So where's the water coming from?

In my last post I linked to stories in the Hudspeth County Herald which claimed that Torchlight Energy Resources (our local frackers) were getting between 80,000 to 84,000 gallons of water per day from the City of El Paso for one of their fracking wells. Yet El Paso Water Utilities has not sold any water to Torchlight. That leaves local water haulers. However Mr. John Balliew, CEO of the EPWU, points out that the two independent haulers who buy water from the utility could not possibly be supplying that much water to Torchlight if at all.

According to Balliew, although haulers don't specify what they do with the water that they buy from the utility, most of the water hauled is for construction purposes - dust control and compaction.

There are two haulers who serve the Colonias - Lujan Trucking and Mountain View Water Haulers. Balliew said that they each average about 12,500 gallons per day. That is "about the consumption of one apartment complex with a 3" meter or perhaps 75 single family homes," Balliew told me. 

"If they are hauling to the frackers they cannot be hauling much water to the Colonias and vice versa," Balliew said. 

Since the amount of water bought by haulers isn't out of the ordinary, it does not warrant taking any action by EPWU to limit the amount of water which it sells to the haulers. 

So, where does the water come from? John Turner, the Rancher, or perhaps Horizon Regional M.U.D.?

Checking.