To put those numbers into perspective, each fraced Pennsylvania well uses enough water to fill six Olympic-size swimming pools.
But even so, the amount of water used for fracing is still small compared to overall consumption – as little as 1/10 of 1%, according to Ceres. By contrast, American agriculture uses about 32,850 billion gallons of water per year, which is 234 times more water than is used in fracing shale. Even US golf courses could be considered more sponge-like, soaking up .5% of the freshwater consumed.
