Water and hydraulic fracturing

The AWWA has published a white paper entitled Water and Hydraulic Fracturing on January 28, 2013. The white paper provides an overview of hydraulic fracturing and many related aspects of oil and natural gas development, which have the potential to affect drinking water utilities. It is intended to help utilities in understanding the issues involved fracking, learning how to separate valid concerns from more speculative ones, and finding ways to address the concerns arising from staff and customers. The white paper has been developed on the request of the AWWA's Water Utility Council to respond to increasing oil and natural gas development and difficulties faced many utilities in seeking balanced and authoritative information on this issue. The white paper begins with an overview of the process of hydraulic fracturing and how it works and relates to other aspects of the oil and natural gas life cycle.