By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Ellis County has long been the number one oil-producing county in Kansas, an industry that’s grown 37 percent in the last ten years, according to the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association (KIOGA).

KIOGA, with 1,400 members, is holding its mid-year meeting this week in Hays at Fort Hays State University.

According to KIOGA president Ed Cross, oil is produced in 89 of the 105 Kansas counties, supporting 67,000 jobs.

Hydraulic fracturing, a technology that’s been in use since 1947, actually began in Kansas.

More than 1.2 million oil wells in the United States have been fracked, and “there’s been no documented evidence of harm to groundwater from fracking,” said Cross:

The average Kansas well pumps three barrels of oil a day, a “dependable, stable, longtime resource and important part of the state’s economy,” said Cross.