Gasland (Anyone Seen This?) NRR

The_Non

I know it's slightly old news, but anyone see this doc? It really got me to have no hope for the future.





*Great words to get peoples to watch a trailer, I know.

dwyhajlo

I saw John Stewart's interview with Josh Fox on the Daily Show a few weeks ago. I'm quite interested in seeing the documentary, but I'm a little reticent to do so, for fear that it might totally ruin my week (or decade?) Non, just how much of a bummer is this movie?

mylatency

dude lighting his tapwater on fire from the faucet = :bug:

The_Non

dwyhajlo said:

I saw John Stewart's interview with Josh Fox on the Daily Show a few weeks ago. I'm quite interested in seeing the documentary, but I'm a little reticent to do so, for fear that it might totally ruin my week (or decade?) Non, just how much of a bummer is this movie?

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it an 8 caliber bummer. BUT I think it's one of those things people need to see because:
a) it's an important issue
b) the businesses and inner workings of a scandalous action like hydraulic fracturing, and the outright lies company heads try to feed Congress are to be seen to be believed
c) Exploding water.
The guy Josh Fox is kinda annoying, but he gets the job done.

Rockadelic

Always worth looking at two sides of a story.....


The key point of the documentary is the three setpieces where Colorado residents light their water on fire. In each case, Fox alleges or the citizens imply that this is because of natural gas drilling near their property. It???s a great image. The only problem is that in each of these cases, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the agency required to investigate such claims, performed extensive tests on the water in question, and found that wasn???t the case.

You can see the reports and the responses at the COGCC website, where in each case, after multiple tests, the cause was found to be methane: ???Dissolved methane in well water appears to be biogenic in origin??? There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well.??? And: ???Sample results (water & gas) show naturally occuring biogenic methane gas in well and no impact from O&G operations.???

In fact, in the one case where the gas was thermogenic ??? which made the news rounds last year and likely prompted Fox???s piece ??? investigators spent nearly $150,000 testing and ruling out a 60-year-old abandoned well and 26 other nearby wells as sources or for possible problems, again finding no signs of contamination associated with the oil and gas wells. Yet the energy company which operated nearby was so worried about negative public relations ??? despite the fact that they had ???performed all tests requested by the COGCC, all with negative results??? ??? they provided an additional filtration system for the family which raised the concern.

Guess what: methane is common. If you live off well water, you deal with it. If there really was a natural gas leak going on ??? if someone here did screw up ??? the company involved should of course be liable for it. But despite what Josh Fox would have you believe, all the evidence shows that???s not what is happening in Colorado.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10840

gloom

Rockadelic said:

Always worth looking at two sides of a story.....


The key point of the documentary is the three setpieces where Colorado residents light their water on fire. In each case, Fox alleges or the citizens imply that this is because of natural gas drilling near their property. It???s a great image. The only problem is that in each of these cases, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the agency required to investigate such claims, performed extensive tests on the water in question, and found that wasn???t the case.

You can see the reports and the responses at the COGCC website, where in each case, after multiple tests, the cause was found to be methane: ???Dissolved methane in well water appears to be biogenic in origin??? There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well.??? And: ???Sample results (water & gas) show naturally occuring biogenic methane gas in well and no impact from O&G operations.???

In fact, in the one case where the gas was thermogenic ??? which made the news rounds last year and likely prompted Fox???s piece ??? investigators spent nearly $150,000 testing and ruling out a 60-year-old abandoned well and 26 other nearby wells as sources or for possible problems, again finding no signs of contamination associated with the oil and gas wells. Yet the energy company which operated nearby was so worried about negative public relations ??? despite the fact that they had ???performed all tests requested by the COGCC, all with negative results??? ??? they provided an additional filtration system for the family which raised the concern.

Guess what: methane is common. If you live off well water, you deal with it. If there really was a natural gas leak going on ??? if someone here did screw up ??? the company involved should of course be liable for it. But despite what Josh Fox would have you believe, all the evidence shows that???s not what is happening in Colorado.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10840

i heard an interview with the director on NPR and a professor from Colorado St (maybe?) phoned in to debunk alot of the claims the doc makes. dude made his point very clear.

i agree with rock that there are DEFINITELY two sides to this story. not saying that the specific instances the doc outlines are falsification...

The_Non

Rockadelic said:

Always worth looking at two sides of a story.....


The key point of the documentary is the three setpieces where Colorado residents light their water on fire. In each case, Fox alleges or the citizens imply that this is because of natural gas drilling near their property. It???s a great image. The only problem is that in each of these cases, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the agency required to investigate such claims, performed extensive tests on the water in question, and found that wasn???t the case.

You can see the reports and the responses at the COGCC website, where in each case, after multiple tests, the cause was found to be methane: ???Dissolved methane in well water appears to be biogenic in origin??? There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well.??? And: ???Sample results (water & gas) show naturally occuring biogenic methane gas in well and no impact from O&G operations.???

In fact, in the one case where the gas was thermogenic ??? which made the news rounds last year and likely prompted Fox???s piece ??? investigators spent nearly $150,000 testing and ruling out a 60-year-old abandoned well and 26 other nearby wells as sources or for possible problems, again finding no signs of contamination associated with the oil and gas wells. Yet the energy company which operated nearby was so worried about negative public relations ??? despite the fact that they had ???performed all tests requested by the COGCC, all with negative results??? ??? they provided an additional filtration system for the family which raised the concern.

Guess what: methane is common. If you live off well water, you deal with it. If there really was a natural gas leak going on ??? if someone here did screw up ??? the company involved should of course be liable for it. But despite what Josh Fox would have you believe, all the evidence shows that???s not what is happening in Colorado.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10840

OK, I read the website, which told me stuff I already knew, but I'll play devil's advocate here:
-What about everywhere else in the US he goes to associated/next to hydraulic fracture natural gas wells?
-Methane, fine. Is it not possible that this methane in people's waters didn't exist in it before the fracturing and was "fractured into it" by the process or fractured the affected people's well casings?
-Do you honestly believe that you can inject harmful chemicals into the ground and nothing bad will ever happen to the water table and surrounding well water?
-Getting a scientist to say narrow and favorable things does not convince me, because narrow and favorable things move these businesses. I don't like scientists going into something TO debunk something, instead of just seeing for themselves, you know, like a real scientist.
-I'm not saying Josh Fox knows exactly what he's talking about here, and from what I saw and know, he didn't, but the issue remains. Divide Creek didn't bubble before the natural gas wells. Watch the movie.

selperfuge

Rockadelic said:

Always worth looking at two sides of a story.....

always worth citing your source: http://newledger.com/2010/06/gaslands-false-fire-water-claims/

vintageinfants

i'm aghast that no one has mentioned the raw, poetic beauty lying in the quote @ 1:37!

ketan

Just saw this. The anecdotal evidence presented is pretty outrageous. At the very least, there seems to be a willful throwing aside of the precautionary principle in order to benefit the natural gas industry at the highest levels of government (too dramatic?).

Studies that intensively try to understand the potential ecological impacts of this method don't appear to have been carried out, and they should. So any debate this doc stimulates is positive, as far as I'm concerned.

DOR

I watched Inside Job last night.

Just watching the trailer for Gasland and seeing Inside Job lastnight, I have no doubt we're all fucked.

downtownrobbrown

I work for a civil engineering company here in PA making tons of money off the gas well industry. It has turned everyone into jerks. I am now official off their team doing commercial work.

At least now I can sleep at night.