The gas company kept insisting there were no drawbacks to the operation, that it was just “a fire hydrant in a corner of the field”. But the local environmentalists had an entirely different story. I started meeting people and decided to investigate the issue for myself, not suspecting the scope of what I would uncover.
VP: You met hundreds of families across 26 states who had accepted the gas companies’ offer and lived to regret it, can you share with us what they had to go through?
JF: If you see the film, you’ll see the full scope of the devastating effects the drilling has had on these people’s lives. The water becomes toxic, often flammable. People, children, cattle get sick from drinking it, from bathing in it, from breathing the toxic compounds that are being vented from the site into the air. We aren’t finished finding out the scope of health problems resulting from it. People just stop being healthy for good.
A few of the known effects on humans of the chemicals used in fracking – like glycol ethers – are airways infections, testicular toxicity, malformation of the embryo, bone marrow depression, destruction of the red blood cells… but it’s the tip of the iceberg. Many people are disabled for life. They have to buy water, have it shipped to them, (a cost of about $3,700 per month/per family). Many of them have to abandon their house. But it’s not as simple as they have all accepted the gas companies’ offer.
Many people, especially out West, realize that they only own the surface of their land but not the “mineral rights” beneath it. Those can be owned by the state or by private companies that then sell them to the gas companies and there is nothing these people can do to stop the drilling on their own land – and the contamination that ensues.
GASLAND IN CENTRAIL PARK TONIGHT!!!
For tix or info:
The Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, 64th Street and Fifth Avenue
Reception to follow.
R.S.V.P. required. Call 212.360.1324,
This is an amazing documentary and so important for everyone to watch. we have to protect our water and our land!
thanks for running this story.
thank you gloria for getting off the couch – and to the public parlor!!
I live in Pittsburgh. Before the media got hold of the story, back in early August, we knew we were being monitored by Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security. I am proud beyond words to say that not one of the dear people who’ve stood with me (at countless community meetings and protests, etc.) backed down. Sure, several expressed a bit of trepidation, but they kept getting up off the couch & going to make their voices heard.
We’re planning a Marcellus protest on November 3 in Pittsburgh, everyone’s invited, more info, go here: marcellusprotest.org
Thank you Josh for getting us up off the couch.
Josh Fox will be on the Keith Olbermann show on Monday night talking about how Homeland Security was spying on gas drilling activsts at GASLAND screenings and giving their names to pro-drilling organizations.