The Larimer Alliance blog & website have been merged — which just makes sense at this time. The needs of the community have shifted and the Larimer Alliance is changing with that shift.
So if you put larimeralliance.org in your browser, it will now take you to larimerallianceblog.org — this is a feature, not a bug! 😄
As Colorado endures the lowest snowpack in its history, and begins to enter the 2026 summer fire season, water has become a prime concern for many. And now that the future of the Colorado River itself is in doubt, and the seven Western states that are part of the Colorado River Compact apparently unable to reach an agreement by its own deadline, there is ever more impetus for the states water leaders to look seriously at their water use policies.
Having been involved in anti-fracking activism since 2012, I have come to learn about the prodigious amounts of fresh water that is consumed by fracking. Although I can tell you that one frack job on a typical well can consume 5 to 8 millions gallons of water — and now that statistic has climbed to 15 to 20 millions of gallons of water per well in current use — such numbers may simply go in one ear and come out the other. The human mind is not made to have a feel for what such large numbers mean.
The human mind, in fact, is much better at processing images than numbers. Which is why I began a project that would attempt to visualize the amount of water used in fracking for the state.
With the help of several activist colleagues with technical skills, I was able to progress in this project this year…and create this visualization with their help:
Statewide water use of fracking compared to Denver residential water useWhat this graph shows is that statewide use of water in fracking is comparable — and can even exceed — the amount of water consumed by Denver residents in a given year. And, if you were not aware, this water is taken forever out of the hydrologic cycle, never to return….never. As in, forever.
The regulation of water use in fracking has not received the same attention as the other negative environmental effects of fracking, such as the noise, air and water pollution and truck traffic. As such, the data itself has only recently begun to be available, from organizations such as FracFocus (see fracfocus.org). Among the Colorado environmental activist community, the specious data reporting by the industry is a well known and obvious fact of life. The industry needs to be reporting its data more reliably and with greater transparency.
What Colorado’s policy setters need to consider is if allowing this industry to continue throwing away billions of gallons of water every year is in its own environmental best interests. To my mind, this is simply an insane use of water in a climate that is going to become more and more dry with each passing year, which is what the climate science predicts. Water is life — and we should be guarding it with our own lives.
The numerical data tables for the above graphs are shown here:
| COLORADO WATER USE FOR FRACKING, 2012-2023Â | ||
| year | gallons | billions |
| 2012 | 1,296,620,479.24 | 1.3 |
| 2013 | 5,259,007,798.54 | 5.26 |
| 2014 | 6,640,304,994.85 | 6.64 |
| 2015 | 6,238,368,957.20 | 6.24 |
| 2016 | 5,354,258,926.11 | 5.35 |
| 2017 | 11,580,540,366.86 | 11.58 |
| 2018 | 13,611,946,880.83 | 13.61 |
| 2019 | 12,994,692,196.84 | 12.99 |
| 2020 | 6,984,377,209.16 | 6.98 |
| 2021 | 10,934,751,410.34 | 10.93 |
| 2022 | 10,873,881,470.06 | 10.87 |
| 2023 | 13,313,894,765.55 | 13.31 |
| 2024 | 12,635,105,779.73 | 12.64 |
| 2025 | 12,104,661,504.08 | 12.1 |
| SOURCE: FracFocus.org | ||
| DENVER RESIDENTIAL WATER USE, 2012-2023 | ||
| Residential_Water_Use | ||
| year | gallons | billion gallons |
| 2012 | 14,052,609,000 | 14.053 |
| 2013 | 11,629,361,000 | 11.629 |
| 2014 | 11,603,885,000 | 11.604 |
| 2015 | 11,359,464,000 | 11.359 |
| 2016 | 12,435,755,000 | 12.436 |
| 2017 | 12,330,988,000 | 12.331 |
| 2018 | 12,874,463,000 | 12.874 |
| 2019 | 12,140,925,000 | 12.141 |
| 2020 | 14,174,959,000 | 14.175 |
| 2021 | 12,815,473,000 | 12.815 |
| 2022 | 13,051,564,000 | 13.052 |
| 2023 | 11,106,173,000 | 11.106 |
| SOURCE: Denver Water CAFR tables, Based on ChatGPT inquiry, 2/10/2026 | ||
I was surprised to see a byline “Fracking fight” in the Greeley Tribune Letters To the Editor section recently (March 21, 2026), but there it was:
After blinking my eyes in disbelief, I was pleased to see that the author was our friend in Ault, Carol Hawkins. She also pointed out how much work that Andrew Klooster with Earthworks has done over the years. She has worked closely with him to document many emissions violations in Weld County; and notes that the response rate of the ECMC to such complaints has increased from about one third to fifty percent in 2025.
Small steps towards progress; but, yes, it is indeed hopeful, and I hope it continues.
There was a good news/bad news article in the Colorado Sun earlier this week (Feb 24, 2026):
How much is seven square miles of inhabited properties, still polluted from a four day bath of toxic spewing in April 2025, worth? Apparently not all that much. A fine of $1.7 million to Chevron (which had an net income, i.e. profit, of $17.6 BILLION in 2024)Â would be little more than pocket change to them.
If that kind of grates you the wrong way, as it did me, you are not alone…and here is the testimony of another Front Range resident who expressed her outrage in this way (name withheld to protect the incensed):
If the Galeton Geyser didn’t get the ECMC to act with equal justice, or recent health studies (McKensie) that support previous health studies of the negative impacts of living within six miles of an oil and gas complex don’t move our regulators to action, then we can be sure that they’ll do little if anything for the daily spills, leaks, road damage, and clogging infrastructure we already experience in towns like mine in Ault. Yet even when we do protest permits, the ECMC fails us, and when we later capture the pollution these permits bring on OGI images, only a third of complaints get any action. Why? Intended loopholes from bogus regulations and complicit regulators who refuse to stand up to the fossil fuel industry. Three years of data (2022, 23, 24) prove this case in Ault. Â