GASLAND {4:3 LETTERBOX} (TV)

Summary

A documentary film about one man’s investigation of the environmental effects of natural gas drilling in the United States. Josh Fox, a resident of Milanville, Pennsylvania, has lived his entire life next to a stream connected to the Delaware River. He receives a letter from a natural gas company telling him his property rests on top of the Marcellus Shale, one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the United States. They wish to give him $100,000 to lease his land. Fox explains that a 2005 energy bill exempts natural gas drilling from many environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act that has protected his stream since 1972. He also details a procedure called “hydraulic fracturing,” or “fracking,” which pumps chemicals into the ground to expose natural gas; fracking requires millions of gallons of water as well. Fox, unsure of whether to lease his land, travels to nearby Dimock, Pennsylvania, where Cabot Oil and Gas has a natural gas drilling operation. He has heard complaints from the out-of-the-way towns’ locals involving the water table, and soon finds that obviously contaminated water has spread across the neighborhood since the gas company arrived. He even hears one family claim they could light their tap water on fire, although they do not do so for him. While in Dimock, Fox receives an anonymous phone call which leads to a meeting with a man who gives him a mysterious water sample that Fox deduces is waste water that emerges from the ground as a result of fracking. Fox feels a sense of dread about the situation in Dimock; he refuses the offer to lease his land. Although there is no natural gas drilling near his home yet due to environmental regulations, Fox is concerned and curious about the gas drilling situation in the rest of the country. He decides to become a “natural gas drilling detective” to investigate further. He travels to Weld County, Colorado, where he meets a couple who show him sample of their tap water turned brown from contamination. They have taken to buying their water from town instead of using their own, and their complaints to the local authorities went unheeded. They demonstrate igniting their tap water on fire for Fox, who collects a sample of the water. Fox continues his interviews with other locals who all have similar stories. He also hears stories about various health problems believed to be associated with the pollution from natural gas drilling. He speaks with Weston Wilson, an employee of the EPA, who wrote a letter to Congress protesting the lack of investigation on natural gas contamination cases. Wilson is outraged about the so-called “Halliburton loophole,” a dispensation for natural gas pollution written into a bill by Dick Cheney, and calls the EPA “asleep at the wheel.” Fox heads to Wyoming and speaks with a couple who are breaking their non-disclosure agreement with the gas company to talk about their situation. Their water became contaminated in the late 1990’s, and since then they have been forced to filter their water. However, it is discovered that the waste water they are filtering contains glycol ethers, which eat through their filters. Their neighbor tried to dig his own well when his became contaminated, but he ended up accidentally releasing a torrent of natural gas that lasted three days. He had to use a court injunction to obtain a new water source. Fox also speaks with a nearby family who has 24 gas drills on their property; the fumes from the nearby condensation tanks are causing severe health problems to them and their animals. Next, Fox visits the Jonah Gas Fields in Sublette County, Wyoming, one of the largest and most productive gas fields in the United States. The huge area as a relatively small population and much of the land is public and protected under the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). However, Cheney persuaded BLM to lease millions of acres of land to the gas companies, turning the area into a vast network of drilling rigs. Fox explains that half of the water used in any given fracking operation resurfaces as waste water and is placed in a pit, where it can seep into the water table. Some of the water is evaporated into the air, where it can cause severe air pollution and acid rain. The ozone in Sublette County has reached dangerously unsafe levels; Fox laments the lack of safety features in many gas drills that could prevent such pollution. Garfield County, Colorado is the first place where a comprehensive study of the health effects of gas drilling is taking place. Many people are severely ill but cannot directly testify due to the non-disclosure agreements they signed with the gas companies. One woman talks about the severe mobility and respiratory problems she and her family suffered as a result of air pollution from a nearby gas drill. Fox also speaks with Dr. Theo Colborn, an air pollution specialist who discovered many of the dangerous chemicals used in fracking fluid, despite the fact that they were once considered a trade secret. She discovered that exposure to these chemicals can cause irreversible brain damage. Fox interviews a woman named Lisa Bracken, who lives near Divide Creek, a waterway polluted by fracking fluid runoff. She talks about the air and water pollution around her home, and how her father, Robert Blackcloud, died of pancreatic cancer caused by drinking the contaminated creek water. She also shows Fox dead wildlife specimens she collected from around the creek and preserved in her freezer, waiting to be autopsied. Divide Creek reminds Fox of the stream by his house. The sights of the effects of chemical pollution on the creek are emotionally upsetting to Fox. The sheer number of accounts of pollution becomes overwhelming to Fox, who remains on the road for weeks. His investigation takes him to Fort Worth, Texas, which is surrounded by over 10,000 gas wells. An interview with Dr. Al Armendariz, an air quality specialist, reveals that his independent tests uncovered a major air pollutant emanating from the gas well’s condensation tanks. Calvin Tillman, mayor of the small town of Dish, Texas, tells of how his town sits at the intersection of ten major gas pipelines; the pipe compression tanks release harmful carcinogens and neurotoxins into the towns’ air. Tillman laments the fact that the Clean Air Act has no power to stop such widespread pollution. In Louisiana, chemist Wilma Subra discusses the high levels of arsenic in the water. Louisiana was once a major dumping site for gas drilling waste, but the recent hurricanes flooded the entire coast with these chemicals, permanently contaminating the entire area. Many drilling sites were destroyed and their chemicals released as well, exacerbating the situation. Subra’s observations make Fox ponder the potential effect of such a disaster on the entire nation’s waterways. Weary and downcast from his nationwide investigation, Fox returns home. Soon afterwards, he receives a call from the water testing lab he sent the Dimock sample to. The results indicate that the sample contains highly dangerous substances, including Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen and Methyl Blue Active Substance (MBAS), which could possibly corrode living creatures’ lungs. Fox interviews John Hanger, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Hanger seems to think that much of the contamination has already been cleaned, but also admits that there are risks to gas drilling that he doesn’t have “perfect answers.” Fox narrates that a few months after the interview, the DEP suffered major budget losses and layoffs. The New York City Watershed and Delaware River Basin, of which Fox’s stream is a part of, is slated for gas drilling but none has taken place yet, since the waterway supplies water for 15.6 million people. The efforts of individuals like James Gennaro (New York City Council, Environmental Board Chair) and Scott Stringer (Manhattan Borough President) have halted the rapid growth of the gas industry in that area. They express their views about the government’s inadequate measures for dealing with the gas situation. Fox hears of a special session of Congress being held to discuss water contamination from natural gas drilling. In particular, they are discussing what is known as the “Frack Act,” a bill which could remove the exemption natural gas companies enjoy on hazardous chemical dumping. Fox attends the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals and hears testimony from the gas industry and their lobbyists. They maintain that the reports of water contamination are either exaggerated or false. Under questioning about their practices and the chemicals used in fracking, they are evasive. The results of the committee are inconclusive. The Frack Act is still working its way through Congress. The fate of Fox’s stream, and of the United States’ waterways in general, is still uncertain. Fox feels a kinship with the many people he met during his investigation, and calls for people to speak up about the problem of natural gas drilling pollution.

Details

• NETWORK: N/A
• DATE: November 30, 0200
• RUNNING TIME: 1:42:44
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 104712
• GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SERIES RUN: N/A
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Josh Fox … Producer, Director, Writer
• Trish Adelsic … Producer
• Molly Gandour … Producer
• Don Guarnieri … Co-Producer
• Laura Newman … Co-Producer
• David Roma … Co-Producer
• Josh Fox … Narrator
• Mike Markham … Cast
• Marsha Mendenhall … Cast
• Weston Wilson … Cast
• Theo Colborn … Cast
• Lisa Bracken … Cast
• Alfredo J. Armendariz … Cast
• Wilma Subra … Cast
• John Hanger … Cast
• James Gennaro … Cast
• Scott Stringer … Cast
• Maurice Hinchey … Cast
• Al Appleton … Cast
• Al Baker … Cast
• Barbara Arindell … Cast
• Andy Cheshier … Cast
• Deb Thomas … Cast
• Dee Hoffmeister … Cast
• Amee Ellsworth … Cast
• Jesse Ellsworth … Cast
• Barry Pelts … Cast
• Calvin Tillman … Cast
• Charles Morgan … Cast
• Debbie Maye … Cast
• Diana Degette … Cast
• Carol Collier … Cast
• Don Young … Cast
• Elizabeth Burns … Cast
• Emily Weidenhof … Cast
• Gary Hogan … Cast
• Gerard Manos … Cast
• Jack White … Cast
• Jason Rinker … Cast
• Jeff Locker … Cast
• Duke Cox … Cast
• Elizabeth Chandler … Cast
• Frank Smith … Cast
• Geoffrey Thyne … Cast
• Gillian Caldwell … Cast
• James Weaver … Cast
• Jeremy Nichols … Cast
• Jerry Johnson … Cast
• Joe Henderson … Cast
• John Fenton … Cast
• Cathy Fenton … Cast
• John Pendergass … Cast
• Joyce Wizer … Cast
• Kim Weber … Cast
• Linda Baker … Cast
• Louis Meeks … Cast
• Mary White … Cast
• Jerry Horton … Cast
• John Amos … Cast
• Johnny Micou … Cast
• Josh Joswick … Cast
• Julie Sautner … Cast
• Lester Brown … Cast
• Maule Newman … Cast
• Mike Eisenfeld … Cast
• Norma Fiorentino … Cast
• Pat Farnelli … Cast
• Pat Carullo … Cast
• Pete Morton … Cast
• Renee McClure … Cast
• Richard Gonzalez … Cast
• Meryl Bradshaw … Cast
• Mike Ferguson … Cast
• Nicholas Nersesian … Cast
• Osmin Gonzalez … Cast
• Patrick Dillan … Cast
• Paula Roberts … Cast
• Randal Wirth … Cast
• Richard Plunz … Cast
• Rick Roles … Cast
• Ronald Carter … Cast
• Rolf Beck … Cast
• Sharon Johnson … Cast
• Steve Cummings … Cast
• Tim Johnson … Cast
• Ronald Bobbit … Cast
• Roxana Witter … Cast
• Sharon Wilson … Cast
• Shirley McNall … Cast
• Tara Meixsell … Cast
• Tim Giblin … Cast
• Victoria Switzer … Cast
• Wally White … Cast
• Robert Blackcloud
• Dick Cheney