In Colorado, oil companies are grabbing up water rights that could cripple that state’s agricultural production in order to support potential future shale oil production.
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Shale oil production is water-intensive, requiring up to five barrels of water for every barrel of oil extracted. Thus, projects producing 1.55 million barrels of oil per day would require 378,000 acre-feet of water each year. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, compared to conventional oil production, shale oil production is more expensive and creates more carbon emissions, which causes global warming.
A recent report by Western Resource Advocates shows that six oil companies, including ExxonMobil and Shell, have purchased water rights that would enable them to divert up to 6.5 billion gallons of water from rivers in western Colorado, and almost 2 million acre-feet of water from the state’s reservoirs. This would be enough water to supply the Denver metropolitan area for six years.
Colorado law allows river water to be used for free by any group or individual that can show the water will be put to a “beneficial” use—and that includes oil extraction. Oil companies have obtained “junior rights” for a small filing fee, which allow them to use water after others have had their needs met. But the companies are also buying up “senior rights” from old farming families in the region, which give them priority access to the water.
Energy companies and water districts now have conditional water rights connected to more than 200 different reservoirs and pipelines in Colorado. These rights could entitle the companies to annually divert more than 10,000 cubic feet per second and store more than 1.7 million acre-feet. The amount the companies could store would be enough to take care of 8 to 10 million people in Colorado.
The energy companies also have gained rights to more than 650 cubic feet per second from 100 irrigation ditches, which are key to agriculture in Colorado. If the companies were to exercise these legal rights, irrigated agriculture in the northwest portion of the state would likely be destroyed.
Presently, oil companies are not taking advantage of the rights they have purchased. If they were to use all the water to which they have a legal right, they would take much-needed water away from agriculture in a region that is known for being dry.
Water, a basic necessity of life, is a huge issue for poor and working people all over the world. In Chile, water privatization has led to a major crisis for many towns. In one southern region, one single electricity company from Spain, Endesa, has bought up 80 percent of the water rights. In the north, big farmers compete with mining companies to get the scarce resources, leaving towns dry and depriving small farmers and fishermen of their livelihoods.
How can oil companies have greater rights to water than ordinary people? Why are the cost and availability of food, environmental impact, and consequences for farmers and the local community entirely disregarded?
The answer lies in the anarchy of the capitalist system, which always puts profit ahead of human needs and the environment. How water and other vital resources are utilized is decided solely on the basis of profitability by the private interests that control the economy.
Water is essential to all life, and yet it is treated as a commodity to be traded for profit. Anyone with money can buy water rights; anyone with “senior” water rights can sell those rights to someone else without any oversight. To avoid a catastrophic environmental crisis, we need socialism: a planned economic system in which the needs of people and the environment come first.
