ITP V.011: METAL AT THE MOVIES PART 3: GASLAND

Here we are with ITP V.011 METAL AT THE MOVIES PART 3: GASLAND. "Gasland" is NOT a music or metal documentary, with that said GASLAND is documentary about "hydrofracking" and how it adversely effects drinking water. GASLAND has been nominated in the best documentary category for an OSCAR AWARD. Check out GASLAND.: FROM WIKEPEDIA:
Hydraulic fracturing (called "frac jobs" or "frac'ing" in the industry, with the spelling "fracking" being common in media reports) is a process that results in the creation of fractures in rocks. The most important industrial use is in stimulating oil and gas wells, where hydraulic fracturing has been used for over 60 years in more than one million wells. The fracturing is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations to increase the rate and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas.

Hydraulic fractures may be natural or man-made and are extended by internal fluid pressure which opens the fracture and causes it to extend through the rock. Natural hydraulic fractures include volcanic dikes, sills and fracturing by ice as in frost weathering. Man-made fluid-driven fractures are formed at depth in a borehole and extend into targeted formations. The fracture width is typically maintained after the injection by introducing a proppant into the injected fluid. Proppant is a material, such as grains of sand, ceramic, or other particulates, that prevent the fractures from closing when the injection is stopped.

Considerable controversy surrounds the current implementation of hydraulic fracturing technology in the United States. Environmental safety and health concerns have emerged and are being debated at the state and national levels.
FROM ABC NEWS:
DIMOCK, Pa. (WABC) -- Tucked into the Northeast corner of Pennsylvania is the village of Dimock.

In the past year, the hamlet has grown a skyline of gas drilling rigs. They have brought jobs and landowner royalties, but at a price.

"That's my water since drilling began," said Julie Saunter, who showed as a murky cup of water.

Sautner had clean, good tasting well water before the drilling. Now, her basement looks like a science lab with ten water purification tanks and a methane gas vent in her front yard.

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Sautner: "We've had dirty water for 14 months now, so it's never ever going to go away. Ever"
Hoffer: So all these tanks behind you are part of your life as long as you're here?
Saunter: Yes, yes.

She blames the nearby gas drilling for contaminating her well. The state investigated and found her "water supply had been affected by drilling" and now the company must deliver water to her.

Hoffer: Your water is trucked in here?
Sautner: Every morning they bring a hose

The same type of drilling now taking place in Dimock is headed for towns in upstate New York, including the Catskills. It's called hydraulic fracturing.

Millions of gallons of water mixed with numerous chemicals are blasted deep underground to break up the rock to release the gas. Some of the drilling could take place near the reservoirs and tunnels that provide drinking water to 9 million New Yorkers. In a recently released environmental impact study, the state finds damage due to ''hydraulic fracturing" is "not reasonably anticipated." It also sites an industry study which concludes the risk of contamination to underground aquifers is less than "1 in 50 million wells."

Sautner: " Nobody's going to buy a house with water that looks like that."

Those odds don't hold up in Dimock, where less than a mile from Julie Sautner's house lives Norma Fiorentino.

"My well exploded January 1st," she said.

Methane gas from nearby drilling caused the explosion of Fiorentino's well. Leaking gas is now vented through a stack. A plastic tank substitutes for her contaminated well.

"Everybody in my neighborhood has bad water. Everybody," she said.

Including the Carter's, who have a drilling rig right next door. Like more and more residents, they too have a methane gas vent in their yard, purification systems in their house, and still, well water that's unhealthy to drink:

Hoffer: "Did they say at any time to you, the drilling company, that this process could at some time effect your drinking water?"
Ron Carter: "Oh no. They never said that."

Film maker Josh Fox is making a documentary about the impact of hydraulic gas drilling in Dimock and other towns.

He warns that the lessons learned in Dimock should not go ignored in New York.

"Energy companies coming in where they can take their resources out, but it's up to the citizens to deal with the pollution later," Fox said.

An industry spokesman says the record shows drilling has little long-term impact and once the fracturing is finished, the workers and trucks are gone and all that remains is a well head and a clean source of energy:

Hoffer: "How do you explain the contamination in the wells in Dimock?"
John Conrad (Gas Association of New York): "If there have been incidents like that, they are the rare exception and I think in New York you'll find more precautions have been taken than in other states."

Tight oversight is the same promise made to the people of Dimock, along with the guarantee of money -- lots of money.

"People see money and that's what they want. They think that they can clean the water. You can't clean an aquifer once they dirty it. You can't clean it. There is no going back," Saunter said.

New York City has called on the state to ban gas drilling in the watershed.

The state is looking into new regulations and recently extended a public comment period until the end of the year.

If you have a tip about this or any other issue you'd like investigated, please give our tipline a call at 877-TIP-NEWS. You may also e-mail us at the.investigators@abc.com and follow Jim Hoffer on Twitter at twitter.com/jphoffer.

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-