14) QUIT FRACKING AROUND, WARNS GASLAND
GASLAND, written & directed by Josh Fox, International Wow Company, 2010, 140 minutes. Reviewed by Tim Pelzer.
To meet growing demand for fossil fuels, gas companies are using hydraulic fracturing - fracking for short - to extract natural gas from shale rock deposits. This involves shooting a toxic brew of chemicals and water into the ground to shatter shale rock deposits and force up natural gas. As Josh Fox shockingly reveals in Gasland, hydraulic fracturing threatens to destroy ground water and air quality across the US.
Fox takes us on a journey across 34 states where he interviews rural landowners and farmers who signed agreements allowing companies to drill for gas. A common complaint is that they can no longer drink ground water after fracking. One rancher turns on his kitchen water faucet and places a lighter against the rushing water. Suddenly, the faucet turns into a flame thrower, engulfing the sink in flames.
Handing Fox samples of brownish water that came out of their taps, those interviewed complain that they must now buy drinking water. Fox reports feeling weak because the water smells like turpentine. Gas companies refuse to acknowledge the problem and insist water is safe to drink.
Many complain of sickness, headaches, brain damage and tumours. Dr. Theo Colbon reveals that fracking fluid consists of 500 chemicals, many of which are toxic, leading to brain damage and tumours.
Gas companies have blighted vast stretches of the US landscape with thousands of grey drilling rigs, pipelines and containment tanks. Instead of being removed for safe disposal, waste water is either dumped onto fields or left in open pits, contaminating underground water. Gas equipment and evaporating fracking fluid release toxic chemicals and ozone into the air.
Now gas companies want to drill for gas around watersheds used for drinking water by New York City.
What do the gas companies say about the mess they are leaving behind? All of Fox's requests for interviews are denied.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says fracking is not polluting drinking water. However, EPA employee Weston Wilson charges that the agency is ignoring the problem, despite evidence that Americans are being exposed to toxic chemicals.
As Gasland reveals, the former Bush government excluded hydraulic fracturing from EPA regulations protecting clean air and water. The Obama government has pursued the same policy, turning a blind eye to an unfolding environmental disaster.
Gasland is relevant for Canada because gas companies are fracking for shale gas here and pressing to expand operations, despite warning signs that the same disaster is beginning to occur. Quebec has ordered companies to halt fracking until it finishes an environmental assessment study, after provincial inspectors found leaks in 19 of 31 gas wells.
In Alberta, landowner Jessica Ernst has filed a $33 million lawsuit against Encana Corp. and provincial regulatory bodies, claiming that nearby drilling is responsible for contaminating her water with enough methane that it can be set on fire. Ernst said that "I'm not the only one. There are many others that this has happened to, and my story is not unique."
Canadians need to see what is in store for us if provincial and federal authorities give the green light to widespread fracking. Gasland, with its innovative production values, camera footage and music score, is one of the best new documentaries on environmental issues to come out in recent years.
(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)