To ease looming West Texas water shortage, oil companies have begun recycling fracking wastewater

The huge demand for water used in hydraulic fracturing wells requires the construction of ponds like these in Big Lake, which store millions of gallons of fresh water. (Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune)

Fracked wells in West Texas don’t just produce petroleum. Much more than anything else, they spit up salty, mucky water.

Typically, companies have discarded that fluid, hundreds of millions of gallons per day, by injecting it back underground, occasionally causing small earthquakes. But as water becomes more scarce, they’re beginning to reconsider.