Gasland - The documentary of the natural gas industry you must see.

gaslandthemovie.com...

After seeing the film you will wonder what situation is worse. The gulf or the drinking water for NYC and Philly.

reply to post by DarkStar86


I thought it was a great documentary...

Normally I hate everything that people who would like this documentary would also like...oh yes...But you don't have to be a Communist to think it might be bad to poison the groundwater everywhere...Water is nice...




[edit on 28-6-2010 by nine-eyed-eel]

I have watched it a couple of times now, I was shocked to find out this is in my own area as well, and that it continues to push forward with more and more being installed.

I also noted when a map was shown of the areas already or what will be eventually mined, they happen to come up along the New Madrid fault line, not too smart to be drilling along it IMO.

This should be in the news, every day, just like the gulf oil leak.

I work in this field, and although I like this film, it contains exaggerations
purposefully aimed at exciting your emotions, while understating, or
omitting some of the real threats.

I have worked in the gas field four years (drive a truck).


Claim 1. Seventy percent of fracking liquid stays underground.

Truth 1. I am constantly amazed by how much MORE water comes up
than what was originally injected during the fracking process. Some wells
have operated for five years or more years averaging 2 or 3 truckloads
a day of water pulled from the well, not counting the 8 or 12 truckloads
a day most wells usually produce immediately after the fracking process.
(usually one to three months). Also fracking (in Texas) requires
1 to 3 hundred truckloads of pure freshwater, from streams , city plugs,
farmer ponds, and sometimes, water wells specifically for the purpose.

Understatement 1. Waste water disposals handle HUGE amounts of water,
some handle 100 to 200 trucks a day, and have been for many years.
Waste water (high in heavy salts from the drilling strata and chemicals
from the drilling process) scares the heck out of me. There are literal
lakes of water sitting 1 to 3 miles beneath the surface beneath these
disposals.

Although I haven't heard a peep about waste water contaminating
the fresh water aquifer, the sheer magnitude of the waste water being
pumped into the earth makes me cross my fingers...
and I'm not religious, or superstitious...

Claim 2. Water faucet fire. I'm sure this happens, but not frequently.
This represents a loss of revenue on the drilling company's part. You can
rest assured that a gas leak is jumped on immediately and fixed. Also
a leak like this represents a fracture in the pipe, very rare.

Understatement 2. Twice in my short career I have driven into gas clouds
at well sites. These clouds have been caused by ruptured piping above
ground. The ruptures are caused by rust, which is caused by the heavy
salt content of the area. The clouds represent HUUUUGE BOOOMS, with
people on-site being killed and windows blown out for miles. Maintenance
of well sites is lacking, due to nearly everyone in this field being green.
This industry is learning as it goes along.

Sorry, but I'm drunk and tired...I'll finish later...
BTW...I'm going to sleep--not driving

And...If you have questions I'll give honest answers

W and I watched this film over the weekend and we were literally “blown away.” This is just as evil as the BP explosion and should definitely be in the news. Never heard of the Halliburton Loophole before, and it is just deviously criminal. Moreover, the persons who oversee the Bureau of Land Management out to face criminal prosecution as should Cheney and Bush.

It was horrifying to see how people and animals have to deal with this type of raping of our environment and lands. These poor people do not have a choice – and do not stand a chance. It is obvious the mineral rights have been sold – probably even before they owned the land – and now these companies can come in willy-nilly and put up any damn old gas operation whenever and wherever they want. They do not care. I am sick and tired of the corporations damaging everything they touch. The people who run these corporations ought to be tarred and feathered and forced to live under the same conditions they cause the average Joe to live with.

******************************

A well blowout in Clearfield County, PA on June 3, 2010 sent more than 35,000 gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluids into the air and onto the surrounding landscape in a forested area. Campers were evacuated and the company EOG Resources (formerly Enron Oil and Gas) and the well completion company C.C. Forbes have been ordered to cease all operations in the state of Pennsylvania pending investigation. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has called this a "serious incident". [14][15]
Industry groups dispute whether hydraulic fracturing has a significant environmental impact, with arguments centered around the extent to which fracturing fluid used far below the earth’s surface and isolated from fresh water zones, could contaminate surface or near-surface water supplies, impact rock shelf causing seismic events or lead to surface subsidence.
However in April of 2010 the state of Pennsylvania banned Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. from further drilling in the entire state until it plugs wells believed to be the source of contamination of the drinking water of 14 homes in Dimock Township PA. The investigation was initiated after a water well exploded on New Year's Day in 2009. The state investigation revealed that Cabot Oil & Gas Company "had allowed combustible gas to escape into the region's groundwater supplies."[16]
en.wikipedia.org...

I don't get too excited about explosions or bad chemicals in the air near the drilling sites or whatever (no doubt that's evil of me etc.)...But I can't see putting non-degradable poisonous chemicals into the USA groundwater for ever and ever and ever ...oh hell no...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO and everybody responsible in the government should be fired...right??????

Oh yeah ...Gasland is on HBO, now...y'all may not be aware...on my cable it's under "HBO Documentaries", I don't know about other providers...




[edit on 28-6-2010 by nine-eyed-eel]

The fracturing liquid is fresh water and sand, with minute amounts of
chemicals. I work directly with these "fluids" everyday and the frac-water
is not the threat. After fracking is when most of the chemicals, gelatin,
and maintenance chemicals (ones that keep the water from souring
and producing lethal H2S, plus rust retardants) are injected.

Plus these wells are drilled well below 2 miles.

The threat is in the waste water. This is the water that comes back
up as the gas is being produced. It is heavy with salt and minerals
from the drilling strata+chemicals+mud+gel...some of it is disgusting
to work with. And this water continues to come up for the life of the
well. MUCH more water comes up than goes down EVERYTIME...by
a factor of five at least, sometimes by a factor of 100 or more.

I work well sites that we have been pulling water from for four years
at a rate of twenty trucks a day.

If you're not familiar, waste water is disposed of underground, down
wells drilled specifically for that purpose. The problem, as I see it, is these
disposal wells are shallower than producing gas wells. Some only as deep
as a mile and a half. And some of these disposals (as stated before)
handle enormous quantities of waste water. A hundred trucks a
day or more for many years. We've pumped WAY MORE waste water
into the ground just in my local area over the last four years than
the BP spill has produced so far. But everyone seems concerned with
the drilling and fracking.

(on a human note) The other thing I don't like is often people without
mineral rights will have their property forcibly usurped to drill a well.
Even though they are compensated handsomely they literally must put up
with trucks day and night, everyday, rumbling up and down a
dusty lease road often constructed within 100 feet from their homes.
I really feel for some of these people...washing a car or keeping your
windows clean, (or breathing for that matter), becomes tedious for
them I'm sure.

[edit on 28-6-2010 by rival]

reply to post by rival

I am very interested and appreciative of your posts, being as you are an actual witness + reference...

What do the company bosses tell you about getting the waste water on yourself, for example? Do you know anybody who got dipped in the bad waste water, and all-their-hair-fell-out type of thing, or like that...?

Please, do tell...I am very interested, and I bet I ain't the only one, nope nope...

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


Most waste water smells of salt and chlorides but is usually clear. I get
it on me often. But some of it (s'cuse the cliche') you avoid like the plague.
It is viscous and foul, and you make the trip to the cab of the truck to
don your heavy rubber gloves.

But there are no ill effects that I know of to the skin or else. Some of the
chemicals in their concentrated form are quite caustic, to the point
of eating away your skin if you don't wash the area immediately. I've seen
guys down for weeks to heal open sores from Bio-Cide--a chemical used
(like bleach) to keep the well from producing H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide).

As far as the bosses go, there's no imperative rule about exposure.
In fact, many times when a driver has been accidentally soaked he has
to demand (if he wishes) to be allowed to go home, or back to the shop to change clothes. Most guys just wait till they get home.

reply to post by DarkStar86


...Oooh. lookie here...al-Jazeera has a video on the subject...pointing out the fracking loophole about groundwater pollution and everything...and with dead animals too...