January 24, 2011: Gasland
I watched Gasland as a pre-emptive Oscar pick, since it was on the short-list for the Best Documentary nominations, and the subject matter was of interest. A film about the widespread dangers of natural gas drilling in the US, the film is startling and I hope that its nomination will provide the exposure it deserves.
It really is staggering what lengths mankind will go to in order to maintain the standard of living to which we’ve collectively become accustomed, regardless of which individuals will be adversely affected by these actions. Natural gas is a very popular heating and cooking fuel in North America, and while it’s relatively easy to transport through pipelines over long distances, it’s not particularly easy to move across oceans. This means that the search for gas within the US and Canada continues endlessly, and as it turns out there are huge amounts trapped in shale formations in large areas of the US. Our accidental documentarian, Josh Fox from Pennsylvania, received an unsolicited offer of $100,000 for drilling rights on his land and, thinking that this offer was too good to be true, did some poking around locally and eventually farther west and discovered the hidden horror of what gas drilling does to the livability of local areas.
This isn’t just the usual “contaminated water” deal where people’s water is a bit brown and dirty but they filter it and all is OK. Not only are people’s water supplies contaminated with remnants of the nearly 600 chemicals used in drilling, but there is actually a significant amount of natural gas mixed in, such that when people turn on their taps and hold a lighter to the stream of water, it will often catch fire. That makes for some pretty iconic and disturbing imagery, doesn’t it?
When Fox pokes deeper into the situation, he finds these horror stories from his local neighbours, including several cases where the gas drilling companies provide weekly refills of potable water tanks since the well water is beyond being usable. Fox heads out west and finds the exact same situation – setting fire to water coming out of faucets, water replacement, chemicals being pumped into the earth – and wonders why this is permitted. It turns out that laws passed during the Bush administration permit this natural gas drilling to be exempt from the clean air act and the clean water act, for no discernible reason. People beg him to take samples of their water and have it tested, which he does, and finds all manner of toxic chemicals in the brew. Eventually we’re taken to a congressional hearing about the issue, in which the usual evasive arguments are trotted out, including the lack of irrefutable proof that the drilling is causing the problem, the matter-of-fact listing of 596 chemicals in the “water” used for fracturing the shale rock layers, and industry lobbyists rallying furiously against the most simple legislation aimed at increasing the safety and accountability rules which they say are already in place anyway. Money buys power, and power buys the right to do whatever you want as a company and as an industry in the US, and so it continues.
Fox’s amateur roots are visible at certain points in the documentary, which reduce the impact a bit. A sequence where he is firing a gun to illustrate comparable danger to the contaminated water is a bit over the top with the theatrics, but I suppose that’s OK since he’s an everyman who got caught up in this mess. The repeated pronunciation of the chemical toluene as “tolulene” is less forgivable, since basic research and/or screening of the film for experts should have caught this. But an interview with a gas drilling company representative, while appropriately awkward, doesn’t come through as the slam-dunk that it should be, and that’s indicative of an inexperienced documentary filmmaker. Still, this is a story which deserves to be told, and I’m glad it’s coming to light.
Another stunning account of today’s evils.
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