Gasland, Fracking Chemicals, Water, and Money

GASLAND, by Josh Fox, is a frightening 2009 documentary about natural gas drilling in America.

Pennsylvania is a state rich with natural gas.  That’s good, no?  Jobs, money, dependable income, a clean energy resource, it’s a win-win situation, right?

Well, it depends… how are we getting this natural gas out?

Have you heard of “Hydraulic Fracturing,” or “fracking” for short?  Neither have I, until, that is, I watched the above mentioned documentary called, GASLAND.  It is a MUST SEE!

Gas/Oil companies have recently begun to drill for natural gas in northern PA.  They have already been doing so in many other States across the Midwest.  The side effects are not good.  Here in our Tri-State area they want to build at least 50,000 natural gas wells across 75 miles of the Delaware River (hundreds of thousands more when you include other neighboring states).  Now, consider the source of our drinking water.  Keep this in the back of your mind as you read on.

The documentary, Gasland, tells you what you need to know.  Please, do watch it.  Nevertheless, allow me to summarize some key points as I highlight the key problem/issue before us.

History: in the 1970’s, our nation established (A) The Environmental Protection Agency and The Clean Air Act (1970), (B) The Clean Water Act (1972) and (C) The Safe Drinking Water Act (1974).   This was done for obvious reasons; we were killing ourselves (our land and waterways) with industrial pollution.  So we regulated and established watchdog agencies to ensure that manufacturing companies would not freely dump their toxic waste into the skies and onto our lands and in our streams, rivers, and lakes, thereby ruining our breathing air and drinking water.

Enter historical changes: under Bush-Cheney’s presidential leadership, the 2005 Energy Bill is passed; this bill exempts gas/oil companies from the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act as well other regulatory laws that were put in place to protect our air, land, and waterways from their polluting actions.

Enter “fracking.”  Hydraulic fracturing is a form of natural gas drilling that leaves water polluting havoc in its wake.  “Fracking” requires “fracking fluids,” which include 596 chemicals most of which are carcinogenic.  Fracking is a method that is being used all over the country.  According to the documentary, 34 States now have oil/gas companies drilling for natural gas.  Fracking’s ugly negative side-effects have already hit many families and homes across the U.S. and will continue to do so unless we, the people of America, call for stricter regulation and accountability over these companies.

Here’s the problem.  Because of the 2005 energy bill that was passed, because these companies are now exempted from The Clean Air Act, The Clean water Act, The Clean drinking Water Act, etc., they presently have no watchdog.  They are regulatory free.  They are accountable to no one.  They are polluting the environment and contaminating the nation’s fresh drinking water sources without a second thought and we the people have no recourse.  Is this an exaggeration?  Is this Chicken Little crying “the sky is falling”?  You’re intelligent.  Watch the documentary and decide for yourself.  (Rent it from Netflix.)

I am scared.  If we let this continue, we will pay a huge price for it.  Why?  Because there is nothing, absolutely nothing more basic to flourishing life than fresh, clean, drinkable, water.  Water is the very foundation for life.  To ruin our waterways is to ruin life itself.  And this is exactly what fracking does.

Companies now using this fracking method are adamant in accepting NO responsibility for ruining our freshwater sources.  They are determined to avoid any accountability for their actions—lobbying hard against regulatory oversight.  They certainly do NOT want to have to identify the names and the nature of the chemicals that they are using for fracking, the very same chemicals that are seeping into our waterways, streams, rivers, and lakes as its side effect.

Yes, there are billions of dollars at stake here.  MONEY TALKS!  MONEY IS POWER!  But what good is all the money in the world if you are dying of thirst.  All seamen know that you could be surrounded by an ocean of water and still die of thirst—water, water, everywhere water, and not a drop to drink.  Is this what we are willing to do to ourselves just for natural gas, and MONEY?

I am deeply worried by all of this.  I hope that you will be too, worried enough to rise up and reverse this action, before it is too late.  So, please, do watch this documentary, GASLAND, and pass the word along.  Let us not be naïve.  There will be dire consequences to our freshwater sources if we allow this to continue unchecked.   Wake up!  Take note!  Without fresh drinkable water there is no life, period!