neongen Review of Gasland Part II

Gasland Part II (2013)

Could be huge problems worldwide down the road

[9/10 · 23 April 2019]

The follow up to Gasland is more of the same type of coverage : people in two or three small areas of the country being filmed as they explain how their water supply has been polluted by harmful chemicals used by the fracking ( getting natural gas out of shale by use of high pressure ) wells on or near their land. I got lost in the mineral rights/payments to land owners to drill wells on their land business but it became clear that some property owners have had their water supply made unuseable by the fracking industry. The problem is that a one inch barrier of cement in the wells is all that prevents harmful chemicals from entering underground steams and water basins and this barrier is insufficient for the job. As time passes more and more active wells will contaminate the world's water supplies. I did note that the number of homeowners who complained of undrinkable water was pretty small in relation to the huge number of wells already on line by 2013. Another point of confusion was an EPA report that listed massive contaminants in peoples' water yet the agency released the information that the water was safe to drink. A number of homeowners took an offer from a fracking company that, according to the piece gave them twice the value of their property if they left and remained silent forevermore. That seemed unduly generous. The doc did not supply any information about the expected length of time this type of well would remain active so one cannot really access long term pollutant damage but it was crystal that politicians at all levels of government side heavily with the frackers which certainly corresponds to the idea that business controls government.