Eagle Ford water use has grown significantly over the past few years as activity increased in South Texas. Eagle Ford drilling has grown to more than 200 rigs working around the clock. That’s from virtually zero in early 2009. Drilling and completing wells uses millions of gallons of water and combined with a drought it has bred public concern.

The voices of concern are being heard and even the Eagle Ford Task Force has water on its agenda. We’ll likely hear from the group about best practices in South Texas in early 2012.

Water Use Per Well

Chesapeake Energy’s Eagle Ford fact sheet estimates a single well may use as much as 125,000+ barrels (6 million gallons) of water. CHK reports that is the same volume that:

• Flows by the city of Laredo in the Rio Grande every 4.5 minutes
• Is used to irrigate over 14 acres of vegetables
• Used by the city of San Antonio every 22 minutes

The usage reported by Chesapeake was commonplace early in the development of the play, but the drought and cost of water has motivated companies to rein in their use.

Read More at: http://eaglefordshale.com/water

Click here for photographs of the event.

COTULLA, Texas—The La Salle County Courthouse was rededicated on Jan. 26, following a four-year restoration made possible with more than $3.5 million in grant funds from the Texas Historical Commission (THC) through its award-winning Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.

Construction began on the project in 2009 to return the 1931 courthouse to its former glorjT. The building was designed by renowned Texas courthouse architect Henry Phelps, considered his last, most ambitious and imaginative courthouse design. The courthouse sits in the center and highest point of Cotulla, facing a public square.

As the recipient of the largest amount of funding in several rounds of the Texas Historical Commission's Courthouse Restoration Program, the seat of La Salle County government has been brought back to its original condition and is expected to reopen in January. A grand opening ceremony for the refurbished courthouse has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 29, according to the county judge's office, and those who will occupy the building are set to begin re-establishing heir offices during the month. A day on which the public may tour the building and examine some of the restoration work that has been undertaken is also being scheduled.

The Eagle Ford Shale reaches across 25 Texas counties. But more than 60  percent — 141 of the play's 227 drilling rigs — are operating in five counties:  La Salle, Karnes, McMullen, Gonzales and DeWitt, according to the Baker Hughes  Rig Count, a barometer of the health of the drilling industry and an indicator  of where companies are most interested in drilling.

Rigs are clustering along the Gonzales-Karnes county line, and lining up  across all of DeWitt County, except for the southeastern quadrant.

Farther west, neighboring La Salle and McMullen counties have earned a  reputation for being what's colloquially called “more oily,” producing more  crude oil or natural gas liquids than the currently uneconomic dry gas.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Finding-the-sweet-spots-of-the-Eagle-Ford-4084346.php#ixzz2EIENXYyj