When the Ordos geological team dug 4 wells in Chahanmiao village in the 1980s, the water would gush out and shoot as high as two meters. However, since Shenhua began extracting and over exploiting water resources in 2006 to use in its coal-to-liquid project (a process for producing liquid fuel from coal), the wells gradually dried out and the grassland, once an abundant farming area, turned into desert. Herder Hu Shan lives near the Number 19 outlet of the Shenhua's water well. Not far from the main well is an artesian well that has been dry for seven years.