Cattle Grazing near Hydrofracking Installation in Texas

The Eagle Ford shale play stretches for about 300 miles across south Texas, one of the most prolific oil patches in the United States. Increasing oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale region, the Bakken formation in North Dakota and gas production in the Marcellus and Utica Shale Formations of Pennsylvania and Ohio made the United States the world's largest hydrocarbon producer for three years including 2014 Hydraulic Fracturing techniques to recover oil and natural gas from the shale, consume an enormous amount of water, as much as three million gallons per well. Resulting tracking fluids polluted with brine, chemicals and minerals, are stored in ponds or injected into underground wells impacting people and livestock.