"Gasland," film on Marcellus Shale drilling's environment effects

[RamboLiberal]

When gas companies offered Josh Fox of Honesdale a lease to drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale beneath his property, Fox took off across the country with a film camera and some questions: "What comes out of the ground along with the gas? And how does it affect our air and drinking water?"

The result is the movie "Gasland," which won the special jury prize for documentaries at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The film examines a process in drilling for natural gas called "fracking" in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to fracture the shale and release the gas. This "frack water" becomes saturated with dissolved salts, minerals and low-level radioactivity.

Some of it returns to the surface and is often used again in drilling or else treated and released back into streams. There have been spills. Additionally, poorly drilled wells can cause natural gas to contaminate water wells.

A January review in Variety magazine called it "seat-of-pants investigating that yields astonishing and disturbing findings. ... ‘Gasland’ may become to the dangers of natural gas drilling what ‘Silent Spring’ was to DDT."

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/06/gasland_film_on_marcellus_shal.html

In the debate over energy resources, natural gas is often considered a "lesser-of-evils". While it does release some greenhouse gases, natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, and is in plentiful supply—parts of the U.S. sit above some of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth. But a new boom in natural gas drilling, a process called "fracking", raises concerns about health and environmental risks.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html

[SocialistLez]

1. I heard about this movie on PBS. NT