Here are the summary statistics for the billions of gallons of water used to hydraulically fracture every well in Colorado since 2015, as submitted to FracFocus.
Since 2024, more than 75% of all wells hydraulically fractured in Colorado consumed 10 (or more) million gallons of water!
| Year | 25th Percentile (Million Gal) | Median (Million Gal) | 75th Percentile (Million Gal) | Total Consumed (Billions Gal) | Wells |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2.89 | 4.06 | 5.65 | 6.15 | 1,327 |
| 2016 | 3.08 | 5.06 | 6.73 | 5.43 | 945 |
| 2017 | 4.03 | 6.88 | 9.44 | 11.87 | 1,572 |
| 2018 | 3.71 | 7.19 | 9.83 | 13.75 | 1,730 |
| 2019 | 5.43 | 8.11 | 12.52 | 12.95 | 1,381 |
| 2020 | 6.50 | 9.16 | 13.45 | 7.12 | 675 |
| 2021 | 7.09 | 11.32 | 15.87 | 11.23 | 918 |
| 2022 | 8.75 | 13.32 | 21.55 | 11.33 | 751 |
| 2023 | 7.63 | 13.28 | 19.95 | 13.03 | 910 |
| 2024 | 10.04 | 16.35 | 20.65 | 13.12 | 806 |
| 2025 (YTD) | 10.66 | 17.17 | 22.14 | 6.53 | 384 |
At its peak in 2018, Colorado oil & gas operators consumed 13.75 billion gallons of water to hydraulically fracture 1,730 oil & gas wells.
13.75 billion gallons is equivalent to:
- Flushing a toilet every second for 272 years
- Filling a bathtub every second for 8.7 years
- The lifetime drinking water supply for 942,000 people
- 26 years of drinking water supply for the 2.9 million people in the Denver metro area
- A lake that could cover Manhattan in 2.9 feet of water
See how we calculated these statistics!
For more information, visit the ECMC to get more information about rulemakings around the reduction of fresh water in Colorado oil and gas operations.