When people in Utah talk about fracking, they usually point to Canada as an example of what could go wrong. “Gasland” brings the story home in truly terrifying fashion. Fracking is happening in the United States and it is destroying ground water, causing people to get ill and creating exploding water wells and burning faucets.
Yet the onus is on those who live near wells to prove that the chemicals that are causing these things are from the chemicals used in the fracking process. The same chemicals that the companies can hide under proprietary use and that they do not have to disclose under the energy act exemption granted them in 2005 under the Bush administration.
While the movie has a couple of saccharine musings, it is the effects of the fracking process in areas where people live that is as scary as any slasher film – animals losing hair and projectile vomiting, people experiencing headaches and brain lesions, and the natural gas industry having to provide clean water for the people who can raise enough ruckus to prove that they were affected.
“Gasland” makes it clear through the video footage of testimonials by the industry insiders themselves that if even two percent of the fracking projects go bad, the environment would face some very serious consequences because the chemicals do not biodegrade.
In Utah where water is already an issue, fracking shouldn’t be – because anyone with any sort of common sense would realize that the long term cost is not worth the short term reward of a few energy companies.
Watch “Gasland,” and be afraid.
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