http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/05/gasland-lies-put-plentiful-fuel-risk
First, the movie implies that nasty chemicals get into the water table. That seems logical, since they shoot them down into gas wells. But it turns out that the shale gas wells are thousands of feet below the water table. Do the chemicals flow up — against gravity?
But then what’s the explanation for the most dramatic part of the movie: tap water so laden with gas that people can set it on fire?
It turns out that has little to do with fracking. In many parts of America, there is enough methane in the ground to leak into people’s well water. The best fire scene in the movie was shot in Colorado, where the filmmaker is in the kitchen of a man who lights his faucet. But Colorado investigators went to that man’s house, checked out his well and found that fracking had nothing to do with his water catching fire. His well-digger had drilled into a naturally occurring methane pocket.
Thanks, I’ll check out the link.
In the part of the movie that I watched, there were several homes that had “flammable” water and other homes that had different pollution issues, and in most cases they had never had issues with the water table until after the fracking had started.
With respect to the chemicals that people are finding: the thing that are showing up in the water table are synthesized compounds like ethylene glycol (if I’m remembering correctly)... chemicals that do not occur naturally.
Again, I’m not really interested in what one particular movie has to say, but in the larger issue at hand: a) is there really a tangible, widespread problem, and; b) if there is, who is at fault? Both parties have an agenda, and only one can be telling the truth.