Before watching the movie, I had no idea about the extent of the "development."
For some reason, I thought it was limited to a few areas; but the reality is that a majority of the watersheds in the United States are threatened.
How are they threatened?
Perhaps it can be illustrated with one well. To develop one well requires hundreds of truckloads of stuff. These are BIG 18 wheelers.
About half the "stuff" is fracking fluid, which contains a slurry of chemicals that are extremely bad for the environment and peoples' / any living creatures health. The industry claims they are not harmful, yet refuse to disclose what those chemicals are. Independent labs have done tests to find out what some of them are, and they are detailed in the movie.
No one has done any studies of the effects of these chemicals on life. Yes, life itself.
These carcinogenic, deadly compounds are then pumped under extremely high pressure thousands of feet down into the shale that contains the natural gas. This process cracks the rock, releasing the gas.
Does anyone with 1/2 a brain cell think those chemicals will obediently stay where they were first pumped? Anyone who has played with anything under pressure ( a child with a balloon) will quickly discover that something under high pressure moves to a place of lower pressure.
Simply put, there is standard physics at work when these chemicals are moving into places of lower pressure, such as aquifers. No one has any control of where that is, and once an area is polluted, it is IMPOSSIBLE to clean it out.
Is it really worth it to DESTROY the water supply of a region just so you can extract some energy for very little money? Is ANY amount of money enough to balance against the life giving compound EVERY LIVING THING depends on now and for ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS?
I am probably not much different from the folks that were interviewed in the film in that their land represents just about everything they have. To me, it is just about the definition of hell that these people are living. Everything they have and have ever worked for is worth nothing. That's right. Nothing. When you look for a piece of land, the first thing ANYONE inquires about is the water. How much would you pay for land that has burning, carcinogenic water and exploding wells? Now you and your family's health is at risk and all you could do is move away and start over with nothing.
Often zoning requirements restrict what people do in an area so it doesn't adversely effect neighboring property values. We recently had a vote here in northern California about whether one could grow Marijuana outdoors. Advocates for restricting outdoor cultivation claimed the smell, etc would drive down neighboring property values. What's interesting is that for little things like what plants a neighbor grows or what shape a person's house is, there are plenty of laws restricting action. However, if you are doing something that could completely ruin the environment in the area, that's ok, as long as it's providing "clean" natural gas.
And the pollution doesn't stop underground. Some of that fracking compound (about half) bubbles up to the surface, where it's kept in "produced water" ponds. Getting rid of this waste is expensive, so as much as possible is removed by evaporating out the water. This transports many of the chemicals into the atmosphere. According to some testing done by a town in Texas, the pollution from natural gas chemical venting is equal to all the pollution from internal combustion engines. The difference? Automobiles, trucks, etc are regulated - even in Texas. Natural gas venting is not regulated at all. No one is looking at WHAT is being vented.
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