Water on Fire (© 2010 International WOW Company)

Amid widespread concern that hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, or “fracking”, would endanger the high quality of the drinking water for millions in the region, the New York State Assembly has passed a moratorium on the practice. The vote in favor of the moratorium was 93-43.

The N.Y.S. Senate has already approved the measure and it appears likely that Governor David Patterson will sign it into law. The law will ban fracking in N.Y.S. until May 15, 2011. The measure is intended to provide time for a full review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to the New York Times, “This is the first time any state has ever taken this kind of action to protect the health and safety of its residents from the consequences of gas drilling,” said Kate Sinding, deputy director of the New York Urban Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It sends a powerful message that New Yorkers don’t want new fracking here unless the industry proves it can be done safely.”

What are the Consequences of Fracking?

Over the last couple of years there have been media reports from Pennsylvania to Texas of drinking water contaminated by natural gas drilling. There have been more than 300 instances of contaminated water in Colorado since 2003, and more than 700 instances in New Mexico, according to Bruce Baizel, senior staff attorney with Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project. In West Virginia a once lushly forested area has been transformed into a dead zone.

The measure passed in the wake of revelations that actor Mark Ruffalo had been placed on a terror watch list by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security. He has been actively opposed to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Delaware River region, working to arrange screenings of the documentary film, “Gasland”. The film was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

Fracking Courtesy of Halliburton

“Gasland” offers a devastating critique of the deep drilling practice, originally developed by Halliburton. The film includes footage of kitchen tap water being set ablaze by a homeowner near a site where fracking was taking place. Millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand are injected into the ground under high pressure, cracking shale and tight rocks to allow gas to flow more freely from the well. It is a toxic mixture and believed to be the prime culprit in the pollution of groundwater in areas surrounding drilling sites. Drinking water hundreds of miles from a well can be contaminated.

Josh Fox made the award-winning documentary “Gasland” after he was asked to lease his land for gas drilling. That led him to embark on a cross-country odyssey. His journey led to the film charging fracking with leading to chronic illness in humans, toxic waste deadly to farm animals, disastrous explosions, and poor regulation of the gas drilling industry. It will be broadcast on HBO through 2012. The DVD goes on sale in December of 2010.

More Fracking on the Way

According to an article published by ProPublica in December of 2009:

In the next 10 years, the United States will use the fracturing technology to drill hundreds of thousands of new wells astride cities, rivers and watersheds. Cash-strapped state governments are pining for the revenue and the much-needed jobs that drilling is expected to bring to poor, rural areas.

Incredibly, a loophole exempts natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Drilling companies don’t have to disclose the almost 600 chemicals that might be used in fracking and find their way into drinking water.

To purchase a DVD of the award-winning documentary by Josh Fox, go to: Gasland the DVD

To see a trailer for the documentary film , go to: Gasland the Trailer

To view the ProPublica article cited above, go to: Natural Gas Drilling: What We Don’t Know

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