in this Report....................................27 3.3 Methodology: Historical Water Use ..............................................................................28 3.3.1 Oil and Gas Industry ....................................................................................................28 3.3.1.1 Gas Shales and Other Tight Formations ........................................................... 28 3.3.1.2 Waterflooding and Drilling............................................................................... 30 3.3.2 Coal/Lignite .................................................................................................................31 3.3.3 Aggregates ...................................................................................................................32 3.3.4 Other Mined Substances ..............................................................................................35 3.3.5 Groundwater–Surface Water Split...............................................................................35 3.4 Methodology: Future Water Use ...................................................................................35 3.4.1.1 Gas Shales......................................................................................................... 38 3.4.1.2 Tight Formations............................................................................................... 42 3.4.1.3 Drilling and Waterflooding of Oil and Gas Reservoirs .................................... 43 3.4.1.4 Coal................................................................................................................... 43 3.4.1.5 Aggregates ........................................................................................................ 43 3.4.1.6 Other Mineral Commodities ............................................................................. 45 4 Current Water Use .................................................................................................................57 4.1 Shales and Tight Sands ..................................................................................................57 4.1.1 Location and Extent .....................................................................................................57 4.1.2 Gas (and Oil) Shales ....................................................................................................58 4.1.2.1 Barnett Shale..................................................................................................... 58 4.1.2.2 Haynesville and Bossier Shales ........................................................................ 59 4.1.2.3 Eagle Ford Shale............................................................................................... 60 4.1.2.4 Woodford, Pearsall, Bend, and Barnett-PB Shales........................................... 60 4.1.2.5 Conclusions on Gas Shales ............................................................................... 61 4.1.3 Tight Reservoirs...........................................................................................................85 4.1.3.1 Anadarko Basin................................................................................................. 85 4.1.3.2 East Texas Basin............................................................................................... 85 4.1.3.3 Fort Worth Basin............................................................................................... 86 iii 4.1.3.4 Permian Basin................................................................................................... 86 4.1.3.5 Maverick Basin and Gulf Coast........................................................................ 87 4.1.3.6 Conclusions on Tight Formations..................................................................... 88 4.2 Oil and Gas Drilling and Waterflooding......................................................................111 4.2.1 Waterflooding ............................................................................................................111 4.2.1.1 Information available before this study .......................................................... 111 4.2.1.2 Extrapolations from the RRC 1995 Survey .................................................... 112 4.2.1.3 Current Waterflooding Water Use.................................................................. 114 4.2.2 Drilling.......................................................................................................................115 4.3 Coal and Lignite...........................................................................................................134 4.4 Aggregates ...................................................................................................................143 4.4.1 General Aggregate Distribution.................................................................................143 4.4.2 Description of Mining Processes ...............................................................................143 4.4.2.1 Crushed Limestone Mining............................................................................. 143 4.4.2.2 Sand and Gravel Mining ................................................................................. 144 4.4.3 External Data Sets......................................................................................................145 4.4.3.1 TCEQ Central Registry................................................................................... 145 4.4.3.2 TCEQ Surface-Water Diversion..................................................................... 145 4.4.3.3 TCEQ TPDES................................................................................................. 146 4.4.3.4 TCEQ SWAP Database .................................................................................. 146 4.4.4 BEG Survey Results ..................................................................................................146 4.4.4.1 Survey of Facilities ......................................................................................... 146 4.4.4.2 Survey of GCDs.............................................................................................. 148 4.4.5 Historical and Current Aggregate Water Use ............................................................148 4.5 Other Nonfuel Minerals ...............................................................................................160 4.5.1 Dimension Stone........................................................................................................160 4.5.2 Industrial Sand...........................................................................................................161