Mr. Oil Industry, I’m your ag neighbor. I live all around that oil well of yours. A little wheat over here. Alfalfa over there. Those cows? That’s me, too.

I know that a lot of folks like to toss rocks at you, but I always stand up for my neighbor because I think we all are better off buying gasoline from you instead Iran or Russia. Nothing personal, but they haven’t always good neighbors to us.

I see that you work hard at this business of getting oil to come out of the ground. I hear the large, noisy rigs, trucks, and shouts of the workers. I see the regulators look over your shoulder, doing their job, but maybe making it tough to do yours.

I see the placards about how you’re evil. I’ve never been sure if they are all mad at you about the environment or just mad at you for making money. But, I’m just an ag neighbor, trying to get some food grown.

Here’s my request. I also see barrels and barrels of gunky water coming out of that well. Last year in Wyoming, 71 billion gallons of that mire was injected or evaporated.

Could I have it instead?

I’d work with some other ag neighbors of mine who can clean it up for my crops, my soil, and my herds. You can even use it for fracking the next well, too. You don’t use a lot of it for that.

Your by-product water could become beneficial-use water. Maybe they wouldn’t throw quite so many rocks at you, if you do. It won’t cost you more than you’re paying to inject or evaporate. And then, the water in your kitchen sink won’t run out because the aquifer isn’t being drained for ag.

I’m just trying to be neighborly. And, to quote our hero, Mr. Rogers, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

#BeneficialUseWater # Water

Want to be neighborly? Director@BeneficialUseWaterAlliance.com