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Manicured lawns will give way to arid, drought-tolerant landscaping. Homeowners will retrofit bathrooms with low-flow toilets. Golf courses, cemeteries, and college campuses will turn off the sprinklers.

As the Golden State braces for a historic, four-year drought to continue into the summer, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is imposing unprecedented measures to fight a water shortage affecting 38 million Californians. "We're in a new era," Mr. Brown said. "The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day, that's going to be a thing of the past."

The world鈥檚 seventh largest economy 鈥� and the country鈥檚 No. 3 oil producer 鈥� is trying to change its approach to water. The question is whether the hydro-intensive energy industry will change with it.

Now more than ever, water plays a critical role in producing oil, the world鈥檚 largest source of primary energy. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have led to a North American energy boom that can use as much as 5 million gallons of water per well to unlock oil and gas deposits. Other techniques like water flooding and steam injection are commonplace methods for energy firms in California and elsewhere to maximize well production.

Progress has been made toward using water more efficiently, and industry representatives say they鈥檙e working to conserve even more. But in many parts of the globe, fuel demand is multiplying just as droughts and over-consumption make water a coveted, scarce resource. Nations must strike a delicate balance between energy demands and precious water resources.

Nowhere is that tension more acute than in places with the unfortunate paradox of being fossil-fuel rich but water-poor.

For its part, California uses markedly less water for oil production than other US states, experts say. Industry even recycles wastewater for repeated use in wells, or to water parched California farmland. The California energy industry鈥檚 water use is also modest compared to industries like agriculture, though exactly how much the oil and gas industry uses is unclear.

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California producers used an estimated 80 billion gallons of water or more in 2013, to Reuters, specifically in enhanced recovery techniques like water flooding or steam injection. Under a law passed last year, the industry will have to disclose precisely how much water it uses. That data won鈥檛 be available until later this year.

In a drought-ridden state with limited oil industry water use data, an inevitable question is arising: Just how much water do energy firms use, and at what point does the need for water trump the benefits of domestic oil-and-gas production? 听

Saving water

For some, that point has already arrived. Critics mention that cities and towns don鈥檛 consume most of California鈥檚 water; in fact, they only use about 15 percent. Agriculture uses 80 percent of the state鈥檚 water, and the oil industry uses a sizable amount as well. And while California farmers have already suffered and scaled back plantings, some say the oil industry isn鈥檛 doing its fair share.

鈥淭he oil industry has taken no hit whatsoever in the last three or four years,鈥� Adam Scow, California director of Food and Water Watch, a consumer rights group, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e gotten all the water they鈥檝e wanted. It鈥檚 only fair their use be curtailed as well.鈥�

Nationally, energy firms used 92 billion gallons of water to frack oil and gas wells from January 2011 to February 2013, to an Environmental Protection Agency analysis. And about half of those wells are in places facing drought: 47 percent of the US鈥檚 recently fracked oil and gas wells are in regions with high or extremely high water stress, according to a report in 2013 by Ceres, a Boston-based nonprofit supporting sustainable investing. That鈥檚 led to tension between cities, farmers, and an increasingly water-intensive oil industry.

Of course, it鈥檚 hardly in the oil industry鈥檚 best interest to waste water 鈥� particularly when the resource is so coveted.

鈥淲ater, like any of the ingredients that go into energy production, can be a costly item,鈥� says Tupper Hull, spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry group. 鈥淥il companies are very sensitive to cost containment. They鈥檝e already 鈥� even before the drought 鈥� taken a lot of steps to make sure the water required is used as efficiently as possible.鈥�

And even though large amounts of water are needed to frack oil and gas wells, says Philip Verleger, a Colorado-based energy consultant, 鈥渢here鈥檚 not much fracking in California 鈥� nothing like what they鈥檙e doing in Texas and North Dakota.鈥�

Amid the worst drought in the state鈥檚 history, California pumped 70 million gallons of water to frack oil and gas wells last year, using a watery mixture of sand and chemicals to unlock fossil fuels. That鈥檚 as much water as 514 households use annually, Steven Bohlen, the state oil and gas supervisor, Reuters.

And while that number is a drop in the bucket for a state with 38 million residents, fracking is a fraction of the California oil industry鈥檚 total water usage, Mr. Scow says, and it鈥檚 hard to account for all of the water it uses for other techniques like steam injection and water flooding.

Running short

Fracking has kicked off a shale oil and gas boom across the US, pushing down oil prices globally and giving motorists big savings at the gas pump. But in places with water shortages, the hydro-intensive extraction technique doesn鈥檛 come without a cost to local supplies.

Small , after drought and a thirsty oil industry depleted supplies. In Colorado, water scarcity has , who on occasion have competed for the same water supplies. That tension is not limited to the US 鈥� China, India, Brazil and other countries are struggling to balance growing energy demands with managing water and food resources.

鈥淚ncreasingly we have freshwater scarcity issues globally, and it鈥檚 finally hitting home,鈥� says Jim Matheson, CEO of Oasys Water, a company that helps industry reuse water, in a telephone interview Thursday. 鈥淲e鈥檙e using more and more water for industrial activities 鈥� oil and gas extraction, yes, but also power generation, thermal cooling, and more.鈥�

In many ways, the oil industry鈥檚 water situation in California is better than in other parts of the country, given the fact that water-intensive fracking isn鈥檛 as common there. And in a low price environment, oil companies are already incentivized to scale back production. 鈥淥il production is already under incredible pressure given the decline in prices,鈥� says Mr. Verleger, the energy consultant.

Governor Brown defended his decision not to target the energy industry with water-reducing measures by arguing that California 鈥� a state where car culture reigns supreme 鈥� can鈥檛 exactly go without crude and its byproducts, like the gasoline that powers its automobiles.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 take it out of our ground, we鈥檒l take it out of someone else鈥檚,鈥� Brown said in an interview with PBS Newshour last week.

Brown was quick to defend agriculture, too 鈥� another sector his water cuts didn鈥檛 target.

鈥淭he farmers have fallowed hundreds of thousands of acres,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e pulling up vines and trees. Farmworkers are out of work. There are people in agriculture areas that are really suffering.鈥�

But if the oil and agriculture industries are going to use less water in the future, there will need to be higher costs for water, and regulations should discourage companies from disposing of water after a single use, Mr. Matheson says.

鈥淢ost of what the oil and gas industry has cared about is minimizing the cost of disposal,鈥� Matheson says, when it would often be possible to reuse that industrial water after cleaning it.

But without any economic incentive to reuse the water, it鈥檚 often cheaper to dispose of it 鈥� whether that water was pumped into the well through fracking or steam injection, or came up with oil as a natural byproduct. Water, in the past, has been viewed primarily as a waste product after it鈥檚 been put to industrial use. Oasys and other companies hope to change that. Waste water recycling is , where water is as scarce as oil is abundant.

鈥淭he equation now is: Is our solution cheaper than the cost of getting new freshwater and the cost of getting rid of the waste water? And in many cases we can be cheaper than that,鈥� Matheson says.

Oasys is deploying water cleaning technology in drought-plagued states like Texas. Similar solutions could take hold in California, where steam injection and water flooding use large amounts of water that could be 鈥� and often are 鈥� recycled for future use.

Water for farmers

California oil producers say that their operations actually extract more water than oil from deep underground; and, though undrinkable, that water has uses beyond oil extraction. In fact, it's conceivable that some day 鈥� providing more of the scarce resource than it uses.

鈥淚n Kern County alone, two oil companies provide 41,000 acre feet 鈥� that鈥檚 13 billion gallons a year 鈥� of water to farmers,鈥� Hull, the energy industry spokesperson, told the Monitor. 鈥淗appily, in the drought, that water will continue to be made available to farmers who are facing cuts in other areas.鈥�

California鈥檚 oil industry pumps most of its crude around Bakersfield, Calif. in Kern County, which, to Newsweek, produces more oil than any other US county.

Every barrel of oil extracted there comes to the surface with 10 or more barrels of salty waste water. Farmers desperate to moisten their dusty fields have been buying that water from companies like Chevron, Newsweek this week, using the waste water to nurture almonds, pistachios, oranges and other crops. Oil products are removed from the water before it meets farmers鈥� fields.

Still, it鈥檚 a case of extreme circumstances calling for extreme measures: Farmers know the salty water could harm their land in the long run, but hope that after the drought fresh water will flush the salts out of the soil.

Environmentalists and consumer advocates caution that watering fields with waste water could be too risky 鈥撎齟ven when water is so scarce. They worry the waste water could contain high levels of vanadium, chromium, selenium, or other compounds that experts associate with public health problems.

鈥淭here are a lot of questions, and there are really no regulations on the practice,鈥� Scow, of the consumer rights group, told the Monitor. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know if the chemicals in the waste water are a threat to the food people are going to consume.鈥�