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Frack attack!
As the EPA launches public hearings into the fracking of the Marcellus Shale, Josh Fox, director of "Gasland", joins Abrahm Lustgarten on DemocracyNow to talk about fracking and it's dangers to the water supply. (watch video)

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"Peak Oil" at Amazon

// Case Focus //

"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking", or hydraulic fracturing, has unlocked a 'Saudia Arabia of natural gas' just beneath us." - Josh Fox, Gasland

As Fracking Spreads, More Questions Raised
'Fracking' is short for 'hydraulic fracturing'. It's the latest technique for squeezing fossil fuel from it's last most difficult-of-access redoubts. Fracking is also the largest arena in which these extreme measures are poisoning people and the environment. Fracking and it's dangers were brought to public attention last year by the reporting of Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica, and the success of Josh Fox's award-winning documentary Gasland. (available online and in DVD; in rotation on HBO until 2012).

Natural gas is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane but including significant quantities of ethane, propane, butane, and pentane- heavier hydrocarbons removed prior to use as a consumer fuel- as well as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulfide. Fossil natural gas is found in oil fields (associated) either dissolved or isolated in natural gas fields (non-associated), and in coal beds (as coalbed methane). (ref)

Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. (ref)

Beginning in February, 2011, the New York Times began running a series of investigative reports by Ian Urbani on fracking , and particularly fracking in the New York City watershed.
An excerpt:
"There were more than 493,000 active natural-gas wells in the United States in 2009, almost double the number in 1990. Around 90 percent have used hydrofracking to get more gas flowing, according to the drilling industry.
"Gas has seeped into underground drinking-water supplies in at least five states, including Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, and residents blamed natural-gas drilling.
"Air pollution caused by natural-gas drilling is a growing threat, too. Wyoming, for example, failed in 2009 to meet federal standards for air quality for the first time in its history partly because of the fumes containing benzene and toluene from roughly 27,000 wells, the vast majority drilled in the past five years. In a sparsely populated Sublette County in Wyoming, which has some of the highest concentrations of wells, vapors reacting to sunlight have contributed to levels of ozone higher than those recorded in Houston and Los Angeles."
"The thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood. The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.
"Other documents and interviews show that many E.P.A. scientists are alarmed, warning that the drilling waste is a threat to drinking water in Pennsylvania. Their concern is based partly on a 2009 study, never made public, written by an E.P.A. consultant who concluded that some sewage treatment plants were incapable of removing certain drilling waste contaminants and were probably violating the law. The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A.and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways."
NYTimes: Ian Urbani's "Drilling Down"- series page
NYT Part 1: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells Tainted Water Hits Rivers
NYT Part 2: Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
NYT Part 3: Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas
NYT Part 4: E.P.A. Steps Up Scrutiny of Pollution in Pennsylvania Rivers
NYT Graphic: A look at the process and hazards of hydraulic fracturing
NRDC's Eric Goldsteins Blog: New York Times Exposé on Fracking Offers Lessons for New York

Smog in Wyoming Worse than L.A.
in the last week Wyoming has reported ozone smog levels of up to 124 ppb. The worst day last year in Los Angeles reached 114 ppb. The maximum EPA safety level is 75 ppb. "The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality urged the elderly, children and people with respiratory conditions to avoid strenuous or extended activity outdoors." (Wyoming Air Pollution Worse Than Los Angeles Due To Gas Drilling)

Frack-quake Swarm in Arkansas
Region of Guy, Arkansas: over 800 earthquakes in the last 6 months, with one last week marked at 4.7 on the Richter scale. Two natural gas companies have agreed to temporarily suspend use of injection wells in central Arkansas where earthquakes keep occurring. The high-pressure wells are being used to "dispose" of waste water from natural gas drilling- by 'injecting' it into deep strata. ('Fracking' Disposal Sites Suspended, Likely Linked To Arkansas Earthquakes)
(Note: The New Madrid Fault, which in 1811-12 shook the region with 4 super-quakes each over 8 on the Richter scale, is a little more than 200 miles away.)

Former Bush EPA Official Says Fracking Exemption Went Too Far; Congress Should Revisit
Interview with Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, March 9, 2011.

David Brancaccio reviews fracking and interviews Josh Fox about his movie Gasland:

DemocracyNow March 4, 2011:
"Natural Gas Industry Attacks Oscar-Nominated Film "Gasland" for Chronicling Devastating Impact of Hydraulic Fracking"

PBS video update (2/18/11) on Abrahm Lustgarden's work for ProPublica on fracking:

EcoVersity TV Frack Attack Video Playlist:

"Split Estate" Wins an Emmy:
Debra Anderson's documentary "Split Estate" won an Emmy for 'outstanding individual achievement in research'.

Fracking Film Earns Emmy
"Three local filmmakers got an Emmy this week for Split Estate, their documentary about the health and environmental consequences of "fracking" . . . " Santa Fe New Mexican, Sept. 30, 2010

Mora County Group's Water Study Provides First Line Of Defense Against 'Fracking'
Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan 9, 2011



"Split Estate is an eye-opening examination of the consequences and conflicts that can arise between surface land owners in the western United States, and those who own and extract the energy and mineral rights below. This film is of value to anyone wrestling with rational, sustainable energy policy while preserving the priceless elements of cultural heritage, private enterprise above-ground, and the precious health not only of people but the land itself." -Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico