Fracking Hell: The Untold Story

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An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

Marcellus Shale contains enough natural gas to supply all US gas needs for 14 years. But as gas drilling takes place, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," toxic chemicals and methane gas seep into drinking water. Now experts fear that unacceptable levels of radioactive Radium 226 in gas development waste.

Fracking chemicals are linked to bone, liver and breast cancers, gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, developmental as well as brain and nervous system disorders. Such chemicals are present in frack waste and may find their way into drinking water and air.

Waste from Pennsylvania gas wells -- waste that may also contain unacceptable levels of radium -- is routinely dumped across state lines into landfills in New York, Ohio and West Virginia. New York does not require testing waste for radioactivity prior to dumping or treatment. So drill cuttings from Pennsylvania have been dumped in New York's Chemung and other counties and liquid waste is shipped to treatment plants in Auburn and Watertown New York. How radioactive is this waste? Experts are calling are for testing to find out.
New York State may have been the first state in the nation to put a temporary hold on fracking pending a safety review, but it allows other states to dump toxic frack waste within its boundaries.

With a gas production boom underway in the Marcellus Shale and plans for some 400,000 wells in the coming decades, the cumulative impact of dumping potential lethal waste without adequate oversight is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And now U.S. companies are exporting fracking to Europe.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• fracking
• hydraulic fracturing
• Marcellus Shale
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• contamination
• toxic
• waste
• radioactive
• environment
• pollution
• earth focus
• linktv
• link tv

[Sinsemilla4u]

@Chrisj04r Oh no, I'd never even heard about that. It's just crazy to think that it's perfectly safe and that none of what has been going on is caused by fracking. Makes me think of how back in the 50's tobacco companies would conduct their own studies to say that there was no health risk to smoking.

[Chrisj04r]

@Sinsemilla4u don't forget the Rig 17 fire recently in Oklahoma when they hit a gas pocket at 900'. I'm not saying this incident polluted the surrounding water supply but the blowout did occur and was unpredictable, out of their control and beyond their knowledge. This shows me the company doesn't know everything and can't control everything that happens on their sites. Makes me ask the question, "What else don't they know or can't predict?"

[Sinsemilla4u]

"If the specific identity of a chemical, the concentration of a chemical or both the specific identity and concentration of a chemical are claimed to be a trade secret or confidential proprietary information, the vendor, service provider or operator may withhold the specific identity, the concentration, or both the specific identity and concentration, of the chemical from the information provided to the chemical disclosure registry." ~ Part of the language in PA's new HB 1950

[Sinsemilla4u]

@stevesprinceofsteaks *further response* When you say wells have had zero problems for over 10 years, I can only assume you mean in Texas or OK. The drill (roughly) 10k feet deeper than they do in PA. So the drilling is much closer to the surface and water table here. Also, they have only begun fracking here over the past 5 years...and there have been a number of incidents. Please do some research before you say zero evidence.

[Sinsemilla4u]

@stevesprinceofsteaks You contradict yourself with your first two sentences. And no, some of the PA operators are not held to the same standards as others (nor are they any longer required to clean up their own spills). And no, we are not lying. We are not green freaks. We are good, hard working, lower to middle class people. I also find it insulting that you choose to speak like you know what the situation is up here, when in reality, you probably haven't a clue. 

[stevesprinceofsteaks]

There is ZERO{0}evidence that the fracking process has caused any of these problems. There is a possibility that casings were not installed properly or failed for some reason. Before you panic and run for the hills use the brain God gave you to figure out why 1000s of these wells have had ZERO problems for over 10 yrs.There is an answer to it. Perhaps the PA operators are not performing correctly. Perhaps much different soil conditions. Perhaps partially your run of the mill green freaks lying?

[Sinsemilla4u]

@Dealit707 Hello. Would you like a glass of our grey water? Don't tell me there is no threat to the environment. You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about, and it shows.

[Sinsemilla4u]

@fdogg68ahs Except when the water and chemicals do come back up...

You can go ahead and google these news stories. "W. Pa. wells had casing failures in complaint area"..."Chevron assessing damage of Washington Co. well leak"

[Sinsemilla4u]

@k5shocker Yeah, I think that's part of the problem here. The depth they are fracking at here is much lower than in other areas. I think in Texas I read that they drill to a depth around 14k feet. Here it is about 2-4k feet.

[Sinsemilla4u]

@stevesprinceofsteaks I don't know the whole deal over in England and Ireland...but here in Pennsylvania it is very real. You say there is no proof with such authority, yet we are dealing with sludge spills in peoples' yards and in our local streams, as well as tap water coming out grey (and other various colors), and people getting skin rashes from bathing. This is in an area where water tested completely normal just 4 years before fracking began.