Huge Story on Fracking Water in the Bakken

Link to The Bismarck Tribune.

A temporary cease-fire in the war for Lake Sakakawea water was issued Tuesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps will approve its first surplus water agreement to pipe lake water to the oil field, opening the faucet to what could become a significant source of water for hydraulic fracturing of thousands of wells in the oil patch.

Larry Janis, division director for the corps’ Omaha district office, said in an email to Bob Shaver, who directs water appropriations for the State Water Commission, that the agreement was approved at corps’ headquarters in Washington, D.C. The paperwork will be processed in Omaha, Janis said.

The State Water Commission has been sitting on 20 applications for a total of 70,000 acre feet of lake water since the corps said nearly three years ago that it will begin charging a fee for storing the water and needed time to implement the storage policy, said water resource engineer Dan Farrell.

I did not read the "small print" so I do not know what is all about.  All I know is that if the Corps charges a fee for "storage" they are also liable when their "stored water" floods.

For newbies: the amount of water taken from the Missouri for fracking is minuscule. I've talked about that ad nauseam.