Local water districts in Texas are restricting the use of water for exploration and production companies that engage in hydraulic fracturing or "fracking."

These jurisdictions have been creating this new imposition on oil and gas companies as a result of an intensifying drought in the state, Bloomberg reports. Water used by these companies presented a contentious issue before the drought occurred. State regulators say that hydraulic fracturing is currently utilized for drilling around 85 percent of wells in Texas.

The first city to ban the use of its water for fracking purposes was Grand Prairie located in the Barnett Shale of North Texas, according to the media outlet.

"The rumblings have definitely started in the last six months," Chris Faulkner, chief executive officer of Breitling Oil and Gas Corp., told the media outlet. "It used to be, ‘Are you going to contaminate my water;’ now the concern is, ‘You’re going to use up all my water.’"

While Texas cities are restricting the use of water in fracking, a handful of states have banned the practice altogether. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently placed a one-year moratorium on fracking activity in the state, Business Insider reports.