"Gasland" - the documentary

[mfish]

I watched this documentary on HBO last night called "Gasland."

Here's a link to learn more:
http://www.hbo.com/documentaries?cmpid=ABC449#/documentaries/gasland/index.html

It's about natural gas drilling a hydraulic "frakking" of those wells, and how it affects the ground water and water supplies of people. It's a pretty disturbing and eye-opening documentary, and done with factual and objective information.

If you have HBO, make it a point to watch this -

[pdc]

Is this the one where they light a kitchen water faucet on fire?? Disturbing, indeed....

[saw]

Where is this taking place? I don't have HBO.

A similiar thing took place in Hobbs many years ago but it was with crude oil. Residents in the area could fill up their bathtub with crude.

If anyone is interested I can post the entire story.

[mfish]

In Pennsylvania, Wyoming, New Mexico ... almost anywhere natural gas is drilled and the wells are frakked.

[saw]

I know here in SENM gas wells have been fracked for the last 50-60 years.

The fracking in this area takes place way below the water tables and is not likely to get up to the water tables. I have known of some very isolated cases of gas getting into the water table on some very old shallow wells and where they were close to the water well. Pennsylvania used to have some streams and ponds that you could set on fire and the crude oil came a bubbling up through the ground.

And then all left and went to California!

[oladcock]

Sounds like we need to reduce our dependence on water! :)....O.L.

[mfish]

According to the documentary, natural gas seepage is only one of the problems. Chemical seepage from the dozens of chemicals used in the process - some proprietary, some just plain poisonous - are also a big problem, causing general illness, hair loss, cancer, contamination of water, etc.

And then - the matter of the huge amounts of water needed to hydraulically fracture those wells is a big concern, too. What little they can reclaim is contaminated.

[Alfdom]

Since 2005, the natural gas drillers do not have to compy with the clean water act. In essence they can poison the water, get some natural gas, vent VOC's and walk away from the area as soon as the profit is gone.

http://www.earthworksaction.org/halliburton.cfm

[samsara]

All those people that are constantly saying "drill, baby, drill" might regret that since they are also being poisoned.

[saw]

I scanned the articles but did not see any numbers like there has been 250 confirmed wells in NM that have been contaminated by the results of fracking gas wells or 150 in Colorado. Anybody see any actual numbers. Methane gas in domestic water wells is most likely caused by septic tanks, irrigating with wastewater, dairy, and feed lots.

[TerryCat]

Here is an interesting link concerning the documentary.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33377903/Gasland-Debunked

[Alfdom]

I scanned the articles but did not see any numbers like there has been 250 confirmed wells in NM that have been contaminated by the results of fracking gas wells or 150 in Colorado. Anybody see any actual numbers. Methane gas in domestic water wells is most likely caused by septic tanks, irrigating with wastewater, dairy, and feed lots.

"The full extent of the problem is difficult to determine because much of the evidence is anecdotal and because drilling companies have been known to buy people off when things go wrong. "

Read More http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/06/fracking-in-pennsylvania-201006?currentPage=all#ixzz0s1EBxhdJ

The article claims 800 sites have water problems in New Mexico.

[saw]

Post #12 attachment states that more than 800 water supplies in NM have been contaminated with toxic fluids I can believe it but it did not state that it was a results of fracking. The one spill at Questa could have done that but it was cause by mining. Septic tanks alone have contaminated more water supplies than 800.

Post #11 attachment states that the state regulators in the states of PA,NY, TX, Ohio, NM, and Alabama has not seen any evidence of fracking causing a water supply to contaminated.

Read the attachments and toss in a little common sense and see what you come up with.

[mfish]

There are wells out at Y.O. Acres that have been contaminated for years. Mostly because of when the Base was active.

Now, with all the dairies adding their "special" brand of run-off to the issue, more and more wells in SE New Mexico will become tainted with bovine waste and chemicals.

[Daisy]

So, all we need to do is stop using oil and gas and prevent cows from, uh...evacuating. No problem....:smk2:

[Alfdom]

The gas companies should not worry about the documentary, there is no shortage of land owners who will lease their land. The states and BLM will also lease land to the gas producers. The EPA will be doing a study on the effects of gas wells on drinking water and release the results two years from now, until then it is drill baby drill. If you think the States will regulate an industry that pours money into their budgets, then you can relax and have drink of water. If the State of New Mexico does monitor ground water around gas well sites I can find no record of it.

I did find state records of ground water contamination in Chaves County, some TCE, PCE, BTEX in Roswell and several dairy sites in the county for nitrogen and total dissolved solids. I know of ground water problems in Roswell that were not in the Internet State records.

[saw]

How many photos and paintings have you seen where the cattle and horses are standing around the windmill?

Wells are still being drilled to close to contaminated locations and will be contaminated in time.

Use to be that a water well was drilled at each oil/gas drilling site so that they did not have to haul water.

For some 50 years in SENM an un-lined slush pits were a part of drilling a oil well. There are thousands of them that were just covered up when the drilling was completed and the water wells were capped unless a rancher wanted it.

[Alfdom]

The pollution from fracing is not the same as pit pollution. There is little regulation on the underground injection used for fracing the natural gas wells. The pits in New Mexico are regulated, but both parties are saying they want to revisit the pit rule.

"The Oil Conservation Division (OCD) does not know how many of the 13,200 documented pits
are currently causing contamination of soil or groundwater.
Between the mid 1980s and 2003, however, the New Mexico Environmental Bureau recorded
more than 6,700 cases of pits causing soil and water contamination, with at least 557 of those
cases resulting in groundwater contamination. More than 360 of those 557 groundwater
contamination sites investigated by the New Mexico Environmental Bureau are not yet fully
cleaned up."
Since 2001, the OCD has investigated 734 cases of soil or groundwater contamination; 444 of the
investigations were conducted at field production locations (e.g., well sites as opposed to major
processing facilities)."

http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/PitReport.pdf