by admin on July 21, 2010
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?
by admin on July 16, 2010
The River We Can’t Afford to Lose
By Brendan O.
Every year since 1986 American Rivers, a conservation organization committed to protecting America’s healthy rivers, releases a report of the ten rivers throughout the US that they believe are in the most danger of being destroyed.
This year at the top of the list was none other than our very own Upper Delaware River. Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is the reason for the convern.
The Upper Delaware River provides unfiltered drinking water for almost 17 million people in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. American Rivers stated in their annual report that the clean water source that is the Upper Delaware River is being threatened by natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale where “chemicals injected into the ground create untreatable toxic wastewater.”
American Rivers also said that until a comprehensive study of the effects on drinking water and the environment caused by hydraulic fracturing is completed, the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) should refrain from distributing any permits consenting to natural gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed.
In their report they also advocated that Congress pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009, the FRAC Act, to help protect all the rivers that exist in the Marcellus Shale region.
The DRBC responded to the report by American Rivers, saying, “Being named to a “most endangered list” can lead uninformed people to draw incorrect conclusions that the quality of the Upper Delaware River is deteriorating. This is far from the truth.” The DRBC said that they recognize the importance of natural gas extraction to this region and the nation, and they are not opposed to the collection of this natural resource [gas], but “we must make sure that any natural gas development is done smartly so we do not harm the incredible water resources of the Delaware River Basin and the people it serves.”
The DRBC has designated the whole of the non-tidal Delaware River as “Special Protection Waters.” This designation supposedly provides protection for this section of the river as part of the DRBC’s anti-degradation regulations. However, the DRBC failed to review the ostensible “exploratory wells” that have been popping up within the Special Protection Waters. So “Special Protection Waters. So “Special Protection” must not cover toxic chemicals spewing into a river that provides millions of people with unfiltered drinking water. Two days prior to this paper going to print, Carol Collier, Executive Director of the DRBC, decided to extend these protections to exploratory wells in the Special Protection Waters. However, it will not cover exploratory wells erected before June 14, 2010.
Pat Carullo, member of the DRBC, has been receiving nonstop letters from the 65,000 members of the American Rivers organization prompting him to help protect the river. Almost daily we hear reports about another gas drilling blowout or disaster, and yet we also hear about how there are vast amounts of money to be made from the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region. It’s times like these that we must ponder whether Machiavelli was right. Does the end really justify the means?
Monthly Disaster Report
Texas Explosion
A fatal natural gas explosion in Texas killed two men, making it the second deadly blast involving natural gas in two days. The explosion occurred when a bulldozer struck a natural gas pipeline in a remote area of the Texas panhandle.
It’s Raining Frac
A gas well blowout in Clearfield, Pa. sent natural gas spewing 75 feet into the air. Conservative estimates indicate the blowout released 35,000 gallons of waste water and methane into the surrounding environment. It sprayed for 16 hours and a containment crew from Texas had to be called in to get it under control.
Repeating the Same Mistakes
The same safety device used to prevent blowouts in the rig that caused the recent oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is being used in the “exploratory wells” in Equinunk and elsewhere. The rig in the Gulf was also considered an “exploratory well.”
“Gasland” Comes to Our Area
“Gasland” director, Josh Fox, is now tour New York and Pennsylvania. His stops in New York: Tioga County, Elmira, Cortland, Syracuse, Ithaca, Callicoon, Milford, Binghamton, Cooperstown and Albany. In Pennsylvania: Doylestown, Harrisburg, Hickory, Washington, Pittsburgh, Erie, Bradford, Montrose and Bradford County.
Who’s Doing the Numbers This Week?
According to Penn State, the natural gas industry in the Marcellus Shale provided 44,098 jobs last year, and this number will quadruple to 160,205 by 2015. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Marcellus drilling would increase the gas industry workforce from 8,025 to 12,423 in 2016. Jan Jarrett, president of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future said, the Penn State report is based solely on assumptions provided by the natural gas industry.
Most Endangered River
The Upper Delaware has been labeled “the most endangered river in America” by American Rivers. The report says that natural gas drilling could contaminate the water. Reservoirs along the river provide unfiltered drinking water to millions of people in New York City, Philadelphia, and Trenton.
Judge Says, “Fraud”
In a court hearing on Wednesday June 9, a federal judge in Scranton, Pa. ruled that John Kropa, a Susquehanna County landowner, can sue Cabot Oil and Gas on behalf of fraud charges. Kropa is among several other people who are suing the company for inducing them to sign leases for $25 an acre. An eight-page memorandum noted that Cabot’s agents told Kropa that they would never pay more than $25 per acre for a lease, while his neighbors were paid more for leasing their property. The agents also told Kropa that if he did not lease his land they would drill under a neighbor’s land and extract the gas anyway.
A New Team Makes A Big Wake
Pilgrimage to Long Island
Hanukkah Ends With A Bang
