Irrigating underground: Assembling, disassembling, and reassembling the hydraulic fracturing energy-water nexus
| Autor: | Adrianne Kroepsch |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Water-energy nexus
Sociology and Political Science Ephemeral key 05 social sciences 0211 other engineering and technologies 0507 social and economic geography Public concern 021107 urban & regional planning 02 engineering and technology Hydraulic fracturing Mining engineering Hydroelectricity Public discourse Ephemerality Assemblage (archaeology) 050703 geography Geology |
| Zdroj: | Geoforum. 104:201-211 |
| ISSN: | 0016-7185 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.04.028 |
| Popis: | This paper explores how a novel and water-intensive method of energy production – high-volume hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a., “fracking” or “fracing”) – has taken hold in a river basin that is over-appropriated, is managed via a water governance regime that did not anticipate hydraulic fracturing's idiosyncrasies, and where public concern about dedicating freshwater to hydrocarbon production is high. Via a grounded examination of hydraulic fracturing water use in Colorado’s busiest oilfield and most crowded river basin, I argue that the practice has come to exist – and persist – despite these countervailing forces because it is an ephemeral energy-water assemblage. It is always in motion, is tough to monitor, and emerges only to disappear and reemerge again. This shape-shifting capacity distinguishes hydraulic fracturing from better-known energy-water couplings such as the hydroelectric dam and from historical surface irrigation practices in the American West. It also has consequences. While the uncritical energy-water literature suggests that these energy-water relations have been sufficiently characterized by volumetric gallons-per-well estimates, and the physical ephemerality of the hydraulic fracturing assemblage keeps its on-the-ground complexities elusive, an abridged and uncomplicated picture of hydraulic fracturing endures in the academic literature and public discourse. The partial understandings that result make this assemblage simpler to produce and reproduce. This study responds to calls for more nuanced analyses of energy-water relations. It also contributes to assemblage theory by examining the relationship between instability and stability in the lives of an assemblage, which underscores the importance of processes of disassembly and reassembly within assemblage-style analyses. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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