Gasland Caught on Camera

Droppin' knowledge ... Josh Fox answers questions after the viewing in Walton, N.Y.

Josh Fox Documents Hydro-Fracturing Horrors In His New Film

By Jajce W. and Erika C.

Josh Fox’s journey on the road that is natural gas drilling began with a letter in the mail, a letter that he really knew nothing about.

The letter was from a natural gas company promising money and security if he would lease his land and allow hydraulic fracking on his Pennsylvania property. His curiosity led him to “Gasland” and eventually, on June 7, to the Walton Theatre, where locals gathered to view his documented journey before it airs on HBO on Monday, June 21.

“Gasland,” written, filmed and produced by Fox, puts you in the front seat next to him on his quest to learn and uncover the truth about natural gas drilling. His hunger for information takes him and the viewer, unexpectedly, on a country-wide tour that exposes the horrors of fracking in states such as Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, and our neighbor, Pennsylvania.

Although watching things catch fire is sometimes mildly amusing, there was nothing funny about it when a family’s drinking water is flammable or when a stream that was once fresh is contaminated with natural gas from a nearby well. What is amusing, however, is how the “big dogs” respond to this not-so-little problem. Fox, in his brilliance, collected contaminated samples of water from each household he visited.

Although the gas companies will swear that there is nothing wrong with flammable water, or water that is black, or that there is absolutely no connection between natural gas drilling and contaminated water, they also would prefer not to drink that water when offered. In fact, they refuse to. Yet they are asking the landowners to do just that, to drink water that has benzene 12% over the public safety health limit.

Natural gas companies will also swear that there is no connection between natural gas drilling and health problems, that the locals’ health problems are a result of other environmental factors. Fox’s investigation brought him to the doorstep of residents who were not only suffering from contaminated wells and lack of clean drinking water, but also from severe headaches, body pains, hair loss, and even severe brain damage. It still remains unclear what kind of natural environmental factors “the big dogs” are referring to but they seem to be saying that things such as snow showers and humidity can lead to serious health complications.

What Fox’s film shows, in the most obvious and heartbreaking way, are the people and the huge section of the country that are stuck. Stuck with homes on properties that are worthless. Stuck with drinking water that is poisonous. Stuck with sick family members, pets, and wildlife. Stuck in a gasland. Is that what the Marcellus Shale region can look forward to? Is the money worth it? Are we willing to let this region become a gasland as the West, Midwest and Southern parts of the country have?